A Pretending Faith : Why Religious Non-Doxasticism Requires Imagination and Local Fictionalism
(2024) In AGATHEOS: European Journal for Philosophy of Religion- Abstract
- Proponents of non-doxasticism often stress the similarity between non-doxastic and doxastic faith. I argue that there are crucial differences which are easily overlooked. These differences become apparent once we pay attention to the inner side of the religious life a non-doxastic faith enables. The non-doxasticist must make extensive use of imagination and pretence to be able to include some common aspects of a religious life, such as holiness and the love of God, into her religiosity. Thereby, non-doxasticism is closer to fictionalism than is commonly acknowledged. Even more importantly, I argue that to live a satisfying and rationally consistent religious life, the non-doxasticist must supplement her faith with local fictionalism... (More)
- Proponents of non-doxasticism often stress the similarity between non-doxastic and doxastic faith. I argue that there are crucial differences which are easily overlooked. These differences become apparent once we pay attention to the inner side of the religious life a non-doxastic faith enables. The non-doxasticist must make extensive use of imagination and pretence to be able to include some common aspects of a religious life, such as holiness and the love of God, into her religiosity. Thereby, non-doxasticism is closer to fictionalism than is commonly acknowledged. Even more importantly, I argue that to live a satisfying and rationally consistent religious life, the non-doxasticist must supplement her faith with local fictionalism concerning her own inner states. Non-doxastic attitudes require epistemic possibility, but it is not an epistemic possibility for the non-doxasticist that she believes propositions like “I love God”. The only way she can include such proposition into her religious life is to be a fictionalist about them. (Less)
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- author
- Palmqvist, Carl-Johan LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- in press
- subject
- keywords
- Non-Doxasticism, Fictionalism, Faith, Imagination, Agnosticism
- in
- AGATHEOS: European Journal for Philosophy of Religion
- ISSN
- 2004-9331
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 3aa8e2a1-8dc2-4744-b4ac-b02e41593905
- date added to LUP
- 2024-12-17 10:29:15
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 13:55:00
@article{3aa8e2a1-8dc2-4744-b4ac-b02e41593905,
abstract = {{Proponents of non-doxasticism often stress the similarity between non-doxastic and doxastic faith. I argue that there are crucial differences which are easily overlooked. These differences become apparent once we pay attention to the inner side of the religious life a non-doxastic faith enables. The non-doxasticist must make extensive use of imagination and pretence to be able to include some common aspects of a religious life, such as holiness and the love of God, into her religiosity. Thereby, non-doxasticism is closer to fictionalism than is commonly acknowledged. Even more importantly, I argue that to live a satisfying and rationally consistent religious life, the non-doxasticist must supplement her faith with local fictionalism concerning her own inner states. Non-doxastic attitudes require epistemic possibility, but it is not an epistemic possibility for the non-doxasticist that she believes propositions like “I love God”. The only way she can include such proposition into her religious life is to be a fictionalist about them.}},
author = {{Palmqvist, Carl-Johan}},
issn = {{2004-9331}},
keywords = {{Non-Doxasticism; Fictionalism; Faith; Imagination; Agnosticism}},
language = {{eng}},
series = {{AGATHEOS: European Journal for Philosophy of Religion}},
title = {{A Pretending Faith : Why Religious Non-Doxasticism Requires Imagination and Local Fictionalism}},
year = {{2024}},
}