University of Otago
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 1987
Acton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
  •  172
    Musical unity and sentential unity
    British Journal of Aesthetics 39 (2): 97-111. 1999.
  •  316
    Tolstoy, Death and the Meaning of Life
    Philosophy 60 (232): 231-245. 1985.
    Questions about the meaning of life have traditionally been regarded as being of particular concern to philosophers. It is sometimes complained that contemporary analytic philosophy fails to address such questions, but there do exist illuminating recent discussions of these questions by analytic philosophers.1Perhaps what lurks behind the complaint is a feeling that these discussions are insufficiently close to actual living situations and hence often seem rather thin and bland compared with the…Read more
  •  260
    Ineffability, signification and the meaning of life
    Philosophical Papers 39 (2): 239-255. 2010.
    There is an apparent tension between two familiar platitudes about the meaning of life: (i) that 'meaning' in this context means 'value', and (ii) that such meaning might be ineffable. I suggest a way of trying to bring these two claims together by focusing on an ideal of a meaningful life that fuses both the axiological and semantic senses of 'significant'. This in turn allows for the possibility that the full significance of a life might be ineffable not because its axiological significance is…Read more
  •  134
  •  157
    Our present actions can have effects on future generations - affecting not only the environment they will inherit, but even perhaps their very existence. This raises a number of important moral issues, many of which have only recently received serious philosophical attention. I begin by discussing some contemporary Western philosophical perspectives on the problem of our obligations to future generations, and then go on to consider how these approaches might relate to the classical Indian philos…Read more
  •  103
    Book Note (review)
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 92 (1): 211-212. 2014.
    No abstract
  •  93
    Taking life and the argument from potentiality
    Midwest Studies in Philosophy 24 (1). 2000.
  •  134
    Rebirth
    Religious Studies 23 (1). 1987.
    Traditional Western conceptions of immortality characteristically presume that we come into existence at a particular time , live out our earthly span and then die. According to some, our death may then be followed by a deathless post-mortem existence. In other words, it is assumed that we are born only once and die only once; and that – at least on some accounts – we are future-sempiternal creatures. The Western secular tradition affirms at least ; the Western religious tradition – Christianity…Read more
  •  32
    Logic and philosophy of language (edited book)
    Garland. 2001.
    This anthology examines Love's Labours Lost from a variety of perspectives and through a wide range of materials. Selections discuss the play in terms of historical context, dating, and sources; character analysis; comic elements and verbal conceits; evidence of authorship; performance analysis; and feminist interpretations. Alongside theater reviews, production photographs, and critical commentary, the volume also includes essays written by practicing theater artists who have worked on the play…Read more
  •  74
    The Philosopher as Writer: The Eighteenth Century (review)
    Philosophy and Literature 13 (2): 378-379. 1989.
  •  34
    Indian philosophy: a collection of readings (edited book)
    Garland. 2001.
    1. Epistemology -- 2. Logic and philosophy of language -- 3. Metaphysics -- 4. Philosophy of religion -- 5. Theory of value.
  •  148
    The problem of induction in indian philosophy
    Philosophy East and West 34 (2): 161-174. 1984.
  •  118
    Dualistic and nondualistic problems of immortality
    Philosophy East and West 35 (4): 333-350. 1985.
  •  101
    A note on the navya-nyāya account of number
    Journal of Indian Philosophy 13 (3): 227-234. 1985.
  •  81
    Solipsism and religious belief
    Sophia 20 (3): 17-26. 1981.
    In "arguments for the existence of god" and "faith and knowledge", john hick argues for the rationality of religious belief on the basis of an analogy between religious and perceptual belief. i reply that the analogy does not obtain because there is no alternative solipsistic interpretation of perceptual belief possible. this is because (a) hick's phenomenology of dreaming is unsatisfactory and (b) wittgenstein's "private language" argument shows solipsism to be an unintelligible option