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The extended mind in ontological entanglementsIn Anna Marmodoro & Jonathan Hill (eds.), The Metaphysics of the Incarnation, Oxford University Press. 2011.
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112The Senses and the History of Philosophy (edited book)Routledge. 2019.The study of perception and the role of the senses have recently risen to prominence in philosophy and are now a major area of study and research. However, the philosophical history of the senses remains a relatively neglected subject. Moving beyond the current philosophical canon, this outstanding collection offers a wide-ranging and diverse philosophical exploration of the senses, from the classical period to the present day. Written by a team of international contributors, it is divided into …Read more
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483Gregory of Nyssa on the creation of the worldIn Anna Marmodoro & Brian D. Prince (eds.), Causation and Creation in Late Antiquity, Cambridge University Press. pp. 94-110. 2015.
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279Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671, by Robert Pasnau: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. xiv + 796, £80 (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 91 (2): 416-419. 2013.
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396The Metaphysics of Relations (edited book)Oxford University Press UK. 2016.Fifteen philosophers offer new essays exploring the metaphysics of relations from antiquity to the present day. They address topics as diverse as ancient and medieval reasons for scepticism about polyadic properties; recent attempts to reduce causal and spatiotemporal relations; recent work on the directionality of relational properties; powers ontologies and their associated problems; whether the most promising interpretations of quantum mechanics posit a fundamentally relational world; and whe…Read more
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38Aquinas on the Metaphysics of the Hypostatic Union, by Michael GormanFaith and Philosophy 35 (2): 261-264. 2018.
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46Stoic BlendsProceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 32 (1): 1-24. 2017.The Stoics’ guiding principle in ontology is the Eleatic principle. Their existents are bodies that have the power to act and be acted upon. They account both for the constitution of material objects and the causal interactions among them in terms of such dynamic bodies. Blending is the physical mechanism that explains both constitution and causation; and is facilitated by the fact that for the Stoics all bodies exist as unlimited divided. In this paper I offer a novel analysis of this Stoic sta…Read more
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23Does the inherence herutistic take s to psychological essentialism?Behavioral and Brain Sciences 37 (5): 494-495. 2014.We argue that the claim that essence-based causal explanations emerge, hydra-like, from an inherence heuristic is incomplete. No plausible mechanism for the transition from concrete properties, or cues, to essences is provided. Moreover, the fundamental shotgun and storytelling mechanisms of the inherence heuristic are not clearly enough specified to distinguish them, developmentally, from associative or causal networks.
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17A History of Mind and Body in Late Antiquity (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2018.The mind-body relation was at the forefront of philosophy and theology in late antiquity, a time of great intellectual innovation. This volume, the first integrated history of this important topic, explores ideas about mind and body during this period, considering both pagan and Christian thought about issues such as resurrection, incarnation and asceticism. A series of chapters presents cutting-edge research from multiple perspectives, including history, philosophy, classics and theology. Sever…Read more
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15Everything in Everything: Anaxagoras's MetaphysicsOup Usa. 2017.The book argues that Anaxagoras's theory of extreme mixture, with a share of everything in everything, is underpinned by an ontology of physical causal powers, which exist as endlessly partitioned. Anaxagoras is thus the first ante litteram 'gunk lover' in the history of metaphysics; his reality is atomless.
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1412Structural Powers and the Homeodynamic Unity of OrganismsIn William M. R. Simpson, Robert C. Koons & Nicholas J. Teh (eds.), Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science, Routledge. pp. 169-184. 2017.Although they are continually compositionally reconstituted and reconfigured, organisms nonetheless persist as ontologically unified beings over time – but in virtue of what? A common answer is: in virtue of their continued possession of the capacity for morphological invariance which persists through, and in spite of, their mereological alteration. While we acknowledge that organisms‟ capacity for the “stability of form” – homeostasis - is an important aspect of their diachronic unity, we argue…Read more
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101Peter Abelard’s Metaphysics of the IncarnationPhilosophy and Theology 22 (1-2): 27-48. 2010.In this paper, we examine Abelard’s model of the incarnation and place it within the wider context of his views in metaphysics and logic. In particular, we consider whether Abelard has the resources to solve the major difficulties faced by the so-called “compositional models” of the incarnation, such as his own. These difficulties include: the requirement to account for Christ’s unity as a single person, despite being composed of two concrete particulars; the requirement to allow that Christ is …Read more
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339Causing Health and Disease: Medical Powers in Classical and Late AntiquityBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 22 (5): 861-866. 2014.
