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85From Experience to ExperiencerIn Mark C. Baker & Stewart Goetz (eds.), The Soul Hypothesis: Investigations Into the Existence of the Soul, Continuum Press. pp. 168. 2011.
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198Dispatches from the Zombie WarsThe Times Literary Supplement (April 28). forthcoming.Review of Daniel Dennett's *Sweet Dreams* and Gregg Rosenberg's *A Place for Consciousness*
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78Metaphysics: The Big Questions (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 1991.This volume provides a vital student resource: a collection of the essential classic and contemporary readings in metaphysics.
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54Oxford Studies in Metaphysics:Volume 3: Volume 3 (edited book)Oxford University Press UK. 2007.Oxford Studies in Metaphysics is the forum for the best new work in this flourishing field. Much of the most interesting work in philosophy today is metaphysical in character: this new series is a much-needed focus for it. OSM offers a broad view of the subject, featuring not only the traditionally central topics such as existence, identity, modality, time, and causation, but also the rich clusters of metaphysical questions in neighbouring fields, such as philosophy of mind and philosophy of sci…Read more
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156One really big liquid sphere: Reply to LewisAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 77 (2). 1999.This Article does not have an abstract
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52On the Logic of Intentional HelpFaith and Philosophy 13 (3): 402-404. 1996.In this note, we explore certain aspects of “the logic of helping”; offer an account of the metaphysics of helping God; and suggest a way in which God’s help differs from human help.
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1649Indivisible Parts and Extended ObjectsThe Monist 79 (1): 148-180. 1996.Physical boundaries and the earliest topologists. Topology has a relatively short history; but its 19th century roots are embedded in philosophical problems about the nature of extended substances and their boundaries which go back to Zeno and Aristotle. Although it seems that there have always been philosophers interested in these matters, questions about the boundaries of three-dimensional objects were closest to center stage during the later medieval and modern periods. Are the boundaries of …Read more
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837The privileged present : Defending an "a-theory" of timeIn Theodore Sider, John Hawthorne & Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics, Blackwell. pp. 211--225. 2007.Uncorrected Proof; please cite published version.
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530Presentism and the space-time manifoldIn Craig Callender (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Time, Oxford University Press. pp. 163-246. 2011.
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12Oxford Studies in Metaphysics: Volume 5 (edited book)Oxford University Press UK. 2009.Oxford Studies in Metaphysics is the forum for the best new work in this flourishing field. Much of the most interesting work in philosophy today is metaphysical in character: this series is a much-needed focus for it. OSM offers a broad view of the subject, featuring not only the traditionally central topics such as existence, identity, modality, time, and causation, but also the rich clusters of metaphysical questions in neighbouring fields, such as philosophy of mind and philosophy of science…Read more
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3117The Oxford handbook of metaphysics (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2003.The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics offers the most authoritative and compelling guide to this diverse and fertile field of philosophy. Twenty-four of the world's most distinguished specialists provide brand-new essays about 'what there is': what kinds of things there are, and what relations hold among entities falling under various categories. They give the latest word on such topics as identity, modality, time, causation, persons and minds, freedom, and vagueness. The Handbook's unrivaled bread…Read more
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115Mind-Body DualismProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 111 (2pt2). 2011.I attempt to rebut Dean Zimmerman's novel argument (2010), which he presents in support of substance dualism, for the conclusion that, in spite of its popularity, the combination of property dualism with substance materialism represents a precarious position in the philosophy of mind. I take issue with Zimmerman's contention that the vagueness of 'garden variety' material objects such as brains or bodies makes them unsuitable candidates for the possession of phenomenal properties. I also argue t…Read more
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27Three Introductory Questions: Is Analytic Philosophical Theology an Oxymoron? Is Substance Dualism Incoherent? What's in this Book, Anyway?In Peter van Inwagen and Dean Zimmerman (ed.), Persons: Human and Divine, Oxford University Press. pp. 1--32. 2007.
