1.1 The Foundations of Philosophy—and the Epistemologically Self-Conscious Project. 1
1.2 The Skeptical Challenge. 2
1.3 Apologetics. 3
1.3.1 Apologetics as the Rational Defense of Christianity. 3
1.3.2 Classical and Evidential Apologetics 3
1.3.3 Presuppositional Apologetics 5
1.3.4 Subjective Apologetics and Religious Experience. 8
1.4 The Status and Role of Scripture. 13
1.5 Epistemological Un-consciousness and its Transcendental Critique. 17
1.6 Transcendentalist but not Kantian Creative Antirealism.. 18
1.7 Epistemological Self-Consciousness as Augustinian Apologetics. 21
1.8 Epistemological Self-Consciousness as a Scientific Project 22
1.8.1 The Challenge of Perennial Naturalism in the Academy. 22
1.8.2 The Status of Science—Preliminary Remarks 23
1.8.3 The Problem of Induction. 25
1.8.4  Political Ethics and Science. 29
1.8.5 Science is more than Propositional Statements. 31
1.8.6 Science as Correlated with Epistemology and Philosophy. 35
1.8.7 Avoiding The “Tyranny of Science”. 38
1.9 Philosophy as Transformative. 41
1.10 Summary and Conclusion. 47
1.11 Chapter Outlines. 51

2.1 Overview.. 53
2.2 Origins. 54
2.3 Can We Defend the Tripartite Division of Philosophy?. 59
2.3.1 The Division of Reason and The Egocentric Predicament 59
2.3.2 Epistemic Rights and Epistemic Necessity. 60
2.3.3 The Struggle for Metaphysics. 62
2.3.4 The Principle of Verification. 64
2.4 The Nature of Philosophy – Analysis and Synthesis 67
2.5 The Character—Correspondence, Coherence, Truth, and Objectivity. 70
2.6 The Purpose of Philosophy—Responding to Skepticism.. 73
2.6.1 The Problem.. 73
2.6.2 Descartes, Hume, and Kant 75
2.6.3 The Fallibilists 78
2.6.4 Realism, and the Role of Common Sense. 79
2.6.5 The Therapeutic Conception of Philosophy. 81
2.6.6 The Pragmatic Conception of Philosophy. 84
2.6.7 The Positivist Conception of Philosophy. 86
2.6.8 The Post-Darwinian Naturalist Conception of Philosophy. 89
2.7 Fallibilism and Modern Science – Universe or Multiverse?. 91
2.7.1 The Intellectual Challenge of the Concept of Chance. 91
2.7.2 The New Physics. 92
2.7.3 Cosmological and Teleological Arguments. 94
2.7.4 The Fine-Tuning Problem.. 95
2.7.5 Certainty and Reasonable Verisimilitude. 99
2.7.6 Conclusion. 100
2.8 The Imperative for Epistemological Self-Consciousness 101
2.8.1 The Quest for Common Ground. 101
2.8.2 Beyond Common Ground. 107
2.8.3 Holism.. 109
2.8.4 The Unity of Apperception. 111
2.8.5 Epistemological Self-Consciousness and Uncertainty. 112
2.9 Summary and Conclusion. 114

3.1 Overview.. 119
3.2 Metaphysics 120
3.2.1 Speculative, Descriptive and Revisionary Metaphysics. 120
3.2.2 Metaphysics as the Foundation of Science. 125
3.2.3 Metaphysics as the Organizing Transcendentals. 128
3.3 Epistemology. 129
3.3.1 Introduction. 129
3.3.2 A Philosophy of Facts. 129
3.3.3 A Philosophy of Evidences. 133
3.3.4 Overcoming Skepticism.. 136
3.3.5 Two Dogmas of Evolutionary Thought 146
3.3.6 Physicalism.. 151
3.3.7 Those That Survive Think Inductively. 152
3.3.8 If All We Have Is Nature…… 153
3.3.9 Justified True Belief (JTB), Gettier and Epistemic Warrant 154
3.3.10 Plantinga and Warranted Belief 156
3.4 Ethics. 166
3.4.1 Introduction. 166
3.4.2 Ethics, Moral Knowledge, and Worldview.. 168
3.4.3 Theonomy and Ethics. 170
3.4.4 Modern Theonomy. 175
3.5 Christian “Worldview Philosophy”. 179
3.5.1 Introduction. 179
3.5.2 What is “Christian Worldview” Philosophy?. 180
3.5.3 The Requirement for a Worldview Transcendental 182
3.5.4 Evidentialism and Rationalism.. 184
3.5.5 The Impossibility of “Right Reason” and “Common Ground”. 186
3.5.6 Plantinga and Van Til on Apologetics—Contrast and Confluence. 189
3.6 Summary and Conclusion. 191

