rational virtues

One of the issues addressed in this article is the study of explaining the function of religion on the basis of virtue, one of the issues that theologians face; That is, despite the opposition to religion, why do people tend to religion, and what is the role and function of religion for human beings? Various approaches have been proposed to explain this issue. One of the approaches that has been reconsidered is the virtuous approach. In this approach, attention is paid to the characteristics, abilities and personal talents of individuals. According to this approach, virtues are divided into two types: one is rational virtues, and the other is normative and moral virtues. Considering that these virtues are also mentioned in religious teachings. It seems that according to this approach, the function of religion can also be explained on the basis of "inference through the best explanation". Therefore, in this article, after briefly stating this approach, the issue of the function of religion has been studied and explained accordingly.

Aristotle is the first philosopher who specifically focuses on phronesis or practical wisdom in detail. He has dealt with it in three areas of essence, elements of phronetic act, and phronesis functions. For Aristotle, phronesis was a moral and intellectual virtue and a prerequisite for the prosperity of every individual and community. In his elaboration of the ontological position of phronesis, Aristotle differentiates it from other intellectual virtues such as episteme, techne, intuitive intellect, and Sophia. He argues that these last three items have to do with theory, while phronesis is about praxis and practice. He also differentiates between phronesis and Techne. lthough techne, like phronesis, is about practice, practice in techne is of poiesis and construction nature. Phronesis, on the other hand, is a comprehensive and applied type of knowledge that not only dictates the daily activities, but also utilizes knowledge as a guide and a calculator. Moreover, what is referred to as an action in phronesis encompasses a variety of elements like perceiving the goal, desire, rational deliberation and prohairesis or rational choice. Aristotle also believes that phronesis gives a valuable framework for leading man’s life.

In the field of philosophy of religions¡ questions about rationality of religious beliefs and its criteria are very important. Based on some extremist approaches such as maximum rationalism and extremist fideism¡ acceptance of religious beliefs is out of the rational judgment and evaluation. Inefficiency of these two approaches in explaining the rationality of religious beliefs has brought about other criteria for explaining the rationality of these beliefs being proposed by religious scholars. Based on some theories in the field of epistemology like “theories of justification and preference”¡ “trusting the power of belief-producing in human”¡ “considering the language of religion and its dimensions”¡ “revision of the basic beliefs”¡ “coherentism approach”¡ and “trusting the rational virtues of knowing agent”¡ a new type of rationality of religious beliefs called “moderate rationality” is defined according to which the rationality of a great part of religious beliefs is explainable.

Three approaches of theism, atheism and agnosticism have been the focus of the philosophy of religion with a great deal of controversies. Adherents of each one try to overcome the opposing argument and to prove its own claim. One of the necessary predispositions for arbitration between these claims is determining the dominant pattern and evaluation criteria among which evidentialism, fideism, reformed epistemology, and advisable and pragmatist approaches are considered as examples of these criteria. Virtueoriented epistemology is a modern approach highlighting the function of rational virtues in epistemic value of the beliefs. According to this approach, it is known that the way of connecting belief to truth is the fact that it is originated from practicing rational virtues. Therefore, to evaluate epistemic value of every belief, the quality and quantity of the mentioned virtues in the operating epistemic process should be detected. Having an overall investigation on the prevalent types of arbitration between theism and atheismand also providing a short report on virtue-oriented epistemology narrated by Zagzebski, the paper intends to show epistemic value of believing in God against the lack of it based on the mentioned approach.