Lisbon in 2019
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Lisbon to present a paper at a conference on Wittgenstein and epistemology of religion. Organized by Nuno Venturinha and Sofia Miguens, the conference brought together scholars from North America and Europe with varying approaches to thinking about the bearing of Wittgenstein's philosophy on epistemology of religion. The conference itself was only two days long, but the days were filled with near constant discussion of this or that fine point about Wittgenstein.
Eventually, papers from the conference, with some additions from a later conference on Wittgenstein and hinge epistemology, came together into Duncan Pritchard's and Nuno Venturinha's edited book, Wittgenstein and the Epistemology of Religion, which was published by Wiley last month. I think the editors did excellent work in bringing together a wide variety of perspectives on the topic. While a number of the papers concern hinge epistemology of religion, that area is not the exclusive focus of the volume.
The front cover
My chapter, "The Concept of Belief in Comparative Religious Perspective" examines Wittgenstein’s “Remarks on Frazer’s Golden Bough,” the “Lectures on Religious Belief,” and On Certainty in order to survey some of the themes relating to the epistemology of religions that recur across Wittgenstein's philosophical writings. I propose an account of the relevance of Wittgenstein to a globally-engaged approach to epistemology of religions, focusing on the roles that beliefs may have within diverse religious traditions. Beliefs, and their roles in religions, should be identified amidst the discourses and practices in which they are salient features. My central claim is that while there is good reason to be skeptical of any one account of the epistemology of religious beliefs being adequate, Wittgenstein’s contextualist philosophical tendencies are helpful for avoiding potential confusion as the disparate contours of beliefs across an increasingly wider plurality of religions are investigated. While the conference paper was written well before Rethinking Philosophy of Religion with Wittgenstein had become a project, I revised the full version of the paper while also writing and revising the book. So, there are themes developed in the paper that echo ideas that appear in the book (particularly concerning my views on hinge epistemology).
Now that I've got a copy of the book in my hands, I'm delighted to have the chance to read through the finished versions of the other papers I heard in Lisbon as well as chapters from scholars not present at that conference.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements x
Notes on Contributors xi
List of Abbreviations of Wittgenstein’s Works
List of Figures xviii
Introduction: Removing Misconceptions 1
Nuno Venturinha and Duncan Pritchard
References 11
Part I Beyond Cognitivism and Non-Cognitivism 15
1 Wittgenstein on Religious Faith and Beauty 17
Hanne Appelqvist
1.1 Introduction 17
1.2 ‘God does not reveal himself in the world’ 20
1.3 ‘He is seeing his life as God’s work of art’ 25
1.4 ‘I spoke in the first person’ 31
1.5 Epilogue 37
References 38
2 No Gaseous Vertebrates: Wittgenstein’s ‘Third Way’ 41
Genia Schönbaumsfeld
2.1 Introduction 41
2.2 Wittgenstein’s Conception of Religious Belief 42
2.3 Implications for the Meaning of Religious Language 48
2.4 Some More Objections 53
2.5 Conclusion 56
References 57
Part II From Fideism to Quasi-Fideism 59
3 Was Wittgenstein a Fideist? 61
Gordon Graham
3.1 Fideism 63
3.2 The Lecture on Ethics 66
3.3 Culture and Value 69
References 72
4 ‘Undermining Reason’: Logic, Exemplarity and Religious Belief 73
Edward Guetti
4.1 Introduction 73
4.2 The Logical Mechanics of the 1938 Position 78
4.3 Winch’s Suggestion and the Tractatus 88
4.4 Conclusion 91
References 93
5 The Ghost of the Tractatus: Fideism, Scepticism and ‘Hinge’ Epistemology 95
