-
77Pleasures and Pains: A Theory of Qualitative Hedonism (review)Philosophical Review 91 (1): 143-145. 1979.
-
857Toward an Axiological Virtue EthicsEthical Research 3 (3): 21-48. 2013.This article introduces Formal Axiology, first developed by Robert S. Hartman, and explains its essential features—a formal definition of “good” (the “Form of the Good”), three basic kinds of value and evaluation—systemic, extrinsic, and intrinsic, and the hierarchy of value according to which good things having the richest quantity and quality of good-making properties are better than those having less. Formal Axiology is extended into moral philosophy by applying the Form of the Good to person…Read more
-
447Mental health as rational autonomyJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 6 (3): 309-322. 1981.Rather than eliminate the terms "mental health and illness" because of the grave moral consequences of psychiatric labeling, conservative definitions are proposed and defended. Mental health is rational autonomy, and mental illness is the sustained loss of such. Key terms are explained, advantages are explored, and alternative concepts are criticized. The value and descriptive components of all such definitions are consciously acknowledged. Where rational autonomy is intact, mental hospitals and…Read more
-
19Fetz's misunderstandings of formal axiologyKriterion - Journal of Philosophy 1 (13): 24-30. 1999.
-
538Tom Regan's Seafaring Dog and (Un) Equal Inherent WorthBetween the Species 9 (4): 231-235. 1993.Tom Regan's seafaring dog that is justifiably thrown out of the lifeboat built for four to save the lives of four humans has been the topic of much discussion. Critics have argued in a variety of ways that this dog nips at Regan's Achilles heel. Without reviewing previous discussions, with much of which I certainly agree, this article develops an unexplored approach to exposing the vulnerability of the position that Regan takes on sacrificing the dog to save the humans. It argues that when deali…Read more
-
138Review of Religion and Violence (review)Review of Metaphysics 57 (4): 833-834. 2004.If you relish paradoxes, this is the book for you. The writings quoted are full of them; the book is largely about “a category beyond all categories”, “atemporal temporality”, “the radical possibility of the impossible itself”, the “concept without concept”, “the myth of the myth, the metaphor of the metaphor”, “hospitality-without-hospitality, brotherhood-without-brotherhood, messianicity-without-messianism”, “relation without relation”, “ethics beyond ethics”, and “the One plus or minus One, n…Read more
-
15This book features two old philosophical friends engaged in lively personal and intellectual conversations. Wary of any dogmatism, their dialogues explore the Big Bang and the joy of grandchildren, value theory and terrorism, God and art, metaphor and meaning, while assessing the thought of Robert S. Hartman, Alfred North Whitehead, Charles Hartshorne, H. Richard Niebuhr, and others.
-
29Matters of Faith and Matters of Principle (review)Review of Metaphysics 36 (4): 956-958. 1983.In this promising and well written book, the author struggles with the question of how basic religious beliefs can be groundless without being irrational. He notes that the axiomatic beliefs--philosophical, scientific, or religious--which ground all areas of human knowledge, are groundless in the sense of being unsupported by more primitive evidential considerations. He wishes to avoid purely non-cognitivist accounts of religious belief as purely subjective expressions of tastes, preferences, va…Read more
-
1012Judaism, Process Theology, and Formal Axiology: A Preliminary StudyProcess Studies 43 (2): 87-103. 2014.This article approaches Judaism through Rabbi Bradley S. Artson’s book, God of Becoming and Relationships: The Dynamic Nature of Process Theology. It explores his understanding of how Jewish theology should and does cohere with central features of both process theology and Robert S. Hartman’s formal axiology. These include the axiological/process concept of God, the intrinsic value and valuation of God and unique human beings, and Jewish extrinsic and systemic values, value combinations, and val…Read more
-
413Is an Existential System Possible?International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 17 (3). 1985.The article critiques Kierkegaard's understanding of an "existential system" and relates his theology to Classical and Process Theism
-
395Why we should not use some drugs for pleasureIn S. Luper-Foy C. Brown (ed.), Drugs, Morality, and the Law, Garland. pp. 183. 1994.The article explains why we should not use dangerous drugs for pleasure.
-
476Discussion: The truth and falsity of definitionsPhilosophy of Science 33 (1/2): 76. 1966.This article examines several answers to the question, can lexical definitions be true or false.
-
636The Pagan Dogma of the Absolute Unchangeableness of God: REM B. EDWARDSReligious Studies 14 (3): 305-313. 1978.In his Edifying Discourses, Soren Kierkegaard published a sermon entitled ‘The Unchangeableness of God’ in which he reiterated the dogma which dominated Catholic, Protestant and even Jewish expressions of classical supernaturalist theology from the first century A.D. until the advent of process theology in the twentieth century. The dogma that as a perfect being, God must be totally unchanging in every conceivable respect was expressed by Kierkegaard in such ways as: He changes all, Himself unch…Read more
-
844People and Their WorthProcess Studies 38 (1): 43-68. 2009.This article argues that process philosophy and Hartmanian formal axiology are natural allies that can contribute much to each other. Hartmanian axiology can bring much needed order and clarity to process thought about the definitions of “good,” “better,” and “best,” about what things are intrinsically good, and about the nature and value of unique, enduring, individual persons. Process thought can bring to axiology greater clarity about and emphasis on the relational and temporal features of hu…Read more
-
510The Human SelfProcess Studies 5 (3): 195-203. 1975.This is a serious critique of Whitehead's epochal theory of time. It argues that human selves and perhaps all actual entities are in continuous concrescence, like Whitehead's God.
