Alvin Plantinga

Alvin Carl Plantinga (/ˈplæntɪŋɡə/;[5] born November 15,

Alvin Carl Plantinga
1932) is an American analytic philosopher who works
primarily in logic, justification, philosophy of religion, and
epistemology.

From 1963-82, Plantinga taught at Calvin College before

accepting an appointment as the John A. O'Brien Professor
of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.[6] He later
returned to Calvin College to become the inaugural holder
of the Jellema Chair in Philosophy.[7]

A prominent Christian philosopher, Plantinga served as

president of the Society of Christian Philosophers from
1983-86. He has delivered the Gifford Lectures two times
and was described by TIME magazine as "America's leading
orthodox Protestant philosopher of God".[8] William Lane
Craig wrote in his work Reasonable Faith that he considers
Plantinga to be the greatest Christian philosopher alive.[9] A
fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he
was awarded the Templeton Prize in 2017.[2] Born November 15, 1932
Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.
Some of Plantinga's most influential works including God
Nationality American
and Other Minds (1967), The Nature of Necessity (1974),
and a trilogy of books on epistemology, culminating in Alma mater Calvin College
Warranted Christian Belief (2000) that was simplified in University of Michigan (M.A, 1955)
Knowledge and Christian Belief(2016). Yale University (PhD, 1958)
Notable work God and Other Minds (1967)
Warranted Christian Belief (2000)

Contents Spouse(s) Kathleen De Boer (m. 1955–present)[1]

Awards Templeton Prize (2017)[2]
Biography
Family Rescher Prize in Philosophy (2012-13)[3]
Education
Teaching career Era 20th-century philosophy
Awards and honors Region Western philosophy
Philosophical views School Analytic
Problem of evil
Reformed epistemology Institutions University of Notre Dame
Modal ontological argument Doctoral Paul Weiss
Evolutionary argument against naturalism
advisor
View on naturalism and evolution
Main Epistemology
Selected works by Plantinga interests
See also Metaphysics

Notes Philosophy of religion

References Logic
Further reading
 External links Modal logic
Philosophy of science
Natural Theology
Biography
Notable Reformed epistemology
ideas
Free will defense
Family Modal ontological argument
Plantinga was born on November 15, 1932, in Ann Arbor, Proper functionalism
Michigan, to Cornelius A. Plantinga (1908–1994) and Lettie
Evolutionary argument against naturalism
G. Bossenbroek (1908–2007). Plantinga's father was a first-
Theodicy
generation immigrant, born in the Netherlands.[10] His
family is from the Dutch province of Friesland, they lived Warrant
on a relatively low income until he secured a teaching job in Modal metaphysics
Michigan in 1941.[11] Divine nature and attributes

Plantinga’s father earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Duke Internalism and externalism
University and a master's degree in psychology, and taught Influences
several academic subjects at different colleges over the
Influenced
years.[12]
Website philosophy.nd.edu/alvin-plantinga
Plantinga married Kathleen De Boer in 1955.[13] They have
four children: Carl, Jane, Harry, and Ann.[14][15] Both of his sons are professors atCalvin College, Carl in Film Studies[16] and Harry
in computer science.[17] Harry is also the director of the college'sChristian Classics Ethereal Library. Plantinga's older daughter, Jane
Plantinga Pauw, is a pastor at Rainier Beach Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in Seattle, Washington,[18] and his younger daughter,
Ann Kapteyn, is a missionary in Cameroon working for Wycliffe Bible Translators.[19] One of Plantinga's brothers, Cornelius "Neal"
Plantinga Jr., is a theologian and the former president of Calvin Theological Seminary. Another of his brothers, Leon, is an emeritus
professor of musicology at Yale University.[12][20] His brother Terrell worked for CBS News.[21]

Education
After Plantinga completed 11th grade, his father urged him to skip his last year of high school and immediately enroll in college.
Plantinga reluctantly followed his father's advice and in 1949, a few months before his 17th birthday, he enrolled in Jamestown
College, in Jamestown, North Dakota.[22][23] During that same year, his father accepted a teaching job at Calvin College, in Grand
Rapids, Michigan. In January 1950, Plantinga moved to Grand Rapids with his family and enrolled in Calvin College. During his first
semester at Calvin, Plantinga was awarded a scholarship to attendHarvard University.[24]

