-
68Who wants to be a saint?Think 15 (42): 105-116. 2016.Susan Wolf famously argued that a saintly life would be. It would mean neglecting many activities that make human life worthwhile. But her argument assumes that our moral duties are simply duties to others, that a perfectly moral person would always act selflessly. It may be, however, that we also have duties to ourselves, which include the cultivation of so-called virtues. On this view, morality is pervasive, relating to all features of a human life, and has architectonic status, being capable …Read more
-
819In defense of naturalismInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 70 (1): 3-25. 2011.History and the modern sciences are characterized by what is sometimes called a methodological naturalism that disregards talk of divine agency. Some religious thinkers argue that this reflects a dogmatic materialism: a non-negotiable and a priori commitment to a materialist metaphysics. In response to this charge, I make a sharp distinction between procedural requirements and metaphysical commitments. The procedural requirement of history and the sciences—that proposed explanations appeal to pu…Read more
-
565Justified Believing:Avoiding the ParadoxIn James Maclaurin (ed.), Rationis Defensor: Essays in Honour of Colin Cheyne, Springer. 2012.Colin Cheyne has argued that under certain circumstances an internalist or deontological theory of epistemic justification will give rise to a paradox. The paradox, he argues, arises when a principle of epistemic justification is both justifiably believed (in terms of the theory) and false. To avoid this paradox, Cheyne recommends abandoning the principle of justification-transference, which states that acts of believing made on the basis of a justifiably-believed principle are themselves justif…Read more
Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Religion |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |