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assuming the existence of the god who has revealed Himself in<br />

Scripture. With this assumption or hypothesis, he may be able<br />

to offer an explanation of reality, but he can never offer to establish<br />

the validity of this ultimate starting-point, since all argumentation<br />

within the system is intelligible only when one<br />

accepts the assumption itself. The same could be said with reference<br />

to the presupposition of the [[155]] naturalist, who holds<br />

that nature, as the space-time nexus, is the only and ultimate reality.<br />

To ask the naturalist to prove the validity of his assumption<br />

that nature is ultimate is to ask a meaningless question; he<br />

may be able to offer a coherent explanation of reality in terms<br />

of this ultimate assumption; but he cannot prove the assumption<br />

itself, since any argument, if he is consistent, will assume the<br />

validity of that very assumption.<br />

To call this general approach to the structure of philosophical<br />

world views by the name metaphysical presuppositionalism<br />

is therefore an appropriate designation, since the position rigorously<br />

insists that any first reality must be assumed, not proved.<br />

An equally appropriate designation is voluntaristic rationalism:<br />

voluntaristic, because the acceptance of the basic postulate is a<br />

volitional or willful act for which, in the final analysis, no rational<br />

evidence can be given, since every such argument, to be<br />

valid within the system, must rest ultimately on just this very<br />

postulate; rationalism, because, when the basic metaphysical<br />

postulate is taken as assumed, the attempt is made to show that<br />

in terms of this postulate, as applied by the basic logical laws<br />

(likewise dependent upon the ultimate postulate), a selfconsistent<br />

explanation of reality be<strong>com</strong>es possible in a degree<br />

to which it is not possible in terms of other basic postulates.<br />

Analytical or logical presuppositionalism, in the second<br />

place, is that method of testing the adequacy of a world view,<br />

however derived originally, by assuming its truth hypothetically<br />

and attempting to show, by application of proper logical analysis,<br />

whether or not its basic principles lead to a self-consistent

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