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Desiderata for Rational, Non‑doxastic Faith

Palmqvist, Carl Johan LU (2022) In Sophia 61(3). p.499-519
Abstract
According to an increasingly popular view known as non-doxasticism, religious faith need not include belief, but only some cognitively weaker attitude. This view comes with great promises, as it offers a way for the agnostic to partake in religion. My concern is how such a non-doxastic faith might be understood as a rational attitude. I offer three desiderata for any account of rational, non-doxastic faith. These desiderata are based on general considerations regarding epistemic rationality, and on major themes from current literature on the closely related notions of trust and hope. The first desideratum states that faith must be able to meet the demands of reason. The second requires, perhaps surprisingly, that faith should not imply... (More)
According to an increasingly popular view known as non-doxasticism, religious faith need not include belief, but only some cognitively weaker attitude. This view comes with great promises, as it offers a way for the agnostic to partake in religion. My concern is how such a non-doxastic faith might be understood as a rational attitude. I offer three desiderata for any account of rational, non-doxastic faith. These desiderata are based on general considerations regarding epistemic rationality, and on major themes from current literature on the closely related notions of trust and hope. The first desideratum states that faith must be able to meet the demands of reason. The second requires, perhaps surprisingly, that faith should not imply trust. The third requires that faith should imply hope while excluding despair. I show how several prominent accounts of non-doxastic faith, by Lara Buchak, Daniel Howard-Snyder and Daniel McKaughan, all fail to meet at least one of these desiderata. I also suggest that the desiderata should make us prefer a reconstructive methodology. (Less)
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author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Agnosticism, Faith, Hope, Non-doxastic religion, Rationality, Trust
in
Sophia
volume
61
issue
3
pages
21 pages
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:85124090861
  • scopus:85124090861
ISSN
0038-1527
DOI
10.1007/s11841-021-00862-4
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
2ad1693f-536f-401b-9374-88476f368631
date added to LUP
2021-06-18 10:24:10
date last changed
2022-10-31 14:58:06
@article{2ad1693f-536f-401b-9374-88476f368631,
  abstract     = {{According to an increasingly popular view known as non-doxasticism, religious faith need not include belief, but only some cognitively weaker attitude. This view comes with great promises, as it offers a way for the agnostic to partake in religion. My concern is how such a non-doxastic faith might be understood as a rational attitude. I offer three desiderata for any account of rational, non-doxastic faith. These desiderata are based on general considerations regarding epistemic rationality, and on major themes from current literature on the closely related notions of trust and hope. The first desideratum states that faith must be able to meet the demands of reason. The second requires, perhaps surprisingly, that faith should not imply trust. The third requires that faith should imply hope while excluding despair. I show how several prominent accounts of non-doxastic faith, by Lara Buchak, Daniel Howard-Snyder and Daniel McKaughan, all fail to meet at least one of these desiderata. I also suggest that the desiderata should make us prefer a reconstructive methodology.}},
  author       = {{Palmqvist, Carl Johan}},
  issn         = {{0038-1527}},
  keywords     = {{Agnosticism; Faith; Hope; Non-doxastic religion; Rationality; Trust}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{499--519}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Sophia}},
  title        = {{Desiderata for Rational, Non‑doxastic Faith}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11841-021-00862-4}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s11841-021-00862-4}},
  volume       = {{61}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}