Dr. Liz Jackson on "The Puzzle of Faith and Reason"

4:30 pm
McCain Hall - Room 203

How could faith be rational? This is often known as the puzzle of faith and reason.

Most of us have faith—in our family and friends, or values and ideals, or in God. It’s also widely thought that faith goes beyond the evidence.

In this talk, Dr. Liz Jackson will argue that rational faith can go beyond the evidence by appealing to cases of “epistemic ties”: cases where your evidence doesn’t settle what you should conclude.

In her talk, Dr. Jackson will consider two proposed solutions to this puzzle, faith as testimony and faith as action, and argue they both fail. Then, she will propose her own solution: faith breaks epistemic ties and this can explain how faith can be rational and go beyond the evidence and, as a bonus, how faith can be voluntary.

Dr. Jackson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Saint Louis University.  She previously was Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Toronto Metropolitan University, and a Research Fellow in the School of Philosophy at Australian National University. She holds an MA and  PhD from the University of Notre Dame, and a Bachelor of Arts from Kansas State University.