Information Package / Course Catalogue - Adnan Menderes University

General Information Unit Staff Academic Information Programme Outcomes Course Structure Diagram Contact Information

Person Responsible for Information Package

Religious Epistemology and Its Problems

Course Code	: FDB510
Course Type	: Area Elective
Couse Group	: Second Cycle (Master's Degree)
Education Language	: Turkish
Work Placement	: N/A

Theory	: 3
Prt.	: 0
Credit	: 3
Lab	: 0
ECTS	: 5

Objectives of the Course

Through this course, students will be able to articulate the fundamental issues of religious epistemology. Explain the meaning of religious knowledge and its relationship to other types of knowledge, especially scientific knowledge. Discuss the possibility of religious knowledge. State the primary sources of religious knowledge.

Course Content

This course will focus on discussing and examining questions such as the meaning, possibility, sources, and value of religious knowledge, and its relationship to other types of knowledge, especially scientific knowledge. The epistemological value of efforts to move from our knowledge of the universe to the knowledge of God. An epistemological analysis of concepts such as revelation, religious experience, belief, knowledge, doubt, conjecture, certainty, etc., as sources of knowledge will be presented and discussed. The rationality of faith or religious belief will be discussed.

Name of Lecturer(s)

Lec. İsmail YALÇINTAŞ

Learning Outcomes

1.	Recognizes the fundamental problems of Religious Epistemology.
2.	Learn the difference between Religious Epistemology and other types of knowledge acquisition.
3.	Gains knowledge about the epistemic value of religious knowledge.
4.	Discuss the possibility of religious knowledge, learn the main sources of religious knowledge, and prominent figures and ideas in religious epistemology.
5.	Explains what religious knowledge means and its relationship to other types of knowledge – especially scientific knowledge.

Recommended or Required Reading

1.	Nebi Mehdiyev, Epistemological Approaches in Contemporary Philosophy of Religion and the Rationality of Belief in God, Istanbul: ISAM, 2009.
2.	Mehmet Sait Reçber, The Possibility and Essence of Knowing God, Ankara: Kitabiyat, 2004.
3.	William T. Blackstone, The Problem of Religious Knowledge: The Effects of Philosophical Analyses on the Problem of Religious Knowledge, trans. Tuncay İmamoğlu, Istanbul: Ataç Publications, 2005.

Weekly Detailed Course Contents

Week 1 - Theoretical

Knowledge, Knowing and Knowing God, Conditions of Knowledge and Knowing, What is Religious Epistemology?

Week 2 - Theoretical

Atheistic Challenge

Week 3 - Theoretical

Theistic Responses to the Atheistic Challenge

Week 4 - Theoretical

Natural Theology

Week 5 - Theoretical

Fideistic Epistemology: Pascalian Arationalism, Kierkegaardian Irrationalism, Wittgensteinian Non-Realism

Week 6 - Theoretical

Theistic Evidentialism: Theistic Evidentialism's Rationality Claim, Critique of Theistic Evidentialism, Is Theistic Evidentialism Necessary?

Week 7 - Theoretical

Proper Functionalism: Plantinga's Religious Epistemology, a Critique of Proper Functionalism

Week 8 - Theoretical

The Problem of the Unknowability of God: Philosophical and Theological Agnosticism

Week 9 - Theoretical

Kant and the Problem of the Unknowability of God

Week 10 - Theoretical

Knowing God Through Experience: Experience and Religious Experience, Perceiving God

Week 11 - Theoretical

Experience, Intuition and Inference, Mystical Experience and God

Week 12 - Theoretical

Knowing God with Reason: The Idea of ??God and Innate Knowledge

Week 13 - Theoretical

The Idea of ??God and the Existence of God, Reason, Inference and God

Week 14 - Theoretical

Critical Rationalism and Investigative Faithism in Religious Epistemology

Assessment Methods and Criteria

Type of Assessment	Count	Percent
Midterm Examination	1	%30
Final Examination	1	%40
Seminar	1	%30

Workload Calculation

Activities	Count	Preparation	Time	Total Work Load (hours)
Lecture - Theory	14	4	0	56
Assignment	1	18	0	18
Midterm Examination	1	24	0	24
Final Examination	1	24	0	24
TOTAL WORKLOAD (hours)				122

Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes

	PÇ-1	PÇ-2	PÇ-3	PÇ-4	PÇ-5	PÇ-6
OÇ-1	4	4	3	4	4	4
OÇ-2	5	4	4	4	4	4
OÇ-3	4	4	5	5	4	4
OÇ-4	4	4	4	4	4	4
OÇ-5	4	4	4	4	4	4

Person Responsible for Information Package