-
345Time Travelers Are Not FreeJournal of Philosophy 112 (5): 266-279. 2015.In this paper I defend two conclusions: that time travel journeys to the past are not undertaken freely and, more generally, that nobody is free between the earliest arrival time and the latest departure time of a time travel journey to the past. Time travel to the past destroys freedom on a global scale.
-
1423Presentism and Ockham's Way OutOxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion 1 1-17. 2008.We lay out the fatalist’s argument, making sure to clarify which dialectical moves are available to the libertarian. We then offer a more robust presentation of Ockhamism, responding to obvious objections and teasing out the implications of the view. At this point, we discuss presentism and eternalism in more detail. We then present our argument for the claim that the libertarian cannot take Ockham’s way out of the fatalism argument unless she rejects presentism. Finally, we consider and dispens…Read more
-
151Supervenience and Co-LocationAmerican Philosophical Quarterly 34 (3). 1997.Co-location is compatible with the doctrine of microphysical supervenience. Microphysical supervenience involves intrinsic qualitative properties that supervene on microphysical structures. Two different objects, such as Socrates and the lump of tissue of which he is constituted, can be co-located objects that supervene on different sets of properties. Some of the properties are shared, but others, such as the human-determining properties or the lump-determining properties, supervene only on one…Read more
-
90Religion, philosophy ofRoutledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2015.Philosophy of religion comprises philosophical reflection on a wide range of religious and religiously significant phenomena: religious belief, doctrine and practice in general; the phenomenology and cognitive significance of religious experience; the authority and reliability of religious testimony; the significance of religious diversity and disagreement; the relationship between religion (or God, or the gods) and morality; the doctrines, practices and modes of cognition distinctive to particu…Read more
-
73Oxford Readings in Philosophical Theology: Volume 1: Trinity, Incarnation, and Atonement (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2009.Over the past sixty years, within the analytic tradition of philosophy, there has been a significant revival of interest in the philosophy of religion. More recently, philosophers of religion have turned in a more self-consciously interdisciplinary direction, with special focus on topics that have traditionally been the provenance of systematic theologians in the Christian tradition. The present volumes Oxford Readings in Philosophical Theology, volumes 1 and 2 aim to bring together some of the …Read more
-
34ParmenidesIn W. C. Campbell-Jack, Gavin J. McGrath & Stephen Evans (eds.), New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics, Intervarsity Press. pp. 533-534. 2006.
-
34Alvin PlantingaIn Donald M. Borchert (ed.), Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Macmillan Reference. pp. 579-581. 2005.
-
581In defense of mereological universalismPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 58 (2): 347-360. 1998.This paper defends Mereological Universalism(the thesis that, for any set S of disjoint objects, there is an object that the members of S compose. Universalism is unpalatable to many philosophers because it entails that if there are such things as my left tennis shoe, W. V. Quine, and the Taj Mahal, then there is another object that those three things compose. This paper presents and criticizes Peter van Inwagen's argument against Universalism and then presents a new argument in favor of Univers…Read more
-
262World without design: the ontological consequences of naturalismOxford University Press. 2002.Philosophical naturalism, according to which philosophy is continuous with the natural sciences, has dominated the Western academy for well over a century, but Michael Rea claims that it is without rational foundation. Rea argues compellingly to the surprising conclusion that naturalists are committed to rejecting realism about material objects, materialism, and perhaps realism about other minds.
-
235Review: Thomas Sattig: The Language and Reality of Time (review)Mind 117 (466): 511-515. 2008.Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were married on July 29, 2000 and divorced on October 2, 2005. If I correctly understand the position defended in Thomas Sattig’s The Language and Reality of Time, this fact implies that every instantaneous region of space occupied by Brad between those dates is married to some instantaneous region occupied by Jen. Yes, the regions are married, and they are distinct from Brad and Jen. Moreover, some of them are cheating on the regions to which they are married. To …Read more
-
552The problem of material constitutionPhilosophical Review 104 (4): 525-552. 1995.There are five individually plausible and jointly incompatible assumptions underlying four familiar puzzles about material constitution. The problem of material constitution just is the fact that these five assumptions are both plausible and incompatible. I will begin by providing a very general statement of the problem. I will present the five assumptions and provide a short argument showing how they conflict with one another. Then, in subsequent sections, I will go on to show how these assumpt…Read more
-
1371Theology Without Idolatry or ViolenceScottish Journal of Theology 68 (1): 61-79. 2015.Since the 1960s, metaphysics has flourished in Anglo-American philosophy. Far from wanting to avoid metaphysics, philosophers have embraced it in droves. There have been critics, to be sure; but the criticisms have received answers and the enterprise has carried on.
-
472Relative Identity and the Doctrine of the TrinityPhilosophia Christi 5 (2). 2003.The doctrine of the Trinity maintains that there are exactly three divine Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) but only one God. The philosophical problem raised by this doctrine is well known. On the one hand, the doctrine seems clearly to imply that the divine Persons are numerically distinct. How else could they be ’three’ rather than one? On the other hand, it seems to imply that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are identical. If each Person is divine, how else could there be exactly ’one’ God…Read more
-
189Philosophy of religion (edited book)Mayfield. 1987.Covering the major issues of the field succinctly and lucidly, this text takes an analytically rigorous approach and makes it accessible in presentation. Pojman writes from an impartial perspective, presenting various options and points of view while guiding students in their own search for truth over these often emotion-laden, crucial issues.
Notre Dame, Indiana, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
| Metaphysics |
| Philosophy of Religion |
Areas of Interest
| Metaphysics |
| Philosophy of Religion |
| Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality |