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195John Foster the divine lawmakerBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 60 (2): 453-457. 2009.
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195Truthmakers: The Contemporary Debate (edited book)Clarendon Press. 2005.This volume will be the starting point for future discussion and research.
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185Metaphysics: The Key ConceptsRoutledge. 2010._‘Informative, accessible, and fun to read— this is an excellent reference guide for undergraduates and anyone wanting an introduction to the fundamental issues of metaphysics. I know of no other resource like it.’– __Meghan Griffith, Davidson College, USA_ _'Marvellous! This book provides the very best place to start for students wanting to take the first step into understanding metaphysics.Undergraduates would do well to buy it and consult it regularly. The quality and clarity of the material …Read more
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179Chance-changing causal processesIn Phil Dowe & Paul Noordhof (eds.), Cause and Chance, Routledge. pp. 39-57. 2003.Scepticism concerning the idea of causation being linked to contingent chance-raising is articulated in Beebee’s challenging chapter. She suggests that none of these approaches will avoid the consequence that spraying defoliant on a weed is a cause of the weed’s subsequent health. We will always be able to abstract away enough of the healthy plant processes so all that’s left is the causal chain involving defoliation and health. In those circumstances, there will be contingent chance-raising. Be…Read more
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174Hume. Metaphysics and Epistemology (edited book)mentis. 2010.The articles in this special issue of the yearbook Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy all concern, in one way or another, Hume’s epistemology and metaphysics. There are discussions of our knowledge of causal powers, the extent to which conceivability is a guide to modality, and testimony; there are also discussions of our ideas of space and time, the role in Hume’s thought of the psychological mechanism of ‘completing the union’, the role of impressions, and Hume’s argument against the …Read more
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164Hume’s impact on causationThe Philosophers' Magazine 54 (54): 75-79. 2011.Many philosophers came to regard “causation” as an illegitimate pseudo-concept. This was a dominant view in analytic philosophy until quite late in the twentieth century. Russell famously quipped that “the law of causality” was “a relic of a bygone age, surviving, like the monarchy, only because it is erroneously supposed to do no harm”.
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131Making a Difference: Essays on the Philosophy of Causation (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2017.Making a Difference presents fifteen original essays on causation and counterfactuals by an international team of experts. Collectively, they represent the state of the art on these topics. The essays in this volume are inspired by the life and work of Peter Menzies, who made a difference in the lives of students, colleagues, and friends. Topics covered include: the semantics of counterfactuals, agency theories of causation, the context-sensitivity of causal claims, structural equation models, m…Read more
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89Causation and Free Will, by Carolina Sartorio: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. viii + 188, £35 (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 96 (1): 207-208. 2018.
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83Nihil Obstat: Lewis’s Compatibilist Account of AbilitiesThe Monist 103 (3): 245-261. 2020.In an outline of a paper found amongst his philosophical papers and correspondence after his untimely death in 2001—“Nihil Obstat: An Analysis of Ability,” reproduced in this volume—David Lewis sketched a new compatibilist account of abilities, according to which someone is able to A if and only if there is no obstacle to their A-ing, where an obstacle is a ‘robust preventer’ of their A-ing. In this paper, we provide some background context for Lewis’s outline, a section-by-section commentary, a…Read more
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70Free Will: An IntroductionPalgrave Macmillan. 2013.This comprehensive introductory guide includes discussion of the major contemporary positions on compatibilism and incompatibilism, and of the central arguments that are a focus of the current debate, including the Consequence Argument, manipulation arguments, and Frankfurt's famous argument against the 'Principle of Alternate Possibilities.
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67Reply to Strawson:'David Hume: Objects and Power'In Stewart Duncan & Antonia LoLordo (eds.), Debates in Modern Philosophy: Essential Readings and Contemporary Responses, Routledge. pp. 242. 2013.
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65Review. Causation & Persistence: A Theory of Causation. D Ehring (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (1): 181-184. 1998.
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64Philosophical Letters of David K. Lewis: Volume 1: Causation, Modality, Ontology (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2020.The life-long correspondence of David K. Lewis, one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, reveals the development, breadth, and depth of his philosophy in its historical context. The first of this two volume collection of letters focuses on his contributions to metaphysics, arguably where he made his greatest impact.
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60How to Carve Nature Across the Joints Without Abandoning Kripke-Putnam SemanticsIn Stephen Mumford & Matthew Tugby (eds.), Metaphysics and Science, Oxford University Press. pp. 141-163. 2013.‘Natural kind essentialism’—here defined as the view that (i) the existence of natural kinds is a mind- and theory-independent matter, (ii) their essences are intrinsic, and (iii) they have a hierarchical structure—is commonly thought to be justified by appeal to Kripke–Putnam semantics, according to which propositions like ‘water is H20’ are necessary a posteriori. This chapter argues that the Kripke–Putnam semantics is in fact compatible with the denial of each of the three tenets of natural k…Read more
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51Causal Contribution in WarJournal of Applied Philosophy 37 (3): 364-377. 2020.Revisionist approaches to the ethics of war seem to imply that civilians on the unjust side of a conflict can be legitimate targets of defensive attack. In response, some authors have argued that although civilians do often causally contribute to unjustified global threats – by voting for war, writing propaganda articles, or manufacturing munitions, for example – their contributions are usually too ‘small’, or ‘remote’, to make them liable to be intentionally killed to avert the threat. What def…Read more
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50In Defence of Different VoicesSymposion: Theoretical and Applied Inquiries in Philosophy and Social Sciences 7 (2): 149-177. 2020.Louise Antony draws a now well-known distinction between two explanatory models for researching and addressing the issue of women’s underrepresentation in philosophy – the ‘Different Voices’ (DV) and ‘Perfect Storm’ (PS) models – and argues that, in view of PS’s considerably higher social value, DV should be abandoned. We argue that Antony misunderstands the feminist framework that she takes to underpin DV, and we reconceptualise DV in a way that aligns with a proper understanding of the metaphi…Read more
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47Review of Skyrms & Eells (eds.), Probabilities & Conditionals (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (1): 181-184. 1998.
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45Philosophical Letters of David K. Lewis: Volume 2: Mind, Language, Epistemology (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2020.The life-long correspondence of David K. Lewis, one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, reveals the development, breadth, and depth of his philosophy in its historical context. The second of this two volume collection focuses on his contributions to philosophical questions of language, mind, and epistemology.
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44Diversity in PhilosophySymposion: Theoretical and Applied Inquiries in Philosophy and Social Sciences 7 (2): 113-116. 2020.
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41Counterfactual Dependence and Broken Barometers: A Response to Flichman’s ArgumentCritica 29 (86): 107-119. 1997.
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37The Semantics and Metaphysics of Natural Kinds (edited book)Routledge. 2010.Essentialism--roughly, the view that natural kinds have discrete essences, generating truths that are necessary but knowable only _a posteriori_--is an increasingly popular view in the metaphysics of science. At the same time, philosophers of language have been subjecting Kripke’s views about the existence and scope of the necessary _a posteriori_ to rigorous analysis and criticism. Essentialists typically appeal to Kripkean semantics to motivate their radical extension of the realm of the neces…Read more
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37Reading Metaphysics: Selected Texts with Interactive Commentary (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2007.This collection brings together key contemporary texts in metaphysics and features an interactive commentary which helps readers engage the texts critically and to use them to develop their own views. Each text is followed by a detailed commentary, setting it in context Includes questions designed to help readers think hard about what the author is saying and why, to think of objections, and to formulate his or her own views Aims to improve the reader’s ability to engage critically with philosop…Read more
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