Beginning in the fall of 1950, Plantinga spent two semesters at Harvard. In 1951, during Harvard's spring recess, Plantinga attended a
few philosophy classes at Calvin College, and was so impressed with Calvin philosophy professor William Harry Jellema that he
returned in 1951 to study philosophy under him.[25] In 1954, Plantinga began his graduate studies at the University of Michigan
where he studied under William Alston, William Frankena, and Richard Cartwright, among others.[26] A year later, in 1955, he
transferred to Yale University where he received his Ph.D. in 1958.[27]

Teaching career
Plantinga began his career as an instructor in the philosophy department at Yale in 1957, and then in 1958 he became a professor of
philosophy at Wayne State University during its heyday as a major center for analytic philosophy. In 1963, he accepted a teaching job
at Calvin College, where he replaced the retiring Jellema.[28] He then spent the next 19 years at Calvin before moving to the
University of Notre Dame in 1982. He retired from the University of Notre Dame in 2010 and returned to Calvin College, where he
serves as the first holder of the William Harry Jellema Chair in Philosophy. He has
trained many prominent philosophers working in metaphysics and epistemology
including Michael Bergmann at Purdue and Michael Rea at Notre Dame, and
Trenton Merricks working at University of Virginia.

Awards and honors

Plantinga served as president of the American Philosophical Association, Western
Division, 1981–82.[29] and as President of the Society of Christian Philosophers
Plantinga at the University of Notre
1983–86.[23][30]
Dame in 2004
He has honorary degrees from Glasgow University (1982), Calvin College (1986),
North Park College (1994), the Free University of Amsterdam (1995), Brigham
Young University (1996), and Valparaiso University (1999).[30] He was a Guggenheim Fellow, 1971–72, and elected a Fellow in the
American Academy of Arts and Sciencesin 1975.[30]

In 2006, the University of Notre Dame's Center for Philosophy of Religion renamed its Distinguished Scholar Fellowship as the
Alvin Plantinga Fellowship.[31] The fellowship includes an annual lecture by the current Plantinga Fellow
.[32]

In 2012, the University of Pittsburgh's Philosophy Department, History and Philosophy of Science Department, and the Center for the
History and Philosophy of Science co-awarded Plantinga the Nicholas Rescher Prize for Systematic Philosophy,[33] which he
received with a talk titled, "Religion and Science: Where the Conflict Really Lies".

In 2017, Baylor University's Center for Christian Philosophy inaugurated the Alvin Plantinga Award for Excellence in Christian
Philosophy. Awardees deliver a lecture at Baylor University and their name is put on a plaque with Plantinga's image in the Institute
[34]
for Studies in Religion. He was named the first fellow of the center as well.

He was awarded the 2017Templeton Prize.

Philosophical views
Plantinga has argued that some people can knowthat God exists as a basic belief, requiring no argument. He developed this argument
in two different fashions: firstly, in God and Other Minds (1967), by drawing an equivalence between the teleological argument and
the common sense view that people have of other minds existing by analogy with their own minds.[35][36] Plantinga has also
developed a more comprehensive epistemological account of the nature of warrant which allows for the existence of God as a basic
belief.[37]

Plantinga has also argued that there is no logical inconsistency between the existence of evil and the existence of an all-powerful, all-
knowing, wholly good God.[38]

Problem of evil
Plantinga proposed a "free will defense" in a volume edited by Max Black in 1965,[39] which attempts to refute the logical problem
of evil, the argument that the existence of evil is logically incompatible with the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, wholly good
God.[40] Plantinga's argument (in a truncated form) states that "It is possible that God, even being omnipotent, could not create a
world with free creatures who never choose evil. Furthermore, it is possible that God, even being omnibenevolent, would desire to
[41]
create a world which contains evil if moral goodness requires free moral creatures."

