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Agnosticism

DOI
10.4324/9780415249126-K001-1
DOI: 10.4324/9780415249126-K001-1
Version: v1,  Published online: 1998
Retrieved April 19, 2024, from https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/agnosticism/v-1

Article Summary

In the popular sense, an agnostic is someone who neither believes nor disbelieves in God, whereas an atheist disbelieves in God. In the strict sense, however, agnosticism is the view that human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist. In so far as one holds that our beliefs are rational only if they are sufficiently supported by human reason, the person who accepts the philosophical position of agnosticism will hold that neither the belief that God exists nor the belief that God does not exist is rational. In the modern period, agnostics have appealed largely to the philosophies of Hume and Kant as providing the justification for agnosticism as a philosophical position.

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Citing this article:
Rowe, William L.. Agnosticism, 1998, doi:10.4324/9780415249126-K001-1. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Taylor and Francis, https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/agnosticism/v-1.
Copyright © 1998-2024 Routledge.

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