I started reading Robert Audi’s introductory work to epistemology last week. I’ve had this book for quite some time and have wanted to read it for just as long. Audi did a pretty spectacular job with the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy which I have relied upon for years.
Audi is the John A. O’Brien Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame (where Plantinga is the John A. O’Brien Professor of Philosophy Emeritus) and therefore I had rather high expectations. I am a big fan of Plantinga’s (especially his work in epistemology).
But so far I’m not impressed. It’s only intended to be an introductory, but even so his ethical intuitionism seems to permeate much of this survey. That bothers me as I don’t like ethical intuitionism. Perhaps I am misinformed, but it seems incredibly naive and easily refuted (and I’m hardly unique in that claim). In fact, EI has very few subscribers having seemingly long died out in the 20th century (much like logical positivism had, at least in philosophical circles).
Audi believes ethics can be done independently from theology. I don’t find his reasoning even remotely persuasive. And I find it very confusing that an institution such as Notre Dame would hire someone like this (Plantinga was a rather confusing choice as well for a Catholic university).