Epistemology Resource for Teens?

Education Forum
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@Homeschool_Forum Does anyone know of a good epistemology resource for teens from a Christian perspective? Book, website, video?

I found this, but it’s not for teens.

Anything else out there to help talk to kids about how we know what we know?

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Good question. I started to pre-read Donald Groothius’ Christian Apologetics because it dealt with epistemology. But I didn’t like it and I won’t be using it. I’m still looking.

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Ooo, that is going to be a tough one. I’ve got books I could recommend from my undergraduate, but those aren’t going to be useful for a younger teen. An older teen might be able to handle them.

I would suggest Alvin Plantinga. Do some research on him. He is at the forefront of modern Christian epistemology and he is very influenced by Augustinian thought. Emeritae and Emeriti // People // Department of Philosophy // University of Notre Dame

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I’ve heard of Plantinga. Haven’t read anything by him yet, though.

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I’d pick one of his easier books to start out with such as: https://www.amazon.com/Where-Conflict-Really-Lies-Naturalism/dp/0199812098

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@Rosie

Plantinga is pretty dense and presumes familiarity with a lot of philosophy, even in the “lay level” books like Where the Conflict Really Lies. And if you haven’t read the stuff he’s in conversation with (Dawkins, Dennett, etc.), a lot of it is going to be hard to follow.

I spent some time culling through Well Trained Mind Threads and found these two resources that seemed promising for high school.

This text was recommended by several women as an epistemology text: Cambridge’s Theory of Knowledge. This text Theory of Knowledge is setup to be used as an IB course. I can’t quite figure out if it is a stand alone text, or if it goes with the Cambridge text.

This text was recommended by a professor of philosophy and religious studies as one he uses with college freshmen and planned to use with his own highschooler. Philosophy: The Power of Ideas

For both of these, you would have to add in your “Christian perspective.” I would think of the texts as a foundation so your student could understand what Christian authors are referring to when they discuss philosophy and what the issues even are.

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Thank you, Christy!

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Yeah, Plantinga can make some assumptions. We love philosophy and treat it with the same level of importance as math, history, etc. I think its fun to look-up things we don’t know. That being said, I did probably overlook a bit of the ‘level.’ I’ve looked at Christy’s suggestions and I think they are very good.