moral evil.[42]
Plantinga's defense has received wide acceptance among contemporary philosophers when addressing

However, the argument's handling of natural evil has been more heavily disputed, and its presupposition of a libertarianist,
incompatibilist view of free will has been seen as problematic as well.[43] According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the
argument also "conflicts with important theistic doctrines", including the notion of heaven and the idea that God has free will.[44] J.
L. Mackie sees Plantinga's free-will defense as incoherent.[45]

Plantinga's well-received book God, Freedom and Evil, written in 1974, gave his response to what he saw as the incomplete and
uncritical view of theism's criticism of theodicy. Plantinga's contribution stated that when the issue of a comprehensive doctrine of
freedom is added to the discussion of the goodness of God and the omnipotence of God then it is not possible to exclude the presence
of evil in the world after introducing freedom into the discussion. Plantinga's own summary occurs in his discussion titled "Could
God Have Created a World Containing Moral Good but No Moral Evil", where he states his conclusion that, "... the price for creating
[46]
a world in which they produce moral good is creating one in which they also produce moral evil."

Reformed epistemology
Plantinga's contributions to epistemology include an argument which he dubs
"Reformed epistemology". According to Reformed epistemology, belief in God can
be rational and justified even without arguments or evidence for the existence of
God. More specifically, Plantinga argues that belief in God is properly basic, and
due to a religious externalist epistemology, he claims belief in God could be justified
independently of evidence. His externalist epistemology, called "proper
functionalism", is a form ofepistemological reliabilism.

Plantinga discusses his view of Reformed epistemology and proper functionalism in

a three-volume series. In the first book of the trilogy, Warrant: The Current Debate,
Plantinga introduces, analyzes, and criticizes 20th-century developments in analytic

Plantinga giving a lecture on science epistemology, particularly the works of Chisholm, BonJour, Alston, Goldman, and
and religion in 2009 others.[47] In the book, Plantinga argues specifically that the theories of what he
calls "warrant"-what many others have called justification (Plantinga draws out a
difference: justification is a property of a person holding a belief while warrant is a
property of a belief)—put forth by these epistemologists have systematically failed to capture in full what is required for
knowledge.[48]

In the second book, Warrant and Proper Function, he introduces the notion of warrant as an alternative to justification and discusses
.[49] Plantinga's "proper function" account argues that as a necessary
topics like self-knowledge, memories, perception, and probability
condition of having warrant, one's "belief-forming and belief-maintaining apparatus of powers" are functioning properly—"working
the way it ought to work".[50] Plantinga explains his argument for proper function with reference to a "design plan", as well as an
environment in which one's cognitive equipment is optimal for use. Plantinga asserts that the design plan does not require a designer:
"it is perhaps possible that evolution (undirected by God or anyone else) has somehow furnished us with our design plans",[51] but
the paradigm case of a design plan is like a technological product designed by a human being (like a radio or a wheel). Ultimately,
Plantinga argues that epistemological naturalism- i.e. epistemology that holds that warrant is dependent on natural faculties—is best
supported by supernaturalist metaphysics—in this case the belief in a creator God or designer who has laid out a design plan that
[52]
includes cognitive faculties conducive to attaining knowledge.

According to Plantinga, a belief, B, is warranted if:

(1) the cognitive faculties involved in the production of B are functioning properly…; (2) your cognitive environment
is sufficiently similar to the one for which your cognitive faculties are designed; (3) … the design plan governing the
production of the belief in question involves, as purpose or function, the production of true beliefs…; and (4) the
design plan is a good one: that is, there is a high statistical or objective probability that a belief produced in
[53]
accordance with the relevant segment of the design plan in that sort of environment is true.
Plantinga seeks to defend this view of proper function against alternative views of proper function proposed by other philosophers
which he groups together as "naturalistic", including the "functional generalization" view of John Pollock, the
evolutionary/etiologicalaccount provided by Ruth Millikan, and a dispositional view held by John Bigelow and Robert Pargetter.[54]
Plantinga also discusses hisevolutionary argument against naturalismin the later chapters ofWarrant and Proper Function.[55]

