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611The 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
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505The 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.
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827People 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
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19Moral Knowledge and Ethical Character (review)International Studies in Philosophy 35 (4): 145-146. 2003.
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528God 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
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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
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135Review 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.
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1939Formal 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
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1194Pain 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
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217On 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
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288Existential 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.
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538The 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.
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24A response to 'on being "mentally healthy"'Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 8 (2): 199-202. 1983.
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6275The 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
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426Whitehead's Theistic Metaphysics and AxiologyProcess Studies 45 (1): 5-32. 2016.This article explores and critically examines the concepts and value dimensions of God, process, creativity, eternal objects, and individuals in Whitehead's thought.
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198Public funding of abortions and abortion counseling for poor womenAdvances in Bioethics 2 303. 1997.This article tries to show that commonplace economic, ethico-religious, anti-racist,and logical-consistency objections to public funding of abortions and abortion counseling for poor women are quite weak. By contrast, arguments appealing to basic human rights to freedom of speech, informed consent, protection from great harm, justice and equal protection under the law, strongly support public funding. Thus, refusing to provide abortions at public expense for women who cannot afford them is moral…Read more
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612How Process Theology Can Affirm Creation Ex NihiloProcess Studies 29 (1): 77-96. 2000.Most process theologians have rejected the creation of the world out of nothing, holding that our universe was created out of some antecedent universe. This article shows how on process grounds, and with faithfulness to much of what Whitehead had to say, process theologians can and should affirm the creation of our universe out of nothing. Standard process objections to this are refuted.
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599Composition and the cosmological argumentMind 77 (305): 115-117. 1968.This article argues that not all arguments from parts to wholes commit the informal logical fallacy of composition,and especially not the cosmological argument for God which moves from the contingent existence of all the parts of the cosmos to the contingent existence of the whole.
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234The value of man in the Hartman value systemJournal of Value Inquiry 7 (2): 141-147. 1973.This article summarizes and critique’s Robert S. Hartman’s four alleged “proofs for the infinite value of man.” Each “proof” assumes that all individual human beings actually contain within themselves an infinite number of good-making properties, and that this accounts for the literal infinite worth of each. Hartman developed four variations on this central theme. This critique shows that none of his arguments are plausible and none succeed in “proving” their conclusion.
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17Analogies between nature and its partsInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 7 (2). 1976.
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347Process Thought and the Spaciness of MindProcess Studies 19 (3): 156-166. 1990.The process claim that matter is mentally infused and that mind or consciousness is spatially and temporally extended is explored. The views of Peirce, Whitehead, Hartshorne, Cobb, Ford and Griffin on the following questions are examined: If spacy, where are the occasions of human consciousness, how are they related to the brain, how large are they, and can they be externally perceived directly or with instruments? It is proposed that what is internally experienced as human consciousness is obje…Read more
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389On Being ‘Rational’ About NormsSouthern Journal of Philosophy 5 (3): 180-186. 1967.The theses of this paper i: I. that the attempt to found absolute norns on rationality presupposes the availability of a single universal absolute conception of rationality but that no such conception is available; and II. that 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 ul…Read more
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515Kraus’s Boethian Interpretation of Whitehead’s GodProcess Studies 11 (1): 30-34. 1981.The Metaphysics of Experience: Companion to Whitehead’s Process and Reality by Elizabeth M. Kraus develops very classical, Boethian, atemporal understanding of Whitehead’s God. Kraus contends that Whitehead intended “to infer that the divine actual world includes all actual worlds in unison of becoming” (p. 164). Her position is that even in his consequent nature, God coexists simultaneously and changelessly with the entire past, present, and future of every occasion in every world or cosmic epo…Read more
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114Review of Freedom and Value (review)International Studies in Philosophy 10 219-221. 1978.This is a review of Robert O. Johann, ed., Freedom and Value, 1976 which consists of nine essays written by members of the Department of Philosophy at Fordham University. These deal with the nature and value of human freedom and its relations with other human values.
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25The New Science of Axiological PsychologyRodopi. 2005.This book uses scientific validity measures to create empirical value science and a normative new science of axiological psychology by integrating cognitive psychology with Robert S. Hartman’s formal theory of axiological science. It reveals a scientific way to identify and rank human values, achieving values appreciation, values clarification, and values measurement for the twenty first century. Rem B. Edwards edited it for publication, but its author is Leon Pomeroy.
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 |