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235Refuting Van Inwagen's 'refutation': Evidentialism againInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 44 (1). 1998.
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205Martin on MiraclesPhilo 10 (1): 27-34. 2007.Michael Martin introduces a non-Humean conception of miracles according to which miracles are events that need not violate a law of nature and are brought about by the exercise of a possibly non-theistic, supernatural power. Call those m-miracles. I consider Martin’s argument that the occurrence of an m-miracle would not confirm the existence of God. Martin presents an interesting argument, but it does not establish that m-miracles would not confirm the existence God. I argue that, on the contra…Read more
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202On Epistemic PartisanshipHttps://Philosophyofreligion.Org/. 2021.According to Paul Draper and Ryan Nichols the practice of philosophy of religion—and especially its theistically committed practitioners—regularly violate norms of rationality, objectivity, and impartiality in the review, assessment, and weighing of evidence. (Draper and Nichols, 2013). We consider the charge of epistemic partisanship and show that the observational data does not illustrate a norm-violating form of inquiry. The major oversight in the charge of epistemic partiality is the episte…Read more
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188Too much (and not enough) of a good thing: How agent neutral principles fail in prisoner's dilemmasPhilosophical Studies 94 (3): 309-328. 1999.
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187On Vague EschatologyFaith and Philosophy 25 (4): 359-375. 2008.Ted Sider’s Proportionality of Justice condition requires that any two moral agents instantiating nearly the same moral state be treated in nearly the same way. I provide a countermodel in supervaluation semantics to the proportionality of justice condition. It is possible that moral agents S and S' are in nearly the same moral state, S' is beyond all redemption and S is not. It is consistent with perfect justice then that moral agents that are not beyond redemption go determinately to heaven an…Read more
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175T. Ryan Byerly: The mechanics of divine foreknowledge and providence: a time-ordering account: Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, 2014, 131 pages, $100 (review)International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 77 (3): 255-259. 2015.One major aim of the book is to articulate a view of the mechanics of infallible divine foreknowledge that avoids commitment to causal determinism, explains how infallible foreknowledge is compatible with human freedom, and explains how God’s divine providence is compatible with human freedom and indeterministic events. The modest epistemic goal is to articulate a view that enjoys a not very low epistemic status. But even with such modest goals, I think the view cannot credibly be said to offer …Read more
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174Rowe's argument from freedomInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 53 (2): 83-91. 2003.
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174Necessity, Theism, and EvidenceLogique Et Analyse 259 (1): 287-307. 2022.The minimal God exemplifies essential omnipotence, omniscience, and moral perfection, but none of the other properties of the traditional God. I examine the consequences of the minimal God in augmented S5, S4, and Kρσ. The metaphysical consequences for the minimal God in S5 include the impossibility that God—or any other object—might acquire, lose, or exchange an essential property. It is impossible that an essentially divine being might become essentially human, for instance. The epistemologica…Read more
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168Marginal Cases and the Moral Status of EmbryosIn J. M. Humber & R. F. Almeder (eds.), Stem Cell Research. Biomedical Ethics Reviews., Springer. 2004.
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161Chance, epistemic probability and saving lives: Reply to BradleyJournal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 2010 (1): 1-1. 2009.No abstract.
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159Opportunistic carnivorismJournal of Applied Philosophy 17 (2). 2000.Some carnivores defend the position that the opportunistic consumption of meat is morally permissible even under the assumption that it is morally wrong to act in ways that ause unnecessary suffering to sentient beings. Ordering and consuming chicken once a week, they argue, will not increase the numbers of chickens suffering or slaughtered, since the system of purchasing and farming chickens is not sufficiently fine‐tuned to register differences at margin. We argue that, insensitivity of the ma…Read more
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153Evil and Evidence: A Reply to BassReligious Studies. 2023.In ‘Evil is Still Evidence: Comments on Almeida’ Robert Bass presents three objections to the central argument (ENE) in my ‘Evil is Not Evidence’. The first objection is that ENE is invalid. According to the second objection, it is a consequence of ENE that there can be no evidence for or against a posteriori necessities. The third objection is that, contrary to ENE, the likelihood of certain necessary identities varies with the evidence we have for them. In this reply I explain why ENE has exac…Read more
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144On Evil's Vague NecessityIn Jonathan L. Kvanvig (ed.), Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion: Volume 2, Oxford University Press Uk. 2009.