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29L’Essere del Pensiero. Saggi sulla Filosofia di Plotino (review)International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 5 (2): 335-338. 2011.This article is currently available as a free download on ingentaconnect
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32Divine Powers in Late Antiquity (edited book)Oxford University Press UK. 2017.Is power the essence of divinity, or are divine powers distinct from divine essence? Are they divine hypostases or are they divine attributes? Are powers such as omnipotence, omniscience, etc. modes of divine activity? How do they manifest? In which way can we apprehend them? Is there a multiplicity of gods whose powers fill the cosmos or is there only one God from whom all power(s) derive(s) and whose power(s) permeate(s) everything? These are questions that become central to philosophical and …Read more
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393Aristotle on Causation - (F.) Fronterotta (ed.) La scienza e le cause a partire dalla Metafisica di Aristotele. (Elenchos 54.) Pp. 457. Naples: Bibliopolis, 2010. Paper, €50. ISBN: 978-88-7088-582-8 (review)The Classical Review 62 (2): 418-420. 2012.
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245Causes as powers: Stephen Mumford and Rani Lill Anjum: Getting causes from powers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, 272pp, £35 HB (review)Metascience 22 (3): 545-559. 2013.
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Potenza, Materia e Forma Nella Metafisica di AristotelePhilosophical News 5. 2012.In this paper I investigate Aristotle’s power ontology, and of it argue for a new interpretation of his hylemorphism and theory of the four causes
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314It's a Colorful WorldAmerican Philosophical Quarterly 43 (1). 2006.Abstract: I defend the intuition that the phenomenology of our experience is right in attributing the colors we see to objects; but although colors are properties of objects, they are constitutively dependent on the perceiver’s experiences. I offer a metaphysical account for this primitivist intuition, in response to David Chalmers’ arguments against it, drawing inspiration from Aristotle’s theory of causation.
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58Composition Models of the Incarnation: Unity and Unifying RelationsReligious Studies 46 (4). 2010.In this paper we investigate composition models of incarnation, according to which Christ is a compound of qualitatively and numerically different constituents. We focus on three-part models, according to which Christ is composed of a divine mind, a human mind, and a human body. We consider four possible relational structures that the three components could form. We argue that a ’hierarchy of natures’ model, in which the human mind and body are united to each other in the normal way, and in whic…Read more
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19The Author's Voice in Classical and Late Antiquity (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2013.This volume focuses on the authorial voice in antiquity, exploring the different ways in which authors presented and projected various personas. In particular, it questions authority and ascription in relation to the authorial voice, and considers how later readers and authors may have understood the authority of a text's author.
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123The Metaphysics of the Incarnation (edited book)Oxford University Press USA. 2011.This book offers original essays by leading philosophers of religion representing these new approaches to theological problems such as incarnation.
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28La nozione aristotelica di 'per sé' e la tradizione esegeticaDocumenti E Studi Sulla Tradizione Filosofica Medievale 11 1-34. 2000.Abstract: I examine the different classifications of the various senses of per se which Aristotle offers in his logical works and in his Metaphysics, and propose an original account of them explaining their interrelations.
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454Do powers have powers? More urgently, do powers need further powers to do what powers do? Stathis Psillos says they do. He finds this a fatal flaw in the nature of pure powers: pure powers have a regressive nature. Their nature is incoherent to us, and they should not be admitted into the ontology. I argue that pure powers do not need further powers; rather, they do what they do because they are powers. I show that at the heart of Psillos’ regress is a metaphysical division he assumes between a …Read more
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56Aristotle on Perceiving ObjectsOup Usa. 2014.How can we explain the structure of perceptual experience? What is it that we perceive? How is it that we perceive objects and not disjoint arrays of properties? By which sense or senses do we perceive objects? This book investigates Aristotle's views on these and related questions.
Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Mind |
Philosophy of Religion |
Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy |