Presuppositions are foundational beliefs that shape our interpretation of facts or other beliefs. In theological study, in debates, in science, and in all of life, presuppositions shape our understanding in a unique way. I would like to discuss the importance of presuppositions.
First of all, presuppositions are important because everyone has them. You, reader, have presuppositions that influence your interpretation of other facts. I will even be so bold as to argue that your presuppositions determine your interpretation of other facts. We will discuss how presuppositions shape you in a later post, but right now the important fact is that we all have these vital presuppositions. Why do I believe this? I believe we all have presuppositions because we cannot consider all of reality at once. Because of this, we have to come to conclusions about some things and then we immediately use those new conclusions to come to conclusions about other, less important things. What I am saying is that no one thinks about all of reality as ‘up in the air’ at the same time—everyone makes foundational conclusions that will help them make secondary conclusions, which will help them make tertiary conclusions, and so forth.
These can be simple or complex conclusions. For example, your belief that gravity will continue to hold you to the ground with relative consistency is foundational for your ability to believe you can walk across a room. On the other hand, if you come to a certain conclusion about epistemology, only certain types of evidence may appear valid to you, while other evidence may be discounted prima facie. In both cases a former conclusion determines a later conclusion; the former conclusions are what we call presuppositions.
We use these kinds of presuppositions to make decisions on a daily basis and we do so without great thought about what we are doing. To use the previous example, you do not think, “I believe gravity will hold me to the floor, therefore I can walk across the room.” Rather, you simply know and trust that gravity functions a certain way and then you act in accord with what you know. These presuppositions are common to all of humankind, whether they are recognized as such or not.
All people have theological presuppositions as well, even atheists do. An atheist claims to believe (and may seem to be convinced) that there is no God. That belief is relatively foundational to the way they act, just as a Christian’s belief in the God of the Bible is foundational to the way they act. Christians can have some differing presuppositions from other Christians, too. These presuppositions determine what we think of Genesis 1, or Romans 9, or the book of Hebrews. Every person who debates relies on their presuppositions (specifically, they rely on the veracity of their presuppositions) because arguments typically revolve around a very few points. Few arguments begin absolutely at square one: “I believe that I am a human, and that you are as well; I also believe that we are speaking English and that …” so on and so on. Rather, obvious points of agreement are assumed by both parties; those are shared presuppositions but presuppositions nonetheless. The two sides of a debate will also have some opposing presuppositions, it is regarding these, if they are discovered, that the debate will revolve around.
Everyone, then, has presuppositions to one degree or another. They shape and determine how we think, how we act, and what we believe about the world in which we live. They are very important.
Next week, I hope to talk about how exactly presuppositions influence our thinking.
--Dean of Admissions
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