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86Jewish Responses to the Problem of Evil: Traditional Texts in Contemporary CategoriesPhilosophy Compass 9 (12): 894-905. 2014.This essay outlines answers to the problem of evil from Jewish perspectives. The essay uses traditional Jewish sources to illustrate theodicies familiar in other religious traditions, and introduces a few less familiar Jewish theodicies besides. Other responses to the problem of evil are also considered. Jewish responses are not usually framed in contemporary philosophical categories, and mine is an attempt at categorization. The traditional Jewish sources might show some promise of contributing…Read more
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48Omissions: Agency, Metaphysics and Responsibility, written by Randolph ClarkeJournal of Moral Philosophy 15 (1): 97-99. 2018.
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150The Puzzle of Existence: Why is There Something Rather Than Nothing? (edited book)Routledge. 2013.This groundbreaking volume investigates the most fundamental question of all: Why is there something rather than nothing? The question is explored from diverse and radical perspectives: religious, naturalistic, platonistic and skeptical. Does science answer the question? Or does theology? Does everything need an explanation? Or can there be brute, inexplicable facts? Could there have been nothing whatsoever? Or is there any being that could not have failed to exist? Is the question meaningful af…Read more
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68An Advertisement of a Promise: God and the Hyper-pastJournal of Analytic Theology 5 629-636. 2017.ㅤ
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79Commanding BeliefRatio 27 (2): 163-174. 2014.This essay shows three things: first, that we cannot comply with a command from God to believe in God; second, that God cannot command us to believe in God; and, third, that the divine command theory is false. The third conclusion follows from the second, and the second follows from the first. The essay focuses on an argument from the medieval Jewish philosopher, Hasdai Crescas. It also draws from, and is something of a sequel to, an argument from Brown and Nagasawa published previously in this …Read more
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230Metaphysical Nihilism and Necessary BeingPhilosophia 40 (4): 799-820. 2012.This paper addresses the most fundamental question in metaphysics, Why is there something rather than nothing? The question is framed as a question about concrete entities, Why does a possible world containing concrete entities obtain rather than one containing no concrete entities? Traditional answers are in terms of there necessarily being some concrete entities, and include the possibility of a necessary being. But such answers are threatened by metaphysical nihilism, the thesis that there be…Read more
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15The Meaning of Meaning: Comments on Metz's Meaning in LifeEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Religion 8 (2): 19-25. 2016.
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53Existence Puzzles and Probabilistic ExplanationJournal of the American Philosophical Association 2 (3): 469-482. 2016.
Rochester, New York, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
1 more
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Religion |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |
Applied Ethics |
Jewish Philosophy |
Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Mind |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |