Nicholas Wolterstorff

Nicholas Wolterstorff
Born (1932-01-21) January 21, 1932
Bigelow, Minnesota
Era 20th-century philosophy
Region Western Philosophy
School Analytic
Main interests
Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Religion, Aesthetics, Political Philosophy
Notable ideas
Reformed epistemology

Nicholas Wolterstorff (born January 21, 1932) is an American philosopher. A prolific writer with wide-ranging philosophical and theological interests, he has written books on aesthetics, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, metaphysics, and philosophy of education. In Faith and Rationality, Wolterstorff, Alvin Plantinga, and William Alston developed and expanded upon a view of religious epistemology that has come to be known as Reformed epistemology. He also helped to establish the journal Faith and Philosophy and the Society of Christian Philosophers.

Education and academic career

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Endowed lectureships

Personal life

Nicholas Wolterstorff lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his wife Claire. He has seven grandchildren.

Thought

While an undergraduate at Calvin College, Wolterstorff was greatly influenced by professors Harry Jellema, Henry Stob and Henry Zylstra, who introduced him to schools of thought that have dominated his mature thinking: Reformed theology and common sense philosophy (these have also influenced the thinking of Wolterstorff's friend and colleague Alvin Plantinga, another alumnus of Calvin College).

Wolterstorff builds upon the ideas of the Scottish common sense philosopher Thomas Reid, who approached knowledge "from the bottom-up". Instead of reasoning about transcendental conditions of knowledge, Wolterstorff suggests that knowledge and our knowing faculties are not the subject of our research but have to be seen as its starting point. Wolterstorff rejects classical foundationalism and instead sees knowledge as based upon insights in reality which are direct and indubitable.

Bibliography

Selected writings

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