Spiritual turn. On the commitment to God and the good in epistemology
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Date
30/11/2020Item status
Restricted AccessEmbargo end date
30/11/2024Author
Di Ceglie, Roberto
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Abstract
It is commonly held that the search for truth is successful in proportion to the readiness of truth searchers to put aside their original beliefs and to accept whatever belief will appear to be
proven. This view is taken for granted by both philosophers and non-philosophers. I call it mere
epistemology.
In this dissertation, I first argue that there are various problems with mere epistemology. First, it
falls into a self-referential contradiction. Second, it does not explain the inconclusiveness that—
especially in religious matters—besets debates in proportion to the commitment of debaters to
their original beliefs.
I then focus on religious debates and show that Christian believers offer, more or less implicitly,
significant suggestions regarding the problem of inconclusiveness. They seem expected to
commit themselves to God and to related beliefs no matter how convincing the evidence
contradicting such beliefs may appear to be. This, however, causes not only inconclusiveness but
also various beneficial effects on the intellectual activity; furthermore, it determines in some
measure unbelievers also. In short, believers and unbelievers can commit themselves to God and
the good, respectively, which means that they assume good habits in any activity they take.
I call spiritual turn this assumption of good habits in the intellectual enterprise. It is a turn from
mere epistemology, whose supporters first commit themselves to the search for truth—they
maintain that every commitment must firstly be individuated epistemically. Unlike them, those
who take the spiritual turn first commit themselves to God and/or the good, based on the
conviction that this causes human flourishing and consequently perfects any human activity, the
intellectual one included.