4.1 Transcendentalism—First Remarks 195
4.2 Transcendentalism and Skepticism.. 197
4.3 Practical and Theoretical Reason. 198
4.4 Worldviews and Ultimate Authority. 201
4.5 All Reasoning is ‘Circular Reasoning’ but not all Reasoning is ‘Viciously Circular’. 204
4.6 A Form of Life. 206
4.7 The Necessity of a Transcendental Defense. 209
4.8 The Transcendental Mode of Criticism.. 212
4.9 Summary and Conclusion. 213

5.1 The Christian Transcendental as the Only True Transcendental 217
5.2 Contingency and Predestination. 219
5.3 General Revelation and Special Revelation. 222
5.4 Common Grace, Pluralism and Epistemological Self-Consciousness 223
5.5 Sovereignty, Indeterminacy and Natural Law.. 226
5.6 Biblical Presuppositionalism.. 234
5.7 Summary and Conclusion. 238

6.1 Introduction. 241
6.2 Logical Form and Overview.. 242
6.3 The Distinctiveness of Transcendental Reasoning. 244
6.3.1 The Conclusion is a Transcendental 244
6.3.2 All Reasoning Is Circular Reasoning. 244
6.3.3 The Scope of the Argument 245
6.3.4 The Kant Controversy. 247
6.3.5 Option “A” and Option “B” Transcendental Arguments. 249
6.4 Van Til’s Transcendentalism.. 250
6.4.1 Presuppositional Apologetics 250
6.4.2 From Probability to Certainty. 251
6.4.3 Indirect Argumentation. 252
6.5 The Criticisms of TAG.. 254
6.5.1 Global Criticisms of Transcendentalism.. 254
6.5.2 The Nature of TAG.. 256
6.5.3 The Uniqueness Proof 258
6.5.4 The Mere Sufficiency of the Christian Worldview.. 258
6.5.5 The ‘Fristianity’ Objection. 259
6.5.6 From Conceptual Necessity to Ontological Necessity. 260
6.6 Summary and Conclusion. 263

7.1 Overview and Prerequisites. 268
7.2 The Imperative for a Political Ethic. 269
7.2.1 Is Political Involvement Legitimate?. 269
7.2.2 One Further Possibility – Political Neutrality. 271
7.2.3 The Lack of a Shared Cultural Reference. 273
7.2.4 The Importance of Our History. 274
7.3 The Role of Epistemological Self-Consciousness and Two Basic Principles. 274
7.3.1 Are We Called to Defend Truth?. 274
7.3.2 The Response of Epistemological Self-Consciousness in Brief 276
7.3.3 The Domains of Study. 277
7.3.4 Our Civic Responsibility—Recovering It Through Dominion Theology. 277
7.3.5 The Theonomic Imperative. 280
7.4 Theocracy or Representative Government 282
7.5 Understanding Romans 13. 284
7.5.1 Overview.. 284
7.5.2 The Context of Romans 13. 285
7.5.3 Obedience and Submission are Different Concepts. 286
7.5.4 The Boundaries of Christian Resistance. 287
7.5.5 Christians can be Revolutionaries. 289
7.6 Final Words. 291

8.1 Summary. 294
8.2 Specific Conclusions 295
8.2.1 Overcoming Skepticism.. 295
8.2.2 Philosophy and Science. 297
8.2.3 Christianity, Religious Experience and Apologetic Philosophy. 299
8.2.4 Transcendentalism and TAG.. 305
8.3 The Contribution of Our Thesis as Original Research. 309
8.3.1 As Augustinian Apologetics 309
8.3.2 In Opposition to Scientism.. 311
8.3.3 As Synthesis of Van Til and Plantinga. 311
8.4 The Wider Relevance of the Research. 314
8.4.1 As Van Tillian Scholarship. 314
8.4.2 Christian Ethics. 315
8.4.3 As Political Philosophy. 317
8.5 Limitations to this Research. 318
8.6 Recommendation for Further Research. 320