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28Naturalism, Supernaturalism, and the Question of GodTopoi 42 (3): 711-718. 2023.My starting point in this paper is that expansive naturalism is a defensible position. I spell out what this position involves, and grant with Iris Murdoch that we should take seriously the idea that the world in which we are immersed has an irreducibly spiritual dimension. I consider what it could mean to think of spiritual reality in supernaturalist terms, agree with the naturalist that dualistic supernaturalism is to be rejected, and ask whether one can legitimately reject this model as both …Read more
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Religious Understanding, Naturalism, and DesireIn Stephen R. Grimm (ed.), Making Sense of the World: New Essays on the Philosophy of Understanding, Oxford University Press. 2017.
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23Meaning, desire, and God: an expansive naturalist approachInternational Journal of Philosophy and Theology 82 (4-5): 310-322. 2021.ABSTRACT I offer an approach to the problem of life’s meaning which poses a radical challenge to some of the familiar terms of this debate. First, I defend an expansive form of naturalism which involves a rejection of the common assumption that naturalism and theism are logically incompatible and offers a framework from which to rethink some of the central concepts operative in discussions of life’s meaning. Second, I defend a ‘desire solution’ to the problem of life’s meaning. My initial inspir…Read more
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26True naturalism, goodness, and GodThink 19 (56): 109-120. 2020.I defend a form of naturalism which has much in common with Iris Murdoch's ‘true naturalism’, but I argue that it can accommodate God. I consider what it could mean for naturalism to be theistic in this sense, and respond to the charge that it leaves no room for the transcendent.
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24The Quest for God: Rethinking DesireRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 85 157-173. 2019.How are we to view the nature of desire and its relation to value, humanity, and God? Sartre, Nietzsche, and Levinas have interesting things to say in this context, and they can be understood to be responding in their different ways to two seemingly opposed ways of conceiving of desire, namely, as lack or deficiency or as plenitude or creativity. I clarify, link, and distinguish the relevant conceptions of desire, and give a sense of what it could mean to comprehend desire in either or both of t…Read more
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24Cognitive dualism, ontological dualism, and the question of GodPhilosophy 94 (3): 409-424. 2019.Cognitive dualism offers a defensible conception of theism, and Scruton is right to endorse it. However, he retains a commitment to the ontological dualism it is his purpose to reject, and this leads to a deep tension in his position which leaves him unable to make sense of there being a route to the Divine. I argue that this tension stems from a residual commitment to a Kantian framework, and that this framework is not mandatory. I propose an alternative model which is compatible with much of w…Read more
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16Chinese and Buddhist Philosophy in Early Twentieth-Century German Thought By Eric S. Nelson Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2017. 343pp., £85 ISBN: 978-1-3500-0255-5 (review)Philosophy 94 (2): 342-347. 2019.
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33Kierkegaard, Eve and Metaphors of Birth By Alison Assiter London/New York: Rowan and Littlefield, 2015, pp.213, £24.95 ISBN: 9781783483259 (review)Philosophy 91 (2): 285-289. 2016.
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44The Minds of the Moderns: Rationalism, Empiricism, and the Philosophy of Mind. By Janice ThomasHeythrop Journal 52 (1): 139-140. 2011.
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42On the dismounting of seesawsPhilosophy 76 (1): 31-54. 2001.I am concerned to examine a mode of argumentation in recent analytic philosophy which, I claim, has its origin in Hegel's ‘dialectical’ method. I give examples of this mode of argumentation in McDowell and Wiggins, followed by a formal representation which distinguishes two possible models both of which have negative and positive aspects. I consider what the commitments of the negative aspect of this approach are, and argue that the desire to avoid naturalism constitutes a common goal. I turn th…Read more
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144Metaphilosophy and RelativismMetaphilosophy 32 (4): 359-377. 2001.I am concerned with the metaphilosophical questions of how we are to proceed when doing philosophy, and whether there is more than one way of achieving our aim. These questions are tackled initially by an examination of the answers given by Richard Double in his book Metaphilosophy and Freewill. It is argued that the considerations he rehearses in favour of metaphilosophical relativism are inconclusive, and that, in any case, it is a position that contains serious internal difficulties. An analo…Read more
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42Love's Vision. By Troy Jollimore. Princeton University Press (Princeton, Oxford), 2011, 197 pp., £24.95. ISBN: 9780691148724 (review)Philosophy 87 (2): 306-310. 2012.