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121Divine Simplicity and Eliminative TheismIn Mirosław Szatkowski (ed.), Ontology of Divinity, De Gruyter. pp. 335-346. 2024.Discussions of divine simplicity generally overlook the distinction between identity claims that are reductivist and identity claims that are eliminativist. If, for instance, the identity claim that 'the chair = a configuration of particles' is merely reductive, then there exist chairs and there exist configurations of particles and it turns out that they are identical. The identity in this case does not reduce the ontological complexity of the world. But if the identity claim is eliminativist, …Read more
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100Deontic logic and the possibility of moral conflictErkenntnis 33 (1). 1990.Standard dyadic deontic logic (as well as standard deontic logic) has recently come under attack by moral philosophers who maintain that the axioms of standard dyadic deontic logic are biased against moral theories which generate moral conflicts. Since moral theories which generate conflicts are at least logically tenable, it is argued, standard dyadic deontic logic should be modified so that the set of logically possible moral theories includes those which generate such conflicts. I argue that …Read more
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85The paradoxes of Feldman's neo-utilitarianismAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 70 (4). 1992.This Article does not have an abstract
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79The Unreal Problem of No Best WorldPhilo 9 (2): 103-112. 2006.Suppose it is a reasonable assumption that there is no possible world that is overall highest in value. Some theists have found in thatassumption a basis for actualizing a less-than-best world. Some atheists have found in that assumption a basis for actualizing no world at all. I present a dynamic choice model for the problem and describe the rationality assumptions necessary to generate a rational choice problem for an ideally rational agent. I show that at least one of the rationality assumpti…Read more
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79The Metaphysics of Perfect BeingsRoutledge. 2008._The Metaphysics of Perfect Beings_ addresses the problems an Anselmian perfect being faces in contexts involving unlimited options. Recent advances in the theory of vagueness, the metaphysics of multiverses and hyperspace, the theory of dynamic or sequential choice, the logic of moral and rational dilemmas, and metaethical theory provide the resources to formulate the new challenges and the Anselmian responses with an unusual degree of precision. Almeida shows that the challenges arising in the…Read more
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76The New Evidential Argument DefeatedPhilo 7 (1): 22-35. 2004.In his most recent version of the evidential argument from evil, William Rowe argues that the observation of no outweighing goods for certain evils constitutes significant evidence against theism. I show that the new evidential argument cannot challenge theism unless it is also reasonable to believe that no good we know of justifies God in permitting any evil at all. Since the new evidential argument provides no reason at all to believe that God is not justified in permitting any existing evil, …Read more
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72On Modal Arguments against Perfect GoodnessIn Mirosław Szatkowski (ed.), Ontology of Divinity, De Gruyter. pp. 183-194. 2024.It is commonly believed that intrinsically bad possible worlds are inconsistent with the perfect goodness of God. A perfectly good being could not exist in possible worlds that are intrinsically bad. Indeed it is widely believed that possible worlds that are insufficiently good are inconsistent with a perfectly good God. Modal atheological arguments aim to show that, since the pluriverse includes intrinsically bad worlds and insufficiently good worlds, there necessarily does not exist a perfect…Read more
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68The enlargement of life: Moral imagination at work – John Kekes (review)Philosophical Quarterly 58 (231). 2008.
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65Freedom, God, and worldsOxford University Press. 2012.Michael J. Almeida presents a bold new defence of the existence of God. He argues that entrenched principles in philosophical theology which have served as basic assumptions in apriori, atheological arguments are in fact philosophical dogmas. Almeida argues that not only are such principles false - they are necessarily false.
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59A Frightening Love: Recasting the Problem of Evil by Gleeson Andrew (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 91 (3): 607-610. 2013.No abstract
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59Critically Muddled: A Reply to CarrierPhilo 11 (1): 120-129. 2008.In a recent article in Philo I critique William Rowe’s new evidential argument from evil. Richard Carrier claims I advance an argument for theism in that article and proposes a counterexample to that argument. I show that Carrier’s counterexample fails for reasons that are fairly obvious. I then offer help. The best chance for a counterexample to the argument I offer comes from the possibility of cryptid creatures. But it is not difficult to show that counterexamples from cryptic creatures also …Read more
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57Fales, Evan. Divine Intervention: Metaphysical and Epistemological Puzzles (review)Review of Metaphysics 65 (4): 868-870. 2012.
The Ohio State University
Alumnus
San Antonio, Texas, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Religion |
Metaphysics |
20th Century Analytic Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Language |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Value Theory |