Powered by OpenAIRE graph
Found an issue? Give us feedback
addClaim

Spiritual turn. On the commitment to God and the good in epistemology

Authors: Di Ceglie, Roberto;

Spiritual turn. On the commitment to God and the good in epistemology

Abstract

It is commonly held that the search for truth is successful in proportion to the readiness of truth searchers to put aside their original beliefs and to accept whatever belief will appear to be proven. This view is taken for granted by both philosophers and non-philosophers. I call it mere epistemology. In this dissertation, I first argue that there are various problems with mere epistemology. First, it falls into a self-referential contradiction. Second, it does not explain the inconclusiveness that— especially in religious matters—besets debates in proportion to the commitment of debaters to their original beliefs. I then focus on religious debates and show that Christian believers offer, more or less implicitly, significant suggestions regarding the problem of inconclusiveness. They seem expected to commit themselves to God and to related beliefs no matter how convincing the evidence contradicting such beliefs may appear to be. This, however, causes not only inconclusiveness but also various beneficial effects on the intellectual activity; furthermore, it determines in some measure unbelievers also. In short, believers and unbelievers can commit themselves to God and the good, respectively, which means that they assume good habits in any activity they take. I call spiritual turn this assumption of good habits in the intellectual enterprise. It is a turn from mere epistemology, whose supporters first commit themselves to the search for truth—they maintain that every commitment must firstly be individuated epistemically. Unlike them, those who take the spiritual turn first commit themselves to God and/or the good, based on the conviction that this causes human flourishing and consequently perfects any human activity, the intellectual one included.

Country
United Kingdom
Related Organizations
Keywords

spiritual turn, 100, mere epistemology

  • BIP!
    Impact byBIP!
    selected citations
    These citations are derived from selected sources.
    This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
    0
    popularity
    This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
    Average
    influence
    This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
    Average
    impulse
    This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
    Average
Powered by OpenAIRE graph
Found an issue? Give us feedback
selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
Average
Average
Upload OA version
Are you the author of this publication? Upload your Open Access version to Zenodo!
It’s fast and easy, just two clicks!