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13Christians should affirm mind-body dualismIn Michael L. Peterson & Raymond J. VanArragon (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion, Blackwell. pp. 315--326. 2004.
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186Properties, Minds, and Bodies: An Examination of Sydney Shoemaker’s MetaphysicsPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 78 (3): 673-738. 2009.No Abstract
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29Anti-Molinist Argument'In Ken Perszyk (ed.), Molinism: The Contemporary Debate, Oxford University Press. pp. 140. 2011.
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107Persons and bodies: Constitution without mereology? (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 64 (3). 2002.Lynne Rudder Baker and many others think that paradigmatic instances of one object constituting another—a piece of marble constituting a statue, or an aggregate of particles constituting a living body—involve two distinct objects in the same place at the same time. Some who say this believe in the doctrine of temporal parts; but others, like Baker, reject this doctrine. Such philosophers, whom one might call “coincidentalists”, cannot say that these objects manage to share space in virtue of sha…Read more
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191Oxford Studies in Metaphysics (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2008.... dedicated to the timely publication of new work in metaphysics, broadly construed.
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899Review: Saving God from Saving God (review)Books and Culture 15 (3). 2012.Mark Johnston’s book, Saving God (Princeton University Press, 2010) has two main goals, one negative and the other positive: (1) to eliminate the gods of the major Western monotheisms (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) as candidates for the role of “the Highest One”; (2) to introduce the real Highest One, a panentheistic deity worthy of devotion and capable of extending to us the grace needed to transform us from inwardly-turned sinners to practitioners of agape. In this review, we argue that Jo…Read more
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28Indivisible Parts and Extended ObjectsThe Monist 79 (1): 148-180. 1996.Physical boundaries and the earliest topologists. Topology has a relatively short history; but its 19th century roots are embedded in philosophical problems about the nature of extended substances and their boundaries which go back to Zeno and Aristotle. Although it seems that there have always been philosophers interested in these matters, questions about the boundaries of three-dimensional objects were closest to center stage during the later medieval and modern periods. Are the boundaries of …Read more
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161Yet another anti-molinist argumentIn Samuel Newlands & Larry M. Jorgensen (eds.), Metaphysics and the good: themes from the philosophy of Robert Merrihew Adams, Oxford University Press. 2009.‘Molinism’, in contemporary usage, is the name for a theory about the workings of divine providence. Its defenders include some of the most prominent contemporary Protestant and Catholic philosophical theologians.¹ Molinism is often said to be the only way to steer a middle..
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46Substance: Its Nature and ExistencePhilosophical Review 108 (1): 118. 1999.This book addresses two basic questions: What is the proper philosophical analysis of the concept of substance? and What kinds of compound substances are there? The second question is mainly addressed by asking what relations among objects are necessary and sufficient for their coming to compose a larger whole. The first 72 pages of the book contain a short history of attempts to answer the first question, and a brief presentation of the analysis the authors defend at length in their earlier boo…Read more
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347Could extended objects be made out of simple parts? An argument for "atomless gunk"Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 56 (1): 1-29. 1996.Let us say that an extended object is “composed wholly of simples” just in case it is an aggregate of absolutely unextended parts spread throughout an extended region—that is, just in case there is a set S such that: every member is a point-sized part of the object, and for every x, x is part of the object if and only if it has a part in common with some member of S. Could a truly extended substance be composed entirely of unextended parts? Reflection upon the fact that it must be at least possi…Read more
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287Problems for AnimalismAbstracta 4 (S1): 23-31. 2008.My comments have two parts. I begin by laying out the argument that seems to me to be at the core of Olson’s thinking about human persons; and I suggest a problem with his reasons for accepting one of its premises. The premise is warranted by its platitudinous or commonsensical status; but Olson’s arguments lead him to conclusions that undermine the family of platitudes to which it belongs. Then I’ll raise a question about how Olson should construe the vagueness that would seem to infect the bou…Read more