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Theodore Drange

West Virginia University
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Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Epistemology
Philosophy of Religion
  •  463
    Nonbelief vs. Lack of Evidence
    Philo 1 (1): 105-114. 1998.
    After a presentation of the problem of God's hiddenness, there is discussion of two arguments for God's nonexistence related to that problem. One is the Lack-of-evidence Argument (LEA), according to which there would have been good objective evidence of God's existence if he were to exist. The other is the Argument from Nonbelief (ANB), according to which there would not be as many nonbelievers as there actually are if God were to exist. Reasons are given for assessing ANB as a stronger argum…Read more
    Arguments Against Theism, MiscDivine Hiddenness
  •  40
    Gale on Omnipotence
    Philo 6 (1): 23-26. 2003.
    This is a brief critical assessment of Richard Gale’s treatment of arguments for God’s non-existence which make appeal to the concept of omnipotence. I mostly agree with what Gale says, but have found some additional issues worth exploring.
    Divine Omnipotence
  •  38
    The paradox of the non-communicator
    Philosophical Studies 15 (6). 1964.
    Whereas the paradox of the liar has to do with the sentence "This sentence is false," the paradox of the non-communicator has to do with the sentence "This sentence is meaningless." It is argued that the paradox can be used to prove, among other things, that Russell's Theory of Types is false. The argument is defended against various objections.
    Liar Paradox
  •  24
    Type Crossings: Sentential Meaninglessness in the Border Area of Linguistics and Philosophy
    with J. R. Cameron
    Philosophical Quarterly 17 (69): 366. 1967.
    Semantics
  •  82
    The Arguments From Evil and Nonbelief
    When God is conceived of as an all-powerful and all-loving deity, many arguments for his nonexistence can be raised. Two of the main ones are the Argument from Evil (hereafter abbreviated AE) and the Argument from Nonbelief (hereafter abbreviated ANB). In what follows, I shall provide precise formulations of those two arguments, make some comments about them, and then try to refute the main defenses (of God's existence) that might be put forward against ANB, which I consider the stronger of the …Read more
    The Argument from Evil
  •  25
    Review of Jordan Howard Sobel's logic and theism (2006) (review)
    The book is long, abstruse, technical (making ample use of symbolic logic and Bayesian notation), and written in a rather difficult style. Nevertheless, for those up to reading it who have an interest in its topics, it is a most valuable work. It is directed mainly at professional analytical philosophers with a background in both deductive and inductive logic. For such readers, I recommend this book most highly.
    Logic and Philosophy of LogicBayesian Reasoning, MiscLogic and Philosophy of Logic, Miscellaneous
  •  42
    Liar Syllogisms
    Analysis 50 (1). 1990.
    This article is about self-referential arguments that are akin to the paradox of the liar. They make reference to their own validity, invalidity, soundness, unsoundness, or to the truth or falsity of their own premises or conclusions. Several very puzzling examples of such arguments are considered and their paradoxicality is defended against objections.
    Liar Paradox
  •  50
    Can creationism be scientific? (1998)
    My answer to the title question is a qualified "Yes." A certain rare form of creationism is in principle testable and compatible with natural law, and therefore scientific, however, this is a moot point. I arrive at my conclusions purely through thought experiments. But before getting to that, let us first consider the issues of what creationism is and what it means for a theory to be scientific.
    Anti-Darwinist Approaches