PLANTINGA'S BELIEF-CUM-DESIRE ARGUMENT REFUTED

PLANTINGA’S BELIEF-CUM-DESIRE ARGUMENT REFUTED
Stephen Law

FORTHCOMING IN RELIGIOUS STUDIES. NOTE THAT CAMBRIDGE UNIV. PRESS NOW OWN COPYRIGHT.

Abstract

In Warrant and Proper Function, Plantinga develops an argument designed to show that naturalism is self-defeating. One component of this larger argument is what I call Plantinga’s belief-cum-desire argument, which is intended to establish something more specific: that if the content of our beliefs does causally effect behaviour (that is to say, semantic content is not epiphenomenal), and if naturalism and current evolutionary doctrine are correct, then the probability that we possess reliable cognitive mechanisms must be either inscrutable or low. This paper aims to refute Plantinga’s belief-cum-desire argument.