Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-03T13:54:11.665Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Darwin's doubt or Plantinga's conviction? Some failures in Plantinga's attempt to debunk naturalistic evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2023

L. H. Marques Segundo Open the ORCID record for L. H. Marques Segundo [Opens in a new window]
L. H. Marques Segundo*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
*
Email: luizhelveciosegundo@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Darwin's Doubt (DD) – a thesis according to which the probability of the human cognitive mechanism's reliability given non-guided evolution is low – is central to Plantinga's Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism and his suggestion that the adoption of guided evolution thesis is preferable from a theory choice point of view. In this article I'll argue that there are three fundamental failures in Plantinga's argument. First, I argue that Plantinga's argument for DD is question-begging. Second, I point out that this very same argument is not in accordance with the way the evolutionary scientists usually reason. And finally I argue that the replacement of non-guided by guided evolution violates some reasonable belief-revision procedures in the history of science.

Keywords

Darwin's doubtreliabilityevolution of cognitionnaturalistic evolutionguided evolution
Type
Original Article
Information
Religious Studies , First View , pp. 1 - 16
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alcock, J (2009) Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.Google Scholar
Beatty, J (1980) Optimal-design models and the strategy of model building in evolutionary biology. Philosophy of Science 47, 532–561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carnap, R (1974) An Introduction to Philosophy of Science. Mineolay, NY: Dover Science Book.Google Scholar
Dennett, D (1978) Brainstorms. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dennett, D (1987) The Intentional Stance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Draper, P (2005) God, science, and naturalism. In Wainwright, WJ (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 272–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feyerabend, PK (1993) Against Method, 3rd edn. London, England: Verso.Google Scholar
Fodor, JA (1981) Three cheers for propositional attitudes. In Fodor, JA (ed.), Representations. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 116–140.Google Scholar
Goldman, A (1986) Epistemology and Cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gross, C (2010) Alfred Russell Wallace and the evolution of the human mind. The Neuroscientist 16, 496–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haidt, J (2013) The Righteous Mind. Harlow: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Houston, A and McNamara, J (2002) Optimality theory. In Pagel, M (ed.), Encyclopedia of Evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 832–839.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D (2011) Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
Kuhn, T (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lakatos, I (1970) Falsification and the methodology of scientific research programmes. In Lakatos, I and Musgrave, A (eds), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 91–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laudan, L (1977) Progress and its Problems: Towards a Theory of Scientific Progress. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Mayr, E (1982) The Growth of Biological Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Millikan, R (1984) Naturalist reflections on knowledge. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 65, 315–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millikan, R (1987) Language, Thought and Other Biological Categories. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Mitchel, WA and Valone, TJ (1990) The optimization research program: studying adaptations by their function. The Quarterly Review of Biology 65, 43–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nozick, R (1981) Philosophical Explanations. Cambridge, MA: The Belnap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Okasha, S (2013) Biological altruism. In Zalta EN (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition). Available at https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/altruism-biological.Google Scholar
Orzack, SH and Sober, E (2001) Adaptationism and Optimality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Papineau, D (1993) Philosophical Naturalism. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Papineau, D (2021) Naturalism. In Zalta EN (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2021 Edition). Available at https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/naturalism/.Google Scholar
Plantinga, A (1993) Warrant and Proper Function. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plantinga, A (1996) Science: Augustinian or Duhemian? Faith and Philosophy 13, 368–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plantinga, A (2000) Warrant and Christian Belief. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plantinga, A (2002) Introduction: The Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism. In Beilby, J (ed.), Naturalism Defeated?. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, pp. 1–12.Google Scholar
Plantinga, A (2011) Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plantinga, A and Tooley, M (2008) Knowledge of God. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quine, W (1969) Ontological Relativity and Other Essays. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, C (2015) Moving beyond causes: optimality models and scientific explanation. Noûs 49, 589–615.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roush, S (2006) Tracking Truth: Knowledge, Evidence and Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ruse, M (1986) Taking Darwin Seriously. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sober, E (1980) The evolution of rationality. Synthese 46, 95–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sober, E (2000) Philosophy of Biology. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Sober, E (2011a) Why methodological naturalism? In Aulette, G, LeClerc, M and Martinez, R (eds), Biological Evolution: Facts and Theories: A Critical Appraisal 150 Years after The Origin of Species. Rome: Gregorian Biblical Press, pp. 359–378.Google Scholar
Sober, E (2011b) Evolution without naturalism. In Kvanvig, JL (ed.), Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion, vol. 3. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 187–221.Google Scholar
Stephens, CL (2001) When is it selectively advantageous to have true beliefs? Sandwiching the better safe than sorry argument. Philosophical Studies 105, 161–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar