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82Nietzsche, Perspectivism, and Mental HealthPhilosophy, Psychiatry, Psychology 6 (3): 173-177. 1999.This paper is a response to Ronald Lehrer's "Perspectivism and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy". Lehrer treats Nietzsche as promoting only a modest perspectivism according to which different cognitive strategies triangulate the truth. We argue that Nietzsche's perspectivism is much more radical, and defensible, than Lehrer admits. We also suggest that Nietzsche's bundle theory of the self has important implications for psychotherapy and the concept of mental health. According to this theory, the sel…Read more
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82Reply to Shogenji on relativismMind 106 (424): 749-750. 1997.In this note I rebut the criticisms Professor Shogenji makes of the analysis of absolute and relative truth I originally presented in "A Consistent Relativism."
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78Luck Attributions and Cognitive BiasMetaphilosophy 45 (4-5): 509-528. 2014.Philosophers have developed three theories of luck: the probability theory, the modal theory, and the control theory. To help assess these theories, we conducted an empirical investigation of luck attributions. We created eight putative luck scenarios and framed each in either a positive or a negative light. Furthermore, we placed the critical luck event at the beginning, middle, or end of the scenario to see if the location of the event influenced luck attributions. We found that attributions o…Read more
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74Beer & philosophy: the unexamined beer isn't worth drinking (edited book)Blackwell. 2007.A beer-lovers' book which playfully examines a myriad of philosophical concerns related to beer consumption. Effectively demonstrates how real philosophical issues exist just below the surface of our everyday activities Divided into four sections: The Art of the Beer; The Ethics of Beer: Pleasures, Freedom, and Character; The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Beer; and Beer in the History of Philosophy Uses the context of beer to expose George Berkeley’s views on fermented beverages as a medical c…Read more
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72What Philosophy Can Tell You about Your DogOpen Court. 2008.Do dogs live in the same world as humans? Is it wrong to think dogs have personalities and emotions? What are dogs thinking and what’s the nature of canine wisdom? This is a book for thoughtful dog-lovers who want to explore the deeper issues raised by dogs and their relationships with humans. Twenty philosophers and dog-lovers reveal their experiences with dogs and give their insights on dog-related themes of metaphysics and ethics.
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71Reply to Licon on Time TravelLogos and Episteme 2 (4): 633-636. 2011.In this paper I offer a rejoinder to the criticisms raised by Jimmy Alfonso Licon in “No Suicide for Presentists: A Response to Hales.” I argue that Licon's concerns are misplaced, and that his hypothetical presentist time machine neither travels in time nor saves the life of the putative traveler. I conclude that sensible time travel is still forbidden to presentists
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70Recent Work on NietzscheAmerican Philosophical Quarterly 37 (4): 313-333. 2000.This paper is an overview of the anglophone Nietzsche scholarship of the last 20 years. There are two types of debates raging in Nietzsche scholarship: interpretive disputes over conceptual and philosophical issues arising out of Nietzsche's work, and metainterpretive wrangling over how the philosophical issues should be approached and how Nietzsche's unpublished writings ought to be considered. In the former category, four prominent Nietzschean themes are examined: perspectivism; systematicity,…Read more
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67More on Fathers' RightsIn Robert Almeder & James Humber (eds.), Biomedical Ethics Reviews: Reproduction, Technology, and Rights, . pp. 25-34. 1996.This paper is a rejoinder to Professor Jim Humber on the issue of fathers' rights. I reaffirm my position that if a woman's right to an abortion is a morally permissible way of avoiding future duties with respect to parenting, then fathers must have a similar moral right and ought to have a way to exercise this right. I consider and rebut Professor Humber's objections to this view.
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63What to do about incommensurable doxastic perspectivesPhilosophia Christi 11 (1): 209-214. 2009.The present paper is a response to the criticisms that Mark McLeod-Harrison makes of my book Relativism and the Foundations of Philosophy. If secular, intuition-driven rationalist philosophy yields a belief that p, and Christian, revelation-driven epistemic methods yield a belief that not-p, what should we do? Following Alston, McLeod-Harrison argues that Christian philosophers need do nothing, and remains confident that their way is the best. I argue that this is a serious epistemic mistake, an…Read more
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62A Relativist’s RejoinderInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 16 (2). 2008.This article is my author's response in a book symposium on my book Relativism and the Foundations of Philosophy. I reply to criticisms raised by Otavio Bueno, Henry Jackman, and Jonathan Weinberg.
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58Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 54 (1): 229-233. 1994.
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51Review of Hans-Johann Glock, What is Analytic Philosophy? (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2008 (10). 2008.
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49Putting Claus Back into ChristmasIn Fritz Allhoff & Scott C. Lowe (eds.), Christmas ‐ Philosophy for Everyone, Wiley‐blackwell. 2010.This chapter contains sections titled: Nietzsche's Useful Fictions The Commercial Origins of Christmas Santa Claus and the Social Compact The Spirit of Giving and the True Meaning of Christmas.
