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20Incarnational AnthropologyIn David Cockburn (ed.), Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, Cambridge University Press. pp. 191-211. 1991.This essay is concerned with the drift of recent analytical philosophy of mind away from the view of persons as unified subjects of thought and action--human beings as rational animals--towards various forms of dualism (including materialist dualism) and eliminativism. It raises the question what view of persons would be able to accommodate (even if only as a hypothesis) the idea that human beings are images of God and that God took on a human nature in the person of Jesus Christ? The reply is i…Read more
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72Philosophy, the restless heart and the meaning of theismRatio 19 (4). 2006.There is a common philosophical challenge that asks how things would be different if some supposed reality did not exist. Conceived in one way this can amount to trial by sensory verification. Even if that challenge is dismissible, however, the question of the relation of the purported reality to experience remains. Writing here in connection with the central claims, and human significance, of theism; and drawing on ideas suggested by C. S. Pierce, C. S. Lewis, Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aqui…Read more
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48The Metaphysics of Intellect(ion)Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 80 39-55. 2006.In the heyday of conceptual analysis philosophical psychology was practised without regard to the ontology of mind as that was associated with disputes between materialism and non-materialism. The rise of functionalism, however, led philosophical psychology in the direction of materialism, though with a residue deriving from phenomenal consciousness. This is now widely viewed as ‘the hard problem’ for physicalism and probably an insuperable one for it, raising the spectre of epiphenomenalism. I …Read more
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42Philosophy and Public Affairs (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2000.This collection of essays derives from a conference sponsored by the Royal Institute of Philosophy and the Centre of Philosophy and Public Affairs at the University of St Andrews. It brings together a number of prominent academics from the fields of philosophy and political theory along with politicians and social commentators. The subjects covered include liberalism, education, welfare policy, religion, art and culture, and cloning. The mix of contributors and the topicality of the subject matt…Read more
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31The Examined Death and the Hope of the FutureProceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 74 245-257. 2000.
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24Editorial introduction: Scholasticism--old and newPhilosophical Quarterly 44 (173): 403-411. 1994.
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19Political theory and the nature of persons: An ineliminable metaphysical presuppositionPhilosophical Papers 20 (2): 77-95. 1991.No abstract
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21Brentano's ProblemGrazer Philosophische Studien 35 (1): 1-32. 1989.Contemporary writers often refer to 'Brentano's Problem' meaning by this the issue of whether all intentional phenomena can be accounted for in terms of a materialist ontology. This, however, was not the problem of intentionaUty which concerned Brentano himself. Rather, the difficulty which he identified is that of how to explain the very contentfulness of mental states, and in particular their apparently relational character. This essay explores something of Brentano's own views on this issue a…Read more
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10Sentiments of Reason and Aspiration of the SoulLogos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 7 (3): 31-46. 2004.
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164A return to form in the philosophy of mindRatio 11 (3): 253-277. 1998.In recent decades philosophy of mind has undergone a number of important transformations. In the first part of this essay I review a survey of the subject provided by Daniel Dennett some twenty years ago and consider the current state of affairs. Notwithstanding the rise of physicalist causal theories, the field now displays a degree of diversity that suggests disarray. In the second part of the essay I examine three central issues: the nature of persons, of thought, and of action, and present a…Read more
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72Rational and Other AnimalsRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 41 17-28. 1996.The soul has two cognitive powers. One is the act of a corporeal organ, which naturally knows things existing in individual matter; hence sense knows only the singular. But there is another kind of power called the intellect. Though natures only exist in individual matter, the intellectual power knows them not as individualised, but as they are abstracted from matter by the intellect's attention and reflection. Thus, through the intellect we can understand natures in a universal manner; and this…Read more
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16The Heart: An Analysis of Human and Divine AffectationSt. Augustine's Press. 2007.This new edition of The Heart is the flagship volume in a series of Dietrich von Hildebrand's works to be published by St. Augustine's Press in collaboration with the Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project. Founded in 2004, the Legacy Project exists in the first place to translate the many German writings of von Hildebrand into English. While many revere von Hildebrand as a religious author, few realize that he was a philosopher of great stature and importance. Those who knew von Hildebrand as p…Read more
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4An Intelligent Person's Guide to ReligionBloomsbury Academic. 2003.This polemical book argues that philosophy's silencing of religion as irrational thinking is wrong and that only religion can offer cogent answers when it comes to understanding life.
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28The Life of SignsReview of Metaphysics 47 (3). 1994.IN HIS COMMENTARY on Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, Garth Hallett records Wittgenstein's extensive reading of Augustine's Confessions. By contrast, he remarks that Wittgenstein never read anything of Aristotle. However, he also reports Rush Rhees as saying that at the time of his death Wittgenstein had in his possession the first two volumes of a German-Latin edition of Aquinas's Summa Theologiae, containing questions 1-26 of the Prima Pars. Question 13 concerns the Divine Names, t…Read more
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Education, Values and Culture the Victor Cook Memorial Lectures Delivered in the University of St. Andrews and King's College, University of LondonUniversity of St. Andrews Centre for Philosophy and Public Affairs. 1992.
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69Atheism and TheismPhilosophical Review 107 (3): 462. 1998.In this volume, the sixth in Blackwell's Great Debates in Philosophy series, Smart and Haldane discuss the case for and against religious belief. The debate is unusual in beginning with the negative side. After a short jointly authored introduction, there is a fairly extended presentation of the atheist position by Smart. Haldane then offers an equally extended defense of theism. The authors respond to one another in the same order, and the book concludes with a brief co-authored treatment of an…Read more
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Folk Psychology and the Explanation of Human BehaviourAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 62 209-254. 1988.