In 2000, the third volume, Warranted Christian Belief, was published. In this volume, Plantinga's warrant theory is the basis for his
theological end: providing a philosophical basis for Christian belief, an argument for why Christian theistic belief can enjoy warrant.
In the book, he develops two models for such beliefs, the "A/C" (Aquinas/Calvin) model, and the "Extended A/C" model. The former
attempts to show that a belief in God can be justified, warranted and rational, while the Extended model tries to show that specifically
Christian theological beliefs including the Trinity, the Incarnation, the resurrection of Christ, the atonement, salvation etc. Under this
model, Christians are justified in their beliefs because of the work of theHoly Spirit in bringing those beliefs about in the believer
.

James Beilby has argued that the purpose of Plantinga's Warrant trilogy, and specifically of his Warranted Christian Belief, is firstly
to make a form of argument against religion impossible—namely, the argument that whether or not Christianity is true, it is irrational
—so "the skeptic would have to shoulder the formidable task of demonstrating the falsity of Christian belief"[56] rather than simply
dismiss it as irrational. In addition, Plantinga is attempting to provide a philosophical explanation of how Christians should think
about their own Christian belief.

Modal ontological argument

Plantinga has expressed a modal logic version of the ontological argument in which he uses modal logic to develop, in a more
rigorous and formal way, Norman Malcolm's and Charles Hartshorne's modal ontological arguments.

Evolutionary argument against naturalism

In Plantinga's evolutionary argument against naturalism, he argues that if evolution is true, it undermines naturalism. His basic
argument is that if evolution and naturalism are both true, human cognitive faculties evolved to produce beliefs that have survival
value (maximizing one's success at the four F's: "feeding, fleeing, fighting, and reproducing"), not necessarily to produce beliefs that
are true. Thus, since human cognitive faculties are tuned to survival rather than truth in the naturalism-evolution model, there is
reason to doubt the veracity of the products of those same faculties, including naturalism and evolution themselves. On the other
hand, if God created man "in his image" by way of an evolutionary process (or any other means), then Plantinga argues our faculties
would probably be reliable.

The argument does not assume any necessary correlation (or uncorrelation) between true beliefs and survival. Making the contrary
assumption—that there is in fact a relatively strong correlation between truth and survival—if human belief-forming apparatus
evolved giving a survival advantage, then it ought to yield truth since true beliefs confer a survival advantage. Plantinga counters
that, while there may be overlap between true beliefs and beliefs that contribute to survival, the two kinds of beliefs are not the same,
and he gives the following example with a man named Paul:

Perhaps Paul very much likes the idea of being eaten, but when he sees a tiger, always runs off looking for a better
prospect, because he thinks it unlikely the tiger he sees will eat him. This will get his body parts in the right place so
far as survival is concerned, without involving much by way of true belief... Or perhaps he thinks the tiger is a large,
friendly, cuddly pussycat and wants to pet it; but he also believes that the best way to pet it is to run away from it...
.[57]
Clearly there are any number of belief-desire systems that equally fit a given bit of behaviour

Although the argument has been criticized by some philosophers, like Elliott Sober[58] , it has received favorable notice from Thomas
Nagel,[59] William Lane Craig,[60] and others.

View on naturalism and evolution

Even though Alvin Plantinga believes that God could have used Darwinian processes to create the world, he stands firm against
philosophical naturalism, he said in an interview:

Religion and science share more common ground than you might think, though science can't prove, it presupposes
[61]
that there has been a past for example, science does not cover the whole of the knowledge enterprise.

Plantinga participated of groups that support the Intelligent Design Movement, and was a member of the 'Ad Hoc Origins
Committee'[62] that supported Philip E. Johnson's 1991 book Darwin on Trial, he also provided a back-cover endorsement of
Johnson's book:

[63]
Shows how Darwinian evolution has become an idol.