Michael Williams
5.1 Introduction 95
5.2 Religion Without Epistemology? 96
5.3 From Hinge Epistemology to Quasi-Fideism 100
5.4 Hinges as Knowledge 104
5.5 The Limits of Doubt 108
5.6 Knowledge, Faith and Redemption 115
5.7 The Ghost of the Tractatus 123
References 126
6 Honest Doubt: Quasi-Fideism and Epistemic Vertigo 129
Duncan Pritchard
6.1 Introductory Remarks 129
6.2 Honest Doubt 130
6.3 Quasi-Fideism 132
6.4 Epistemic Vertigo 135
6.5 Honest Doubt Revisited 138
6.6 Concluding Remarks 140
References 141
Part III Anthropological and Ethnological Approaches 145
7 Wittgenstein on Religion as a Form of Life: From a ‘Jamesian Type’ to Remarks on Frazer 147
Mauro L. Engelmann and Juliet Floyd
7.1 Introduction 147
7.2 A ‘Jamesian Type’ 148
7.3 James’s Argument Against ‘Medical Materialism’ 154
7.4 Tolstoy, James and Wittgenstein 156
7.5 Wittgenstein on the Varieties of Religion in 1925 157
7.6 Jamesianism Extended 161
References 168
8 Understanding Other Cultures, Understanding (Other) Religion 172
Alois Pichler
8.1 Non-participatory Interpretation: Philosophical Investigations § 206 172
8.2 Participatory Understanding: Wittgenstein and Malinowski 178
8.3 Understanding Religion and Limitations to It 184
References 189
9 Shall We Dance? A Non-Intellectualist Approach to Human Practices 192
Julia Tanney
9.1 The Marett Lecture 192
9.2 Ryle on Theory Construction 194
9.3 The Regress Threatening Intellectualism 197
9.4 A Problem with a Restriction to the Knowledge of Truths 201
9.5 The Dance 204
References 206
Part IV Context over Scientism 209
10 Wittgenstein on Religion 211
Paul Horwich
10.1 Agenda 211
10.2 Central Themes in the Mature Wittgenstein 211
10.3 Wittgenstein’s View of Religious Belief 213
10.4 Meaning and Belief 217
10.5 Does Wittgenstein’s View of Religion Accord with His Own General Meta-Philosophy? 219
10.6 Wittgenstein’s Religiosity 221
10.7 Postscript 225
Acknowledgements 226
References 227
11 The Concept of Belief in Comparative Religious Perspective 228
Thomas D. Carroll
11.1 Introduction 228
11.2 Some Themes in Wittgenstein’s Views on Religious Beliefs and Practices 229
11.3 The Concept of Belief Within Comparative Philosophy of Religion 234
11.4 Clayton’s Contexts of Contestability 238
11.5 Conclusion: Varieties of Religious Beliefs, Wittgenstein and Epistemology 241
References 243
12 On Certainty and Religion: A Prolegomenon 245
Nuno Venturinha
12.1 The Text 245
12.1.1 Manuscripts 247
12.1.2 Perspectives 255
12.2 The Context 259
12.3 The Moral of the Story 269
12.4 Postscript 270
References 271
Part V Evidentialism and Non-Evidentialism off the Fence 277
13 Evidentialist Epistemology and Freedom of Religion: Locke and Wittgenstein 279
Gorazd Andrejč
13.1 Introduction 279
13.2 Locke’s Religious Evidentialism 281
13.3 Lockean Evidentialism and Religious Tolerance 283
13.4 Wittgenstein’s Anti-evidentialism 286
13.5 Wittgensteinian Anti-evidentialism and Religious Disagreements 289
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13.6 Concluding Discussion 292
References 298
Works by Locke 299
14 Wittgenstein and the ABCs of Religious Epistemics 300
Guy Axtell
14.1 Improving Dialogue Across Disciplines: Two Proposals 300
14.2 Religious Epistemics and the Significance of Aetiological Challenges 308
14.3 Checks and Balances: The Three Corners of the Triangle 309
14.3.1 The Three Corners: Initial Descriptions 311
14.3.2 Checks: A Temperance Movement 312
14.3.3 Balances: Shared Issues in the Scholarly Study of Religious Belief/Unbelief 314
14.3.3.1 Theology and the B/C Relationship 314
14.3.3.2 Cognitive Science and the A/B Relationship 317
14.3.3.3 Philosophy and the A–C Relationship 319
14.4 Wittgenstein and Philosophical Investigations of Religious Belief 322
14.5 Conclusion: Affirming Philosophy of Religion as Multidisciplinary Research 326
Acknowledgements 326
References 326
Index 329
