"The Acts of the Apostles provides evidence that Christian proclamation was engaged from the very first with the philosophical currents of the time. In Athens, we read, Saint Paul entered into discussion with 'certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers' (17:18); and exegetical analysis of his speech at the Areopagus has revealed frequent allusions to popular beliefs deriving for the most part from Stoicism. This is by no means accidental. If pagans were to understand them, the first Christians could not refer only to 'Moses and the prophets' when they spoke. They had to point as well to natural knowledge of God and to the voice of conscience in every human being (cf. Rom 1:19-21; 2:14-15; Acts 14:16-17). Since in pagan religion this natural knowledge had lapsed into idolatry (cf. Rom 1:21-32), the Apostle judged it wiser in his speech to make the link with the thinking of the philosophers, who had always set in opposition to the myths and mystery cults notions more respectful of divine transcendence." -- Pope St. John Paul II, Fides et Ratio

Friday, May 23, 2025

Infallible Epistemic Agents

In some of my (somewhat experimental) posts (such as HERE, HERE, and HERE), I play rather fast and loose with the concept of 'infallibility'. In the interest of bringing clarity to this concept (at least for myself), I have begun a project that offers a fairly rigorous philosophical analysis of infallibility as it applies to epistemic agents (with papal infallibility in particular as the guiding star, though the analysis is intended to be very general) as well as a discussion of the epistemological challenges of rationally identifying an epistemic agent as infallible by way of reason (apart from faith).

I consider the current state of the project to be a mere first pass through this somewhat messy and difficult subject. Constructive criticism is certainly welcome. Without further ado, the article in its current state can be accessed here: Infallible Epistemic Agents.

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Infallible Epistemic Agents

In some of my (somewhat experimental) posts (such as HERE , HERE , and HERE ), I play rather fast and loose with the concept of 'infalli...