Wittgenstein's influence on religious epistemology: Religion in Wittgenstein and Wittgensteinian fideism

The subject of this study is to investigate the concept of fideism attributed to Wittgenstein based on his views regarding epistemology and religion. In his later philosophy, he regarded beliefs as forms of life that constitute their own language game systems and claimed that all beliefs essentially arise without a specific foundational basis. This assertion of him has given rise to new debates about whether religious beliefs, in their nature, can be questioned or justified. As a reflection of these debates, Wittgensteinian fideism is seen as a particular kind of fideistic approach based on Wittgenstein's views on religion and his successors' interpretations of his philosophy. Within this thesis, the similarities and differences between Wittgenstein's philosophy and fideism are examined by evaluating his views on religion. Within the scope of the subject, the assertions of Kai Nielsen, who was the first thinker to put forward the notion of 'Wittgensteinian fideism', and of the thinkers who were accused of interpreting Wittgenstein as a fideist by Nielsen on religious epistemology are featured. Drawing on the studies conducted, it is claimed in the thesis that Wittgenstein's relation with fideism does not go beyond having certain similarities and that it is not possible to call him a fideist.