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641Extended simplesPhilosophical Studies 133 (1). 2007.I argue that extended simples are possible. The argument given here parallels an argument given elsewhere for the claim that the shape properties of material objects are extrinsic, not intrinsic as is commonly supposed. In the final section of the paper, I show that if the shape properties of material objects are extrinsic, the most popular argument against extended simples fails.
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124Brutal SimplesIn Dean W. Zimmerman (ed.), Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, Oxford University Press. pp. 233. 2008.I argue that there are is no informative statement of necessary and sufficient conditions for being a mereological simple.
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112Pasnau on category realism: author Meets Critics, Robert Pasnau, Metaphysical Themes 1274–1671Philosophical Studies 171 (1): 17-25. 2014.From the perspective of a contemporary metaphysician, Metaphysical Themes 1274–1671 is a fantastic book. It is an impressively rich, detailed, and thorough examination of a multitude of important metaphysical puzzles and arguments, written in a clear, engaging, lively, funny, and even on one occasion vulgar manner. The number of topics covered is astonishing: substance, attribute, form, matter, the metaphysics of predication, parts and wholes, the metaphysics of extension across space, persisten…Read more
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308Heidegger's Metaphysics of Material BeingsPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 87 (2): 332-357. 2012.Heidegger distinguishes between things that are present-at-hand and things that are ready-to-hand. I argue that, in Heidegger, this distinction is between two sets of entities rather than between two ways of considering one and the same set of entities. I argue that Heidegger ascribes distinct temporal, essential, and phenomenological properties to these two different kinds of entities.
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271Distance and Discrete SpaceSynthese 155 (1): 157-162. 2007.Given Lewis’s views about recombination and spatial relations, there are possible worlds in which space is discrete and yet the Pythagorean theorem is true – contrary to the so-called Weyl-Tile argument that concluded that the Pythagorean theorem must fail if space is discrete.
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222A Philosophical Model of the Relation between Things in Themselves and AppearancesNoûs 49 (4): 643-664. 2013.I introduce a methodology for doing the history of philosophy called philosophical modeling. I then employ this methodology to give a theory of Kant's distinction between things in themselves and appearances. This theory models Kant's distinction on the distinction between a constituting object and the object it constitutes.
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72The Good, the Right, Life And Death: Essays in Honor of Fred Feldman (edited book)Ashgate. 2005.This is an edited collection containing papers on intrinsic value, consequentialism, the evil of death, among others.
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Syracuse UniversityProfessor
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University of Notre DameDepartment of PhilosophyWilliam J. and Dorothy K. O'Neill Professor of Philosophy
Syracuse, New York, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
| Metaphysics |
| 20th Century Philosophy |