*Reprinted with permission of the Editor from Faith and Philosophy 3 (1986): 306-12
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it seems plausible to suppose that conditions are right for propositions like
those expressed by (1) - (3) to be . . . properly basic for me only if (i)
either I have no sufficiently substantial reason to think that any of their
potential defeaters is true, or I do have some such reason, but for each
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defeater in question is false, and (ii) in either case my situation involves no
epistemic negligence on my part.[4]
Quinn goes on to say that he is not in this fortunate condition with respect to theistic
belief; he knows of substantial reasons, he says, to think that (4) is true, and it is not the
case that for each such reason he has, he has an even better reason for thinking (4) false.
So (by Q*) belief in God is not properly basic for him; and he suspects the same goes for
most of the rest of us.
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[1]Philip Quinn, "In Search of the Foundations of Theism," Faith and Philosophy 2
(October 1985): 20-1.
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