He was a Fellow of the (now moribund) pro-intelligent design International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design,[64] and
has presented at a number of intelligent design conferences.[65] In a March 2010 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education,
philosopher of science Michael Ruse labeled Plantinga as an "open enthusiast of intelligent design".[66] In a letter to the editor,
Plantinga made the following response:

Like any Christian (and indeed any theist), I believe that the world has been created by God, and hence "intelligently
designed". The hallmark of intelligent design, however, is the claim that this can be shown scientifically; I'm dubious
about that.

...As far as I can see, God certainly could have used Darwinian processes to create the living world and direct it as he
wanted to go; hence evolution as such does not imply that there is no direction in the history of life. What does have
that implication is not evolutionary theory itself, but unguided evolution, the idea that neither God nor any other
person has taken a hand in guiding, directing or orchestrating the course of evolution. But the scientific theory of
evolution, sensibly enough, says nothing one way or the other about divine guidance. It doesn't say that evolution is
divinely guided; it also doesn't say that it isn't. Like almost any theist, I reject unguided evolution; but the
contemporary scientific theory of evolution just as such—apart from philosophical or theological add-ons—doesn't
say that evolution is unguided. Like science in general, it makes no pronouncements on the existence or activity of
God.[67]

Selected works by Plantinga

God and Other Minds. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1967. rev. ed., 1990. ISBN 0-8014-9735-3
The Nature of Necessity. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1974. ISBN 0-19-824404-5
God, Freedom, and Evil. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 1974. ISBN 0-04-100040-4
Does God Have A Nature?Wisconsin: Marquette University Press. 1980. ISBN 0-87462-145-3
Faith and Rationality: Reason and Belief in God(ed. with Nicholas Wolterstorff). Notre Dame: University of Notre
Dame Press. 1983. ISBN 0-268-00964-3
Warrant: the Current Debate. New York: Oxford University Press. 1993. ISBN 0-19-507861-6
Warrant and Proper Function. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1993.ISBN 0-19-507863-2
Warranted Christian Belief. New York: Oxford University Press. 2000.ISBN 0-19-513192-4 online
Essays in the Metaphysics of Modality. Matthew Davidson (ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. 2003.ISBN 0-
19-510376-9
Knowledge of God (with Michael Tooley). Oxford: Blackwell. 2008. ISBN 0-631-19364-2
Science and Religion (with Daniel Dennett). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2010ISBN 0-19-973842-4
Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2011.ISBN 0-
19-981209-8
Knowledge and Christian Belief. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 2015. ISBN 0802872042
See also
American philosophy
List of American philosophers

Notes
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(http://www.chronicle.pitt.edu/story/pi
tt-selects-mittelstrass-plantinga-2012-13-rescher-prize-philosophy)
. www.chronicle.pitt.edu.
4. Knowledge and Christian Belief p. 54
5. "Christian, Evolutionist, or Both?"(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2yLIbe9jyc#t=0m44s) on YouTube
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60. http://www.reasonablefaith.org/plantingas-evolutionary-argument-against-naturalism
61. "Exploring The Real 'Conflict': Science Vs. Naturalism"(https://www.npr.org/2012/01/29/145108456/exploring-the-rea
l-conflict-science-vs-naturalism).
62. "Notre Dame philosopher Alvin Plantinga has also signed this letter" — We're Not in Kansas Anymore(http://www.ar
n.org/docs/pearcey/np_ctoday052200.htm), Nancy Pearcey, Christianity Today, May 22, 2000, cited inForrest &
Gross 2004, p. 18 "Alvin Plantinga was also a signatory to this letter
, early evidence of his continuing support of the
intelligent design movement" —Intelligent design creationism and its critics, Robert T. Pennock (ed), 2001, p44
63. Darwin on Trial back cover
64. ICSD list of Fellows (http://www.iscid.org/fellows.php) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20130510000000/http://
www.iscid.org/fellows.php) 2013-05-10 at the Wayback Machine. but note that this site appears not to have been
updated since 2005
65. Forrest & Gross 2004, pp. 156, 191, 212, 269
66. "Philosophers Rip Darwin"(http://chronicle.com/article/What-Darwins-Doubters-Get-/64457/)
. The Chronicle of
Higher Education. March 7, 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
67. "Evolution, Shibboleths, and Philosophers"(http://chronicle.com/article/Evolution-Shibboleths-and/64990/)
. The
Chronicle of Higher Education. April 11, 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-28.

