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25Perfection and modality: Charles Hartshorne's ontological proof (review)International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 7 (2). 1976.
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47Lucey's Agnosticism: The Believer's Reply (review)International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 18 (1/2). 1985.
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23The terrorism of 'terrorism'In James Sterba (ed.), Terrorism and International Justice, Oxford University Press. pp. 47--66. 2003.
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84Indexicality and self-awarenessIn Uriah Kriegel & Kenneth Williford (eds.), Self-Representational Approaches to Consciousness, Mit Press. pp. 379--408. 2006.Self-awareness is commonly expressed by means of indexical expressions, primarily, first- person pronouns like
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58The Incompatibility of Omniscience and Intentional Action: A Reply to David P. HuntReligious Studies 30 (1). 1994.In "Omniprescient Agency" (Religious Studies 28, 1992) David P. Hunt challenges an argument against the possibility of an omniscient agent. The argument—my own in "Agency and Omniscience" (Religious Studies 27, 1991)—assumes that an agent is a being capable of intentional action, where, minimally, an action is intentional only if it is caused, in part, by the agent's intending. The latter, I claimed, is governed by a psychological principle of "least effort," viz., that no one intends without an…Read more
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1314Evaluating ReligionIn Jonathan L. Kvanvig (ed.), Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion: Volume 2, Oxford University Press Uk. 2009.This paper examines the nature of religion. A definition of religion is proposed, and a major rival interpretation -- that of John Hick -- is examined and rejected. It is then explained how religions can be evaluated.
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142Self-Determination and International OrderThe Monist 89 (2): 356-370. 2006.Towards the end of the first world war, a “principle of self-determination” was proposed as a foundation for international order. In the words of its chief advocate, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, it specified that the “settlement of every question, whether of territory, of sovereignty, of economic arrangement, or of political relationship” is to be made “upon the basis of the free acceptance of that settlement by the people immediately concerned and not upon the basis of the material interest o…Read more
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4Castañeda: System, Substance, and StyleIn Adriano Palma (ed.), Castañeda and His Guises: Essays on the Work of Hector-Neri Castañeda, De Gruyter. pp. 47-66. 2014.
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31Quasi-indexical attitudesSorites 11 24-40. 1999.Indexicals are inevitably autobiographical, even when we are not talking about ourselves. For example, if you hear me say, "That portrait right there is beautiful," you can surmise not only that I ascribe beauty to an object of my immediate awareness but also something about my spatial relation to it. Again, if I praise you directly within earshot of others by using the words, "You did that very well!," my concern need not be to cause them to think the exact thought I have; they might not be in …Read more
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12According to Hector-Neri Castañeda, indexical reference is our most basic means of identifying the objects and events we experience and think about. Its tokens reveal our own part in the process by denoting what are "referred to as items present in experience" (Castañeda 1981, 285-6). If you hear me say, "Take that box over there and set it next to this box here," you learn something about my orientation towards the referents in a way that is not conveyed by, "Take the red box and set it next to…Read more
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I Terrorism & Counter-Terrorism/SemanticsIn Georg Meggle (ed.), Ethics of Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism, Ontos. pp. 3--9. 2005.
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6The Ontological Significance Of VariablesMetaphysica 3 (1). 2002.The use of single letters in displaying patterns, functions, generalizations, and unknowns, dominates mathematical expression, and for that reason, appears in every domain of theoretical and technical discourse employing even the slightest bit of mathematical language. These variables, as they have come to be called, are the very mark of abstract power and precision, ingenious tools for expressing functionality and valid formulae and, thereby, for providing solutions to types of problems as well…Read more
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94Ability and cognition: A defense of compatibilismPhilosophical Studies 63 (August): 231-43. 1991.The use of predicate and sentential operators to express the practical modalities -- ability, control, openness, etc. -- has given new life to a fatalistic argument against determinist theories of responsible agency. A familiar version employs the following principle: the consequences of what is unavoidable (beyond one's control) are themselves unavoidable. Accordingly, if determinism is true, whatever happens is the consequence of events in the remote past, or, of such events together with the …Read more
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1Terrorism, as a form of politically motivated violence, is as ancient as organized warfare itself, emerging as soon as one society, pitted against another in the quest for land, resources, or domination, was moved by a desire for vengeance or found advantages in military operations against noncombatants or other ‘soft’ targets. It is sanctioned and glorified in holy scriptures and has been part of the genesis of states and the expansion of empires from the inception of recorded history. The Unit…Read more
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49Devine on Defining ReligionFaith and Philosophy 6 (2): 207-214. 1989.Philip E. Devine has presented insightful proposals for defining religion in his essay “On the Definition of Religion” (Faith and Philosophy, July 1986). But despite his illuminating discussion, particularly the treatment of borderline cases, his account fails to distinguish religion as a process or goal-oriented activity from religion as a body of doctrine, and is mistaken (or perhaps unclear) in its proposal that religion per se is committed to the existence of superhuman agents. These deficie…Read more
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66Peirce and the autonomy of abductive reasoningErkenntnis 37 (1). 1992.Essential to Peirce's distinction among three kinds of reasoning, deduction, induction and abduction, is the claim that each is correlated to a unique species of validity irreducible to that of the others. In particular, abductive validity cannot be analyzed in either deductive or inductive terms, a consequence of considerable importance for the logical and epistemological scrutiny of scientific methods. But when the full structure of abductive argumentation — as viewed by the mature Peirce — is…Read more
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141The Ubiquity of Self-AwarenessGrazer Philosophische Studien 57 (1): 17-43. 1999.Two claims have been prominent in recent discussion of self-consciousness. One is that first-person reference or first-person thinking is irreducible {Irreducibility Thesis), and the other is that awareness of self accompanies at least all those conscious states through which one refers to something. The latter {Ubiquity Thesis) has long been associated with philosophers like Fichte, Brentano and Sartre, but recently variants have been defended by D. Henrich and M. Frank. Facing criticism from t…Read more
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124Agency and omniscienceReligious Studies 27 (1): 105-120. 1991.It is said that faith in a divine agent is partly an attitude of trust; believers typically find assurance in the conception of a divine being's will, and cherish confidence in its capacity to implement its intentions and plans. Yet, there would be little point in trusting in the will of any being without assuming its ability to both act and know, and perhaps it is only by assuming divine omniscience that one can retain the confidence in the efficacy and direction of divine agency that has long …Read more
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86I and you, he* and sheAnalysis 52 (2): 125-128. 1992.In 'You and She*' (ANALYSIS 51.3, June 1991) C.J.F. Williams notes the importance of reflexive pronouns in attributions of propositional attitudes, and claims to improve upon an earlier account of Hector-Neri Castaneda's in [1]. However, to the extent which his remarks are accurate, they reveal nothing that Castaneda hasn't already said, while insofar as they are new, they obliterate distinctions vital to Castaneda's theory. Castaneda called these pronouns quasi-indicators and noted that they fu…Read more
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27The Incompatibility of Omniscience and Intentional Action: A Reply to David P. Hunt: Tomis KapitanReligious Studies 30 (1): 55-66. 1994.In ‘Omniprescient Agency’ David P. Hunt challenges an argument against the possibility of an omniscient agent. The argument – my own in ‘Agency and Omniscience’ – assumes that an agent is a being capable of intentional action, where, minimally, an action is intentional only if it is caused, in part, by the agent's intending. The latter, I claimed, is governed by a psychological principle of ‘least effort’, namely, that no one intends without antecedently feeling that deliberate effort is needed …Read more
DeKalb, Illinois, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Action |
Philosophy of Language |
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Action |
Philosophy of Language |
Social and Political Philosophy |