-
25"Exists" and St. Anselm's ArgumentGrazer Philosophische Studien 3 (1): 59-70. 1977.This paper examines interpretations of the doctrine that "exists" is not a predicate (existence is not a property). None, it is concluded, is both true and a refutation of St. Anselm's "ontological" argument for the existence of God.
-
14The Religious Significance of the Ontological ArgumentReligious Studies 11 (1). 1975.I discuss the religious implications of accepting the ontological argument as sound. in particular, i attempt to show in detail how the argument fails to validate religious belief
-
52Creation and EvolutionReligious Studies 32 (3). 1996.I defend the coherence of Theistic Evolutionism, though I do not present any direct argument for either theism or (broadly Darwinian) evolution. I distinguish between evolution as a scientific theory, however well established, and evolutionism as a religion or ideology. I argue that the confusion between the two senses of evolutionism is bad for both biology and religion, and conclude by suggesting that, in Irving Kristol's words, 'our goal should be to have biology and evolution taught in a way…Read more
-
15A fallacious argument against moral absolutesArgumentation 9 (4): 611-616. 1995.The denial of moral absolutes rests, I think, on a seductive but fallacious argument, which I shall attempt both to expound and to refute here. Human beings are highly complex creatures living in a highly complex world. Every human being is different from every other, every interaction or relationship between or among human beings is unique. Hence also every occasion for moral choice is also unique, and all those action kinds - be theyadultery, murder, rape, theft, ortorture on which moralists a…Read more
-
138Abortion and Infanticide By Michael Tooley Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983, 441 pp., £20.00 (review)Philosophy 59 (230): 545-. 1984.
-
The species principle and the potential principleBioethics: Readings and Cases. New Jersey, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall Inc. forthcoming.
-
2Abortion and Infanticide By Michael Tooley Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983, 441 pp., £20.00 (review)Philosophy 59 (230): 545-547. 1984.
-
43Sex and Gender: A Spectrum of ViewsWadsworth Publishing. 2003.SEX AND GENDER: A SPECTRUM OF VIEWS provides a medium for discussion and debate about today's most provocative issues concerning human sexuality and the relationships between masculinity and femininity. Including a spectrum of views that ranges from the stridently conservative to the progressively feminist, this anthology engages students in these subjects using a wider range of standpoints than is typical of such readers.
-
79Letters to the EditorProceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 65 (7). 1992.
-
10Natural law ethicsGreenwood Press. 1999.Presents a contemporary version of the natural law tradition as a valid approach to ethical problems.
-
75What’s Wrong with Torture?International Philosophical Quarterly 49 (3): 317-332. 2009.Many of us want to say that there is an absolute—or at least a virtually absolute—prohibition on torturing people. But we live in a world in which firm moral restraints of all sorts are hard to defend. Neither contemporary conventional morality, nor any of the available moral theories, provides adequate support for the deliverances of the “wisdom of repugnance” in this area. Nor do they support casuistry capable of distinguishing torture from (sometimes legitimate) forms of rough treatment. I he…Read more
-
20The Religious Significance of the Ontological Argument: PHILIP E.DEVINEReligious Studies 11 (1): 97-116. 1975.It seems clear that the ontological argument can no longer be dismissed as a silly fallacy. The dogma of the impossibility of necessary existence is seriously threatened by the case of necessary existential truths in mathematics, and as for the claim that the ontological argument must beg the question, since by mentioning God in the premise his existence is presupposed, it is undermined by the fact that we often refer to things—Hamlet for instance— we do not for a moment think exist. The doctrin…Read more
-
80Creation and Evolution: PHILIP E. DEVINEReligious Studies 32 (3): 325-337. 1996.Despite the bad reputation of the legal profession, law remains king in America. A highly diverse society relies on the laws to maintain a working sense of the dignity and inviability of each individual. And a persistent element in contemporary debates is the fear that naturalistic theories of the human person will erode our belief that we have a dignity greater than that of other natural objects. Thus the endurance of the creation vs. evolution debate is due less to the arguments of creationist…Read more
-
16The Evidential Force of Religious Experience (review)Review of Metaphysics 44 (2): 419-420. 1990.Caroline Franks Davis here undertakes an assessment of the value of religious experiences as evidence for religious beliefs. She distinguishes this question from that of the veridical character of particular experiences or their value for the person undergoing them or his community. She attends both to the phenomenological variety of religious experiences and the variety of cultural settings in which they take place. She concludes that religious experience can form an important part of the case …Read more
-
131
-
81The Moral Basis of VegetarianismPhilosophy 53 (206): 481-505. 1978.If someone abstains from meat-eating for reasons of taste or personal economics, no moral or philosophical question arises. But when a vegetarian attempts to persuade others that they, too, should adopt his diet, then what he says requires philosophical attention. While a vegetarian might argue in any number of ways, this essay will be concerned only with the argument for a vegetarian diet resting on a moral objection to the rearing and killing of animals for the human table. The vegetarian, in …Read more
-
15
Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Law |
Philosophy of Religion |
Areas of Interest
Social and Political Philosophy |
Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality |