Epistemological value of Religious Experience: C. D. Broad Revisited

Abstract

As William James, C. D. Broad attempted to approach the religious belief with an empirical view. Religious experiences, on his view, have epistemological value and they can be regarded as an evidence for the existence of God. Broad may be regarded among the first thinkers who attempt to argue for the existence of God on the basis of religious experience. His attempt followed by some philosophers such as Richard Swinburne, C. F. Davis and William Alston who discussed the religious experience from an epistemological point of view. Although Broad’s paper on “The Argument from Religious Experience” issued long time ago, it still seems that his argument in the paper is noteworthy. Considering the views from the defenders of the epistemic value of the religious experience and their responses to the critics, we can reform and strengthen the argument for the epistemological value of these experiences offered by C. D. Broad.

Keywords

• epistemological value
• argument from religious experience
• c. d. broad
• richard swinburne
• c. f. davis
• william alston