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Transcendental arguments usually seek to demonstrate that human experience (or a particular part of human experience) has, as a necessary condition, the existence of or the belief in something. The form of the argument is simply that “there must be something Y if there is something X of which Y is a necessary condition” 2 Robert Stern maintains that, strictly speaking, transcendental arguments are for a metaphysical precondition. He suggests that there are four common features in the metaphysical kind of transcendental argument. First, the claim is for a metaphysical condition usually arrived at a priori and obtains in every possible world. For example, says Stern, “existence is a condition for thought, as the former is metaphysically required in order to do or be anything at all.” 3 Second, transcendental arguments start with all or an aspect of experience. The argument proceeds from an experience (belief, laws of logic, intuition etc.) and inquires as to what the necessary con...

Here are nine of the books that have influenced me most in my life (apart from the Bible): 1. Tintin by Herge My parents used to tell people that if I sounded like I knew anything I got it from Tintin. Despite being a little colonial in its perspective (Herge often used unflattering ethical stereotypes) Tintin's adventures took my young imagination all over the world.

For Van Til, two doctrines are vital for Christian education - creation and providence. God makes all the facts and arranges them according to his own will. No fact is outside the control of God or originates in anyone other than God. Experiences of human beings all originate in the plan of God. For Van Til, all facts are related to God, they are his facts.

Herodias Jared Wilson likens our time to a transition from Herod to Herodias (see  here ). He quotes Mark: "For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly." John makes a public claim, rooted in his worldview, that is "heard gladly" by Herod even while not taken to heart. Herodias, on the other hand, reacts more strongly, she wants to kill John. Wilson suggests that the climate for those who follow in John's footsteps is becoming more Herodiasian. It is hard to make any empirical judgement about Wilson's claim, but it certainly seems right to me. When I joined Youth for Christ in 1992 there was general agreement that Christians were somehow honorable, vir...

John Calvin On the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation it is a little odd that we are still talking about Calvin's sensus divinitatis . For one thing, the sensus appears only at the beginning of the Institutes and is somewhat dismissed by Calvin as being inadequate for saving anyone. The sensus is also a species of innate idea. But ever since John Locke's Essay forced a retreat by nativists, talk of innate knowledge of anything has remained largely a niche activity. More recently, however, some philosophers of religion have proposed interpretations of Calvin's sensus that do not entail innate ideas and thus do not fall foul to Locke’s criticisms. Although much of the discussion of nativism has focused on the source of innate knowledge or its justification, I will focus on the nature of the sensus . Just what is it? There are two questions at hand. First, what did Calvin mean by a sense of the divine? In the first section, I will argue that, given Calvin...

One wise professor once told me that to use Ludwig Wittgenstein in a paper was to invite derision. He evidently felt that Wittgenstein is so variously interpreted that one will always be wrong about what he meant. Another professor once told me that it was possible to write a paper without mentioning Cornelius Van Til. Possible, but, for this Van Tillian blogger, quite unlikely. So I offer some interaction between Van Til and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein is most commonly taken to be opposing a foundationalist theory of knowledge. He writes “Really 'The proposition is either true or false' only means that it must be possible to decide for or against it. But this does not say what the ground for such a decision is.” 1 While Wittgenstein might reach “the bottom” of his convictions, those convictions remain ungrounded. If he feels that he has reached the foundation of all his beliefs, he is confronted with the question of what kind of belief that m...