MONOTHEISM AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 229It is easy to reason: the former standard seems higher and safer, so
perhaps it is the one to accept. This is deceptive. The solid philosophical
core of the honorable tradition is the truth of these propositions:
(LP1) It is logically possible that, for any person S and sensory
experience E that S has, E is unreliable.
It is always logically possible that, say, one seems to see a glass and there is
no glass there.
(LP2) It is logically possible that, for every person S and sensory
experience E that S has, E is unreliable.
While (LP2) does not follow from (LP1), both are true (indeed, necessarily
true).
But consider these claims:
(LP3) It is logically possible that, for any person S and sensory
experience E that S has, E is reliable.
It is always logically possible that, say, one seems to see a glass and there is
a glass there.
(LP4) It is logically possible that, for every person S and sensory
experience E that S has, E is reliable.
While (LP4) does not follow from (LP3), both are true (indeed, necessarily
true). So far as logical possibilities go, each of these four is as much a
possibility as any other. No amount of reflection on these possibilities will
tell us whether Mary’s experience is tiger-favoring evidence. So the truth
of (LP1) and (LP2) provides no support for its claims about what Mary
must know if her experience is evidentially in order.
To the Terrible Tiger Deceiver hypothesis there corresponds the
Terrific Tiger Promoter hypothesis that tells us of a being who produces
as-if-there-is-a-tiger experiences only when there is a tiger, so that all
as-if-there-is-a-tiger experiences are reliable. Mary has just as much
reason to accept the Terrific Tiger Promoter hypothesis as she has to
embrace the Terrible Tiger Deceiver hypothesis, namely none whatever.
In sum, taken as a way of highlighting the truth of (LP1) and (LP2), the
Terrible Tiger hypothesis simply reduces to (LP1) and (LP2), which
along with (LP3) and (LP4) are both true and of no help in deciding
when Mary’s experience provides her with evidence. Taken as a literal
thesis about what there is, it is competitive to (for example) the Terrific