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65This book traces a deep misunderstanding about the relation of concepts and reality in the history of philosophy. It exposes the influence of the mistake in the thought of Locke, Berkeley, Kant, Nietzche and Bradley, and suggests that the solution can be found in Hegelian thought. Ellis argues that the treatment proposed exemplifies Hegel's dialectical method. This is an important contribution to this area of philosophy.
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13Reviews - Roger Scruton: The Philosopher on Dover Beach By Mark Dooley Continuum Press, 2009, pp. 191, £18.99 (review)Philosophy 85 (2): 295-299. 2010.
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49God, value, and naturalismRatio 24 (2): 138-153. 2011.I consider whether there are philosophical developments which can deepen our understanding of God. I focus upon the relation between experience and physical things and the nature of value. I reject the narrow limits of experience presupposed by the verificationist, and the related monopoly of science on reality. I recommend a conception of reality which is rich enough to accommodate physical things and also the intertwining of value in the natural world. I detect structural similarities between …Read more
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71Scruton's Wagner on God, salvation, and ErosBritish Journal of Aesthetics 50 (2): 169-187. 2010.I examine Roger Scruton's account of the religious and soteriological significance of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde . The relation between Scruton and Wagner remains unclear, and the position at issue is a curious amalgam of the two. I refer to its author as ‘Scruton's Wagner’. Scruton's Wagner argues that erotic love has religious and soteriological significance, and that the notions of religion and salvation are to be defined in terms which are shorn of any reference to God. I argue that there m…Read more
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1213Murdoch and Levinas on God and GoodEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Religion 1 (2). 2009.Murdoch and Levinas both believe that our humanity requires us to suppress our natural egoism and to be morally responsive to others. Murdoch insists that while such a morality presupposes a ’transcendent background’, God should be kept out of the picture altogether. By contrast, Levinas argues that, in responding morally to others, we make contact with God (though not the God of traditional Christianity) and that in doing so we become more God-like. I attempt to clarify their agreements and dif…Read more
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118Desire, Infinity, and the Meaning of LifePhilosophy 86 (4): 483-502. 2011.In his paper `Truth, Invention, and the Meaning of Life' David Wiggins identifies a certain framework in terms of which to tackle the question of life's meaning. I argue that his criticisms of this framework are justified, and develop an alternative which trades upon some themes from Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Levinas. This alternative remains in the spirit of Wiggins' own preferred standpoint, although he would take issue with its theological implications. I argue that such misgivings are misplac…Read more
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18God, Value, and NatureOxford University Press UK. 2014.Many philosophers believe that God has been put to rest. Naturalism is the default position, and the naturalist can explain what needs to be explained without recourse to God. This book agrees that we should be naturalists, but it rejects the more prevalent scientific naturalism in favour of an 'expansive' naturalism inspired by David Wiggins and John McDowell. Fiona Ellis draws on a wide range of thinkers from theology and philosophy, and spans the gulf between analytic and continental philosop…Read more
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76The metaphysics of love: A paradox dispelled (review)Journal of Value Inquiry 35 (2): 247-262. 2001.
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18New Models of Religious Understanding (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2018.What does it mean to understand the world religiously? How is such understanding to be distinguished from scientific understanding? What does it have to do with religious practice, transfiguring love, and spiritual well-being? New Models of Religious Understanding investigates these questions to set a new and exciting agenda for philosophy of religion. Featuring contributions from leading scholars in the field, the volume cuts across the supposed divide between analytic and continental approache…Read more
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98God and other mindsReligious Studies 46 (3): 331-351. 2010.I reconsider the idea that there is an analogy between belief in other minds and belief in God, and examine two approaches to the relevant beliefs. The 'explanatory inductive' approach raises difficulties in both contexts, and involves questionable assumptions. The 'expressivist' approach is more promising, and presupposes a more satisfactory metaphysical framework in the first context. Its application to God is similarly insightful, and offers an intellectually respectable, albeit resistible, v…Read more
Areas of Specialization
1 more
Value Theory |
Philosophy of Religion, Miscellaneous |
20th Century Continental Philosophy |
Emmanuel Levinas |
Normativity and Naturalism |
Desire and Reason |