References
"Self-profile" in Alvin Plantinga, James Tomberlin and Peter van Inwagen ed., (Dordrecht: D. Riedle Pub. Co.), 1985
Beebe, James R. (July 12, 2005)."Logical Problem of Evil". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved
September 21, 2009.
Forrest, Barbara; Gross, Paul R. (8 January 2004). Creationism's Trojan Horse. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-
515742-7.
Mackie, J.L (1982). The Miracle of Theism: Arguments for and Against the Existence of God
. Oxford University
Press. ISBN 0-19-824682-X.
Meister, Chad (2009). Introducing Philosophy of Religion. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-40327-6.
Peterson, Michael; Hasker, William; Reichenbach, Bruce; Basinger, David (1991). Reason and Religious Belief.
Oxford University Press.ISBN 0-19-506155-1.

Further reading
Schönecker, Dieter (ed.), Essays on „Warranted Christian Belief". With Replies by Alvin Plantinga. W
alter de Gruyter,
Berlin 2015.
Baker, Deane-Peter (ed), Alvin Plantinga (Contemporary Philosophy in Focus Series). New Y
ork: Cambridge
University Press. 2007.
Mascrod, Keith, Alvin Plantinga and Christian Apologetics. Wipf & Stock. 2007.
Crisp, Thomas, Matthew Davidson, David V
ander Laan (eds), Knowledge and Reality: Essays in Honor of Alvin
Plantinga. Dordrecht: Springer. 2006.
Beilby, James, Epistemology as Theology: An Evaluation of Alvin Plantinga's Religious Epistemology
. Aldershot:
Ashgate. 2005
Beilby, James (ed), Naturalism Defeated? Essays on Plantinga's Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism
. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press. 2002.
 Sennet, James (ed), The Analytic Theist: An Alvin Plantinga Reader
. Grand Rapids: Eeardman. 1998.ISBN 0-8028-
4229-1
Kvanvig, Jonathan (ed),Warrant in Contemporary Epistemology: Essays in Honor of Plantinga's Theory of
Knowledge. Savage, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. 1996.
McLeod, Mark S. Rationality and Theistic Belief: An Essay on Reformed Epistemology(Cornell Studies in the
Philosophy of Religion). Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1993.
Zagzebski, Linda (ed),Rational Faith. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. 1993.
Sennett, James, Modality, Probability, and Rationality: A Critical Examination of Alvin Plantinga's Philosoph
y. New
York: P. Lang. 1992.
Hoitenga, Dewey, From Plato to Plantinga: An Introduction to Reformed Epistemology
. Albany: State University of
New York Press. 1991.
Parsons, Keith, God and the Burden of Proof: Plantinga, Swinburne, and the Analytic Defense of Theism
. Buffalo,
New York: Prometheus Books. 1989.
Tomberlin, James and Peter van Inwagen (eds), Alvin Plantinga (Profiles V.5). Dordrecht: D. Reidel. 1985.

External links
Alvin Plantinga's faculty pageat the University of Notre Dame
Plantinga's Curriculum Vitae
Virtual Library of Christian Philosophya collection of some of Plantinga's papers
Papers by Plantinga Extensive collection of online papers.
Interviews from the PBS programCloser to Truth
"The Dawkins Confusion", Plantinga's review of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion from Books and Culture
magazine
Alvin Plantinga's spiritual autobiographyfrom Philosophers Who Believe. Clark, Kelly James (InterVarsity
Press,1993)
Warrant: The Current DebatePlantinga's Gifford Lecture, and volume 1 of his Warrant trilogy.
Warrant and Proper FunctionPlantinga's Gifford Lecture, and volume 2 ofhis Warrant trilogy.
Warranted Christian Belief, full electronic text of volume 3 of hisWarrant trilogy.
Daniel C. Dennett and Alvin Plantinga,Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?(Oxford University Press, 2011)
"Proper Functionalism". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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