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39Why the U.S. Is not the best country in the worldThe Good Society 15 (2): 35-40. 2006.In this article I consider the common claim that the United States is the best country in the world. I examine the factors of freedom, literacy, health, happiness, and wealth, and conclude that the U.S. is 13th best, and that actually Norway is the best country in the world.
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33The Myth of Luck: Philosophy, Fate, and FortuneBloomsbury Academic. 2020.Humanity has thrown everything we have at implacable luck—novel theologies, entire philosophical movements, fresh branches of mathematics—and yet we seem to have gained only the smallest edge on the power of fortune. The Myth of Luck tells us why we have been fighting an unconquerable foe. Taking us on a guided tour of one of our oldest concepts, we begin in ancient Greece and Rome, considering how Plato, Plutarch, and the Stoics understood luck, before entering the theoretical world of probabi…Read more
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30A Trilemma for Philosophical KnowledgeIn Rene van Woudenberg, Sabine Roeser & Ron Rood (eds.), Basic Belief and Basic Knowledge, Ontos-verlag. pp. 4--131. 2005.
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30An Epistemologist Looks at the Hot Hand in SportsJournal of the Philosophy of Sport 26 (1): 79-87. 1999.
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26Cycling and Philosophical Lessons Learned the Hard WayIn Fritz Allhoff, Jesús Ilundáin‐Agurruza & Michael W. Austin (eds.), Cycling ‐ Philosophy for Everyone, Wiley‐blackwell. 2010-09-24.This chapter contains sections titled: Riding Out of the Cave Discipline and Diet Toughing It Out Surprises Down the Road From Tribulation to Wisdom Notes.
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25Dispositional optimism and luck attributions: Implications for philosophical theories of luckPhilosophical Psychology 31 (7): 1027-1045. 2018.ABSTRACTWe conducted two studies to determine whether there is a relationship between dispositional optimism and the attribution of good or bad luck to ambiguous luck scenarios. Study 1 presented five scenarios that contained both a lucky and an unlucky component, thereby making them ambiguous in regard to being an overall case of good or bad luck. Participants rated each scenario in toto on a four-point Likert scale and then completed an optimism questionnaire. The results showed a significant …Read more
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25Value Pluralism in Restoration AestheticsBritish Journal of Aesthetics. forthcoming.In the restoration of art and artifacts there are three salient types of value to consider: relic, aesthetic, and practical. Relic value includes an object’s age, aura, originality, authenticity, and epistemic value. Aesthetic value is connected to how an object looks, sounds, or tastes. Practical value involves whether a thing can be used as designed—whether a book can be read, a building occupied, a car driven. I argue that while these are all legitimate values, it is impossible for a restorer…Read more
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24The Intellectual Virtues and the Life of the Mind (review)Philosophical Quarterly 44 (175): 254. 1994.
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21Making Sense of Nietzsche (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 58 (3): 737-740. 1998.
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17Making Sense of Nietzsche: Reflections Timely and UntimelyPhilosophical and Phenomenological Research 58 (3): 737-740. 1995.
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11Audiophile aestheticsAmerican Philosophical Quarterly 54 (2): 195-208. 2017.What little work has been done on high fidelity/audiophile aesthetics uniformly agrees that the aesthetic aim of high fidelity is to achieve maximum transparency—the degree to which the listening experience is qualitatively identical to hearing the live instruments. The present paper argues that due to modern recording techniques, transparency is often impossible and may not be the proper aesthetic goal even in cases of documentary recordings. Instead, audiophilia should be understood as a broad…Read more
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10Certainty and Phenomenal StatesCanadian Journal of Philosophy 24 (1): 57-72. 1994.The sort of knowledge we have with regard to the nature and kind of our own phenomenal states has enjoyed considerable prestige in the history of philosophy. Hume claims that ‘The only existences, of which we are certain, are perceptions, which being immediately present to us by consciousness, command our strongest assent, and are the first foundation of all our conclusions’. In the New Essays, Leibniz remarks that ‘if the immediate inner experience is not certain, we cannot be sure of any truth…Read more
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10Luck Attributions and Cognitive BiasIn Duncan Pritchard & Lee John Whittington (eds.), The Philosophy of Luck, Wiley-blackwell. 2015.Philosophers have developed three theories of luck: the probability theory, the modal theory, and the control theory. To help assess these theories, we conducted an empirical investigation of luck attributions. We created eight putative luck scenarios and framed each in either a positive or a negative light. Furthermore, we placed the critical luck event at the beginning, middle, or end of the scenario to see if the location of the event influenced luck attributions. We found that attributions o…Read more
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9Virtue Epistemology and the Value of KnowledgeProceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 75 109-113. 2018.Virtue epistemologists like Ernest Sosa and John Greco have attempted to explain why knowledge is more valuable than mere true belief. In this talk I demonstrate that both of their accounts fail so profoundly that it is difficult to see how virtue epistemology alone contains the resources to explain the value of knowledge. According to the virtue theoretic approach, knowledge is a kind of success from ability. Knowledge constitutes a competent epistemic performance, and some performances are bet…Read more
Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Epistemology |
Metaphysics |
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
Metaphysics |
Metaphilosophy |