Philosophical Theology as a Practice. William Alston’s Approach

Abstract

In this article I explain William Alston’s doxastic approach. Alston’s idea is that Christian mystical perceptual doxastic practice can be considered as a distinct cognitive domain. To realize this idea, Alston introduces the notion of doxastic practice and shifts the discussion from the problem of epistemological justification of particular beliefs to the problem of proving the reliability of doxastic practices. He compares the Christian mystical perceptual doxastic practice with the doxastic practice of sense perception finding much in common between them. Most importantly, however, is that it is impossible to prove the reliability of practices without committing the so-called error of the epistemic circle. Against his approach, Alston formulates an objection from religious pluralism and quite successfully solves it. However, it seems to me that this objection can be reformulated – I argue that a situation in which several contradictory practices exist simultaneously reduces markedly the epistemic probability that the beliefs generated by each practice will turn out to be true. I conclude the paper by arguing that philosophical theology, understood as practice, can more successfully deal with a reformulated version of the problem of religious pluralism in that it can more successfully show the coherence of new concepts with background beliefs, both that which is engaged by philosophical theology and that which extend beyond it and constitute the common knowledge of the cognizing subject.