[Vision2020] More On Plantinga

[Joseph Campbell]

Michael,

A few response to your points. (I hope you have time to get that beer before
reading this!)

1/ I think you're missing the point about the dumb-luck objection to
externalism. Consider two folks: Joe and Moe. Both believe that God exists.
Joe's belief is properly basic but Moe's belief is not. Moe's belief forming
systems are not properly functioning. Otherwise the two are the same. Why is
it not dumb luck that I happen to be Joe and not Moe and that my belief
forming systems happen to be properly functioning as opposed to otherwise?
Knowledge needs to be more than this, which is why internalism is true and
externalism is false. (Or so say I.)

2/ I think you're limiting the options. You suggest that if internalism is
true, then the skeptic wins. The only way to save knowledge of God's
existence is for some externalist theory -- like Plantinga's -- to be true.
I say, "No. There are other options. There are Humean and Wittgensteinian
versions of basic beliefs that allow for internalist knowledge but the price
you pay is that the particular belief is not as specific as the one you get
with Plantinga. There is a common core of basis that allows two folks with
diverse views on the nature of God to correctly believe that God exists."

Just some quick thoughts!

Joe