ABSTRACT
To the philosophically unwary, it may seem as if there is a great similarity between what Reformed philosophers want to say about basic propositions and Wittgenstein's treatment of the problem in On Certainty. Two major considerations may tempt us to think in this way. First, it is true that Reformed philosophers and philosophers influenced by Wittgenstein in the philosophy of religion are one in their rejection of foundationalism. Second, they say that God is believed in without God's existence being seen as a presupposition for which prior evidence must be sought. It is clear that, for the Reformed epistemologists, basic propositions in noetic structures are thought of as the foundations of those structures. By contrast with the way in which Wittgenstein speaks of basic propositions being held fast in all that surrounds them, the basic propositions of Reformed epistemology seem isolated and even arbitrary.
