Table of Contents
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1.1 The Foundations of Philosophy – and the Epistemologically Self-Conscious Project 1
1.2 The Sceptical Challenge. 2
1.3.1 Apologetics as the Rational Defence of Christianity. 3
1.3.2 Classical and Evidential Apologetics. 4
1.3.3 Presuppositional Apologetics. 5
1.3.4 Subjective Apologetics and Religious Experience. 8
1.4 The Status and Role of Scripture. 12
1.5 Epistemological Un-consciousness and its Transcendental Critique. 16
1.6 Transcendentalist but not Kantian Creative Antirealism.. 17
1.7 Epistemological Self-Consciousness as Augustinian Apologetics. 19
1.8 Epistemological Self-Consciousness as a Scientific Project 20
1.8.1 The Challenge of Perennial Naturalism in the Academy. 20
1.8.2 The Status of Science – Preliminary Remarks. 21
1.8.3 The Problem of Induction. 23
1.8.4 Political Ethics and Science. 26
1.8.5 Science is more than Propositional Statements. 28
1.8.6 Science as Correlated with Epistemology and Philosophy. 32
1.8.7 Avoiding The “Tyranny of Science”. 35
1.9 Philosophy as Transformative. 38
1.10 Summary and Conclusion. 43
2 The Nature, Character, and Purpose of Philosophy. 48
2.3 Can We Defend the Tripartite Division of Philosophy?. 53
2.3.1 The Division of Reason and The Egocentric Predicament 53
2.3.2 Epistemic Rights and Epistemic Necessity. 54
2.3.3 The Struggle for Metaphysics. 56
2.3.4 The Principle of Verification. 58
2.4 The Nature – Analysis and Synthesis. 61
2.5 The Character – Correspondence, Coherence, Truth, and Objectivity. 64
2.6 The Purpose of Philosophy – Responding to Scepticism.. 67
2.6.2 Descartes, Hume, and Kant 69
2.6.4 Realism, and the Role of Common Sense. 73
2.6.5 The Therapeutic Conception of Philosophy. 75
2.6.6 The Pragmatic Conception of Philosophy. 78
2.6.7 The Positivist Conception of Philosophy. 80
2.6.8 The Post-Darwinian Naturalist Conception of Philosophy. 83
2.6.9 Fallibilism and Modern Science – Universe or Multiverse?. 85
2.6.10 Certainty and Reasonable Verisimilitude. 92
2.7 The Imperative for Epistemological Self-Consciousness. 95
2.7.1 The Quest for Common Ground. 95
2.7.2 Beyond Common Ground. 100
2.7.4 The Unity of Apperception. 104
2.7.5 Epistemological Self-Consciousness and Uncertainty. 105
2.8 Summary and Conclusion. 107
3 A Christian Conception of Philosophy. 112
3.2.1 Speculative, Descriptive and Revisionary Metaphysics. 112
3.2.2 Metaphysics as the Foundation of Science. 117
3.2.3 Metaphysics as the Organising Transcendentals. 120
3.3.2 A Philosophy of Facts. 121
3.3.3 A Philosophy of Evidences. 125
3.3.4 Overcoming Scepticism.. 127
3.3.5 Reasons To Reject a Naturalised Epistemology. 138
3.3.6 Justified True Belief (JTB), Gettier and Epistemic Warrant 145
3.3.7 Plantinga and Warranted Belief 147
3.4.2 Ethics, Moral Knowledge, and Worldview.. 159
3.4.3 Theonomy and Ethics. 161
3.5 Christian “Worldview Philosophy”. 171
3.5.2 What is “Christian Worldview” Philosophy?. 172
3.5.3 The Requirement for a Worldview Transcendental 174
3.5.4 Evidentialism and Rationalism.. 176
3.5.5 The Impossibility of “Right Reason” and “Common Ground”. 178
3.5.6 Plantinga and Van Til on Apologetics – Contrast and Confluence. 180
3.6 Summary and Conclusion. 182
4 Beyond Anti-Philosophy to Transcendentalism.. 186
4.1 Transcendentalism – First Remarks. 186
4.2 Transcendentalism and Scepticism.. 187
4.3 Practical and Theoretical Reason. 189
4.4 Worldviews and Ultimate Authority. 191
4.5 All Reasoning is ‘Circular Reasoning’ but not all Reasoning is ‘Viciously Circular’. 195
4.7 The Necessity of a Transcendental Defence. 199
4.8 The Transcendental Mode of Criticism.. 202
4.9 Summary and Conclusion. 203
5 The Christian Presupposition. 207
5.1 The Christian Transcendental as the Only True Transcendental 207
5.2 Contingency and Predestination. 209
5.3 General Revelation and Special Revelation. 211
5.4 Common Grace, Pluralism and Epistemological Self-Consciousness. 212
5.5 Sovereignty, Indeterminacy and Natural Law.. 215
5.6 Biblical Presuppositionalism.. 222
5.7 Summary and Conclusion. 226
6 The Transcendental Argument for God (TAG) 228
6.2 Logical Form and Overview.. 228
6.3 The Distinctiveness of Transcendental Reasoning. 230
6.3.1 The Conclusion is a Transcendental 230
6.3.2 All Reasoning Is Circular Reasoning. 231
6.3.3 The Scope of the Argument 231
6.3.4 The Kant Controversy. 233
6.3.5 Option “A” and Option “B” Transcendental Arguments. 235
6.4 Van Til’s Transcendentalism.. 236
6.4.1 Presuppositional Apologetics. 236
6.4.2 From Probability to Certainty. 237
6.4.3 Indirect Argumentation. 237
6.5 The Criticisms of TAG.. 240
6.5.1 Global Criticisms of Transcendentalism.. 240
6.5.3 The Uniqueness Proof 244
6.5.4 The Mere Sufficiency of the Christian Worldview.. 245
6.5.5 The ‘Fristianity’ Objection. 246
6.5.6 From Conceptual Necessity to Ontological Necessity. 247
6.6 Summary and Conclusion. 250
7.2.1 Overcoming Scepticism.. 254
7.2.2 Philosophy and Science. 256
7.2.3 Christianity, Religious Experience and Apologetic Philosophy. 258
7.2.4 Transcendentalism and TAG.. 263
7.3 The Contribution of Our Thesis as Original Research. 267
7.3.1 As Augustinian Apologetics. 267
7.3.2 In Opposition to Scientism.. 268
7.3.3 As Synthesis of Van Til and Plantinga. 268
7.4 The Wider Relevance of the Research. 270
7.4.1 As Van Tillian Scholarship. 270
7.5 Limitations to the Research. 273
7.6 Recommendation for Further Research. 275
Biblical Abbreviations and Version Copyright Information. 303