Stephen Law

Here's my central criticism of Plantinga's Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism (EAAN). It's novel and was published in Analysis last year. Here's the gist. Plantinga argues that if naturalism and evolution are true, then semantic epiphenomenalism is very probably true - that's to say, the content of our beliefs does not causally impinge on our behaviour. And if semantic properties such as having such-and-such content or being true cannot causally impinge on behaviour, then they cannot be selected for by unguided evolution. Plantinga's argument requires, crucially, that there be no conceptual links between belief content and behaviour of a sort that it's actually very plausible to suppose exist (note that to suppose there are such conceptual links is not necessarily to suppose that content can be exhaustively captured in terms of behaviour or functional role, etc. in the way logical behaviourists or functionalists suppose). It turns o...

This is a very nice talk by Plantinga explaining the latest version of his Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism. I attack a part of an earlier incarnation of the argument in the latest issue of Religious Studies . I have an attempt at refuting this version currently under review at another journal (Stop press 4.45 pm - just accepted in Analysis ) Here's the key thing re the latter paper - I think I can show that, even if semantic properties of neural structures are epiphenomenal, as Plantinga supposes they very likely are given naturalism, it turns out surprisingly enough that natural selection will still favour some belief contents over and others, and will in fact favour beliefs that are true. That sounds impossible, doesn't it? Surely natural selection can only favour those properties of neural structures that causally effect behaviour, right? And semantic epiphenomenalism entails that such properties as being a true belief cannot causally affect behaviour. But actuall...

I just recorded an hour-long conversation with Prof Alvin Plantinga, hosted by Justin Brierley, over at Premier Christian Radio. It was on Plantinga's Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism. It will be broadcast on Saturday and will then be available as a podcast. P.S. Direct link: here . Just for the record, I am quite a fan of Plantinga's even though I disagree with him (obviously) on the God question. Was a very interesting conversation. You can judge for yourselves how it went... The easiest way for most people to listen will be by downloading the podcast from this website when it appears on Saturday afternoon (scroll down to "listen on demand" and find "Unbelievable? 13 Nov). It will be there permanently. One hour long. The discussion will also available on itunes (search podcasts for "unbelievable premier"). The discussion will actually be broadcast on Saturday 13th November, 2.30-4.00pm on Premier Christian Radio: London 1305, 1332, 1413 MW Na...

I will be discussing Pantinga's evolutionary argument against naturalism with Plantinga on Premier Christian Radio recording November 10th and broadcasting shortly after. Also available as a podcast.

The journal R eligious Studies is going to publish this paper. Thanks to everyone who commented - it was very useful. Final version of the paper is available here .