-
19Moral Knowledge and Ethical Character (review)International Studies in Philosophy 35 (4): 145-146. 2003.
-
549God as a Single Processing Actual EntityProcess Studies 42 (1): 77-86. 2013.This article defends Marjorie Suchocki’s position against two main objections raised by David E. Conner. Conner objects that God as a single actual entity must be temporal because there is succession in God’s experience ofthe world. The reply is that time involves at least two successive occasions separated by perishing, but in God nothing ever perishes. Conner also objects that Suchocki’s personalistic process theism is not experiential but is instead theoretical and not definitive. The reply i…Read more
-
142Review of: The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence (review)Process Studies 44 (2): 299-303. 2015.This is a review of a book by Thomas Jay Oord.
-
41Agency Without a Substantive SelfThe Monist 49 (2): 273-289. 1965.A typical dispute between a libertarian and a determinist will usually involve some reference to ‘self-determination’. The libertarian will perhaps claim that I am free when I am not determined in my choices by anything outside myself but instead determine my choices ‘myself’. To this the determinist is likely to reply that ‘self-determination’ is determination all the same and that he cannot see how the freedom of choice defended by the libertarian is an exception to determinism. This is where …Read more
-
1967Formal Axiology and Its Critics (edited book)Rodopi. 1995.This book is a collection of articles dealing with criticisms of Robert S. Hartman’s theory of formal axiology. During his lifetime, Hartman wrote responses to many of his critics. Some of these were previously published but many are published here for the first time. In particular, published here are Hartman’s replies to such critics as Hector Neri Castañeda, Charles Hartshorne, Rem B. Edwards, Robert E. Carter, G. R. Grice, Nicholas Rescher, Robert W. Mueller, Gordon Welty, Pete Gunter, George…Read more
-
233On Being 'Rational' About NormsSouthern Journal of Philosophy 5 (3): 180-186. 1967.The theses of this paper are that: 1. the attempt to found absolute norms on rationality presupposes the availability of a single universal absolute conception of rationality, but no such conception is available; and 2. any conception of rationality which might be available for justifying one's ultimate normative commitments is itself evaluative. “Rationality” itself is a value-laden concept, as are all its philosophical sub-divisions—logic, ethics, aesthetics, axiology, etc. Choosing ultimate v…Read more
-
1212Pain and the Ethics of Pain ManagementSocial Science and Medicine 18 (6): 515-523. 1984.In this article I clarify the concepts of ‘pain’, ‘suffering’. ‘pains of body’, ‘pains of soul’. I explore the relevance of an ethic to the clinical setting which gives patients a strong prima facie right to freedom from unnecessary and unwanted pain and which places upon medical professionals two concomitant moral obligations to patients. First, there is the duty not to inflict pain and suffering beyond what is necessary for effective diagnosis. treatment and research. Next, there is the duty t…Read more
-
569The Knowledge of Good: Critique of Axiological Reason (edited book)BRILL. 2002.This book presents Robert S. Hartman’s formal theory of value and critically examines many other twentieth century value theorists in its light, including A.J. Ayer, Kurt Baier, Brand Blanshard, Paul Edwards, Albert Einstein, William K. Frankena, R.M. Hare, Nicolai Hartmann, Martin Heidegger, G.E. Moore, P.H. Nowell-Smith, Jose Ortega y Gasset, Charles Stevenson, Paul W. Taylor, Stephen E. Toulmin, and J.O. Urmson.
-
311Existential experience, and limiting questions and answersInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 4 (2). 1973.This article critically examines the positions taken by Stephen E. Toulmin, Robert C. Coburn, and and Gordon D. Kaufman on existential experience and limiting questions and answers.
-
6330The principle of utility and mill's minimizing utilitarianismJournal of Value Inquiry 20 (2): 125-136. 1986.Formulations of Mill's principle of utility are examined, and it is shown that Mill did not recognize a moral obligation to maximize the good, as is often assumed. His was neither a maximizing act nor rule utilitarianism. It was a distinctive minimizing utilitarianism which morally obligates us only to abstain from inflicting harm, to prevent harm, to provide for others minimal essentials of well being (to which rights correspond), and to be occasionally charitable or benevolent
-
24A response to 'on being "mentally healthy"'Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 8 (2): 199-202. 1983.
Emory University
PhD, 1962
APA Eastern Division
Knoxville, Tennessee, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
2 more
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Mind |
Philosophy of Religion |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Value Theory |
Areas of Interest
1 more
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Religion |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Value Theory |