Knowledge and Reality: Essays in Honor of Alvin Plantinga (Philosophical Studies)

This volume was conceived as a Festschrift to surprise Alvin Plantinga on his 70th birthday. That original plan was not entirely successful. For one thing, the day came and went well before the work was complete. For another, the project wasn’t quite a surprise: Plantinga caught wind of it (though not of its details) before the unveiling. The occasion was marked, however, by a presentation of a projected table of contents and an early draft of the cover painting by Keith Lehrer. Plantinga then saw the details, and was quite taken aback that the editors and a few contributors had come to South Bend from as far Virginia, Florida, and California to celebrate. Now we are pleased to offer the essays themselves. The collection ranges widely over metaphysics and epistemology. Its wingspan testifies to the breadth both of Plantinga’s own work and of the audience that has valued it. Some of the essays deal with ontology, examining actualism, presentism, antirealism, properties, and artifacts. Several essays in epistemology raise skeptical questions, work through the implications of naturalism or int- nalism, and engage Plantinga’s own Reidian account of warrant. Other contributions consider the bearing of philosophical ideas on the Christian faith–of split brain cases on the doctrine of the Trinity, for example, and of materialism on the afterlife. The contributors are friends, colleagues, and former students of Plantinga. The editors thank all of them for their eager participation in this project.

This volume comprises essays presented to Alvin Plantinga on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Plantinga is one of the leading figures in Anglo-American metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of religion; his work in these areas has been the focus of wide scholarly attention. This collection of essays, all of which were written specifically for this volume in honor of Plantinga’s 70th birthday, ranges broadly over topics in metaphysics and epistemology and includes contributions by some of the best philosophers writing today. The volume will be of particular interest to metaphysicians, epistemologists, philosophers of religion and theologians as it includes important recent work by some of the leading thinkers in these fields.

With contributions from William P. Alston, Michael Bergmann, Richard Fumerton, Jenann Ismael, Jonathan Kvanvig, Trenton Merricks, Richard Otte, John Pollock, Michael C. Rea, Eleonore Stump, James Tomberlin, Peter van Inwagen, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and Keith Yandell.