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2``Disagreement and Reflective Ascent"In Jennifer Lackey (ed.), New Essays on Disagreement, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2012.
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2Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion Volume 4 (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2012.Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion is an annual volume offering a regular snapshot of state-of-the-art work in this longstanding area of philosophy that has seen an explosive growth of interest over the past half century.
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1``Scientific Naturalism and the Value of Knowledge"In Thomas M. Crisp, Matthew Davidson & David Vander Laan (eds.), Knowledge and Reality: Essays in Honor of Alvin Plantinga, Springer. pp. 193-214. 2006.
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1``Infinitism, Holism, and the Regress Argument"In Peter Klein & John Turri (eds.), Infinitism, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2012.
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1``Divine Hiddenness: What is the Problem?"In Daniel Howard-Snyder & Paul Moser (eds.), Divine Hiddenness: New Essays, Cambridge University Press. pp. 149-163. 2001.
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1``The Epistemic Paradoxes"In Edward Craig (ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Genealogy to Iqbal, Routledge. 1998.
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1``Precìs of T he Value of Knowledge and the Pursuit of Understanding "In Adrian Haddock, Alan Millar & Duncan Pritchard (eds.), Epistemic Value, Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 309-313. 2009.Reflection on the issues surrounding the value of knowledge and other cognitive states of interest to epistemologists can be traced to the conversation between Socrates and Meno in Plato’s dialogue named after the latter. The context of discussion concerns the hiring of a guide to get one to Larissa, and the proposal on the table is that one would want a guide who knows the way. Socrates sees a problem, however, for it is not clear why a guide with merely true opinion will not be just as good.
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1``Divine Conservation and the Persistence of the World"In Thomas V. Morris (ed.), Divine and Human Action: Essays in the Metaphysics of Theism, Cornell University Press. pp. 13-49. 1988.
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``The Value of Knowledge and Truth"In D. M. Borchert (ed.), Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Macmillan Reference Books. 2006.
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Philosophical reflection concerning heaven and hell has focused on the place of such doctrines in the great monotheistic religions emanating from the religion of the ancient people of Israel--Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. The philosophical issues that arise concerning these doctrines is not limited to such traditions, however. Consider, for example, the doctrine of hell. Any religion promises certain benefits to its adherents, and these benefits require some contrast that befalls, or might b…Read more
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``Restriction Strategies for Knowability: Lessons in False Hope"In Joseph Salerno (ed.), New Essays on Knowability, Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 205-222. 2009.
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Epistemic normativityIn Clayton Littlejohn & John Turri (eds.), Epistemic Norms: New Essays on Action, Belief, and Assertion, Oxford University Press. 2013.
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I came to epistemology through an interest in the concept of rationality, and especially through the attacks on the rationality of religious believers. My thoughts at the time focused on the disappointing quality of the arguments for and against religious belief, and I recall being astonished at the time that philosophers capable of such penetrating insight in other areas had nothing that seemed either penetrating or original. The defenders sounded too much like mere apologists for the faith, an…Read more
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``Epistemic Justification"In Sven Bernecker & Duncan Pritchard (eds.), Routledge Companion to Epistemology, Routledge. 2010.
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``Plantinga's Proper Function Theory of Warrant"In Warrant and Contemporary Epistemology, Savage, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield. pp. 281-306. 1996.
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The four primary epistemic paradoxes are the lottery, preface, knowability, and surprise examination paradoxes. The lottery paradox begins by imagining a fair lottery with a thousand tickets in it. Each ticket is so unlikely to win that we are justified in believing that it will lose.
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Responses to CriticsIn Adrian Haddock, Alan Millar & Duncan Pritchard (eds.), Epistemic value, Oxford University Press. 2009.I begin by expressing my sincere thanks to my critics for taking time from their own impressive projects in epistemology to consider mine. Often, in reading their criticisms, I had the feeling of having received more help than I really wanted! But the truth of the matter is that we learn best by making mistakes, and I appreciate the conscientious attention to my work that my critics have shown
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``Heaven and Hell"In Philip L. Quinn & Charles Taliaferro (eds.), A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 562-568. 1997.
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Responses to CriticsIn Adrian Haddock, Alan Millar & Duncan Pritchard (eds.), Epistemic Value, Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 339-353. 2009.I begin by expressing my sincere thanks to my critics for taking time from their own impressive projects in epistemology to consider mine. Often, in reading their criticisms, I had the feeling of having received more help than I really wanted! But the truth of the matter is that we learn best by making mistakes, and I appreciate the conscientious attention to my work that my critics have shown
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The valueof know ledgeis external to itIn Duncan Pritchard & Ram Neta (eds.), Arguing About Knowledge, Routledge. pp. 37. 2008.
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The Swamping Problem is one of the central problems in the new valuedriven approach to epistemology that has arisen recently. Issues concerning epistemic value, however, are not new. We can find them first in Plato’s dialogue Meno, where Socrates and Meno have a discussion about what type of guide one should prefer if one wants to get to Larissa. The first suggestion is that one should want a guide who knows the way, but Socrates notes that a guide with true opinions will work just as well. Meno…Read more
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Unknowable Truths and the Doctrine of OmniscienceJournal of the American Academy of Religion 57 485-507. 1989.THE DOCTRINE OF omniscience has been understood in two ways. Roughly, it has been taken either as the claim that God knows all that is true (Geach, Kvanvig 1986) or as the claim that God knows all that can be known (Swinbume; Mavrodes). The first construal I shall call the traditional construal, and the second I shall call a limited construal. Though the traditional construal would seem to be the natural one to hold, considerations of the analogy between the best construals of the doctrine of om…Read more
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Theoretical Unity in EpistemologyIn Cherie Braden, Rodrigo Borges & Branden Fitelson (eds.), Themes From Klein, Springer Verlag. 2019.
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Every religion offers both hope and fear. They offer hope in virtue of the benefits promised to adherents, and fear in virtue of costs incurred by adversaries. In traditional Christianity, the costs incurred are expressed in terms of the doctrine of hell, according to which each person consigned to hell receives the same infinite punishment. This strong view of hell involves four distinct theses. First, it maintains that those in hell exist forever in that state (the Existence Thesis) and that a…Read more
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``Truth-Tracking and the Value of Knowledge"In Kelly Becker (ed.), New Essays on Sensitivity and Knowledge, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2012.
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Areas of Specialization
Epistemology |
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Language |
Philosophy of Religion |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |