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5Introduction to Bayes's TheoremIn Bayes’s Theorem, Oxford University Press. 2002.This is an introduction to a collected volume. It distinguishes between evidential, statistical, and physical probability, and between objective and subjective understandings of evidential probability, in the use of Bayes’s theorem. If Bayes’s theorem is to be used to assess an objective evidential probability, a priori criteria--mainly the criterion of simplicity--are required to determine prior probability. The five main contributors to the volume discuss the use of Bayes’s theorem to assess t…Read more
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4Reply to Wallace's 'on making actions morally wrong'Canadian Journal of Philosophy 6 (3). 1976.IN MY PAPER "DUTY AND THE WILL OF GOD," I CLAIM THAT IF THERE IS A GOD, HE CAN MAKE SOME ACTIONS RIGHT OR WRONG BY HIS WILL, WHILE OTHER ACTIONS DERIVE THEIR RIGHTNESS OR WRONGNESS FROM FACTORS QUITE OTHER THAN HIS WILL. IN HIS PAPER, WALLACE DENIES THAT IT IS COHERENT TO SUPPOSE THAT AN AGENT CAN MAKE ACTIONS RIGHT OR WRONG, AND HE CLAIMS THAT MY ACCOUNT OF RELIGIOUS MORALITY IS NOT A TRADITIONAL ONE. IN THIS PAPER, I DEFEND THE CLAIM THAT AGENTS CAN MAKE ACTIONS RIGHT OR WRONG, AND I SHOW THAT…Read more
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4EvidentialismIn Charles Taliaferro, Paul Draper & Philip L. Quinn (eds.), A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, Wiley‐blackwell. 2010.This chapter contains sections titled: Works cited Additional recommended readings.
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4Freedom and EvilIn Julian Baggini & Jeremy Stangroom (eds.), What Philosophers Think, A&c Black. 2005.In this interview of me by Julian Baggini, I defend my view that the existence of evil (bad actions and bad states of affairs) does not count against the existence of God iff it is only by God allowing the evil that a certain good can be achieved; God does everything else he can to bring about that good; God has the right to allow the evil; and the outcome is sufficiently good. I argue that God as our creator has the requisite right and I suggest reasons why the various evils of our world make p…Read more
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3Philosophical theismIn D. Z. Phillips & Timothy Tessin (eds.), Philosophy of religion in the 21st century, Palgrave. pp. 3--20. 2001.
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3Gregory Palamas and Our Knowledge of GodIn Andrew Schumann (ed.), Logic in Orthodox Christian Thinking, De Gruyter. pp. 18-37. 2012.
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2What Difference does God make to Morality?In R. K. Garcia & N. I. King (eds.), Is Goodness Without God Good Enough?, Rowman & Littlefield. 2008.
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2Properties, causation, and projectibility: Reply to ShoemakerIn Laurence Jonathan Cohen & Mary Brenda Hesse (eds.), Applications of inductive logic: proceedings of a conference at the Queen's College, Oxford 21-24, August 1978, Oxford University Press. pp. 313-20. 1980.SHOEMAKER IS WRONG TO CLAIM THAT ALL THE GENUINE PROPERTIES OF THINGS ARE NOTHING BUT POTENTIALITIES FOR CONTRIBUTING TO THE CAUSAL POWERS OF THINGS. FOR THE ONLY GROUNDS FOR ATTRIBUTING CAUSAL POWERS TO THINGS ARE IN TERMS OF THE EFFECTS WHICH THOSE THINGS TYPICALLY PRODUCE. BUT ALL EFFECTS ARE ULTIMATELY INSTANTIATIONS OF PROPERTIES, AND IF THESE WERE NOTHING BUT POTENTIALITIES TO PRODUCE EFFECTS, THERE WOULD BE A VICIOUS INFINITE REGRESS, AND NO ONE WOULD EVER BE JUSTIFIED IN ATTRIBUTING PROP…Read more
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2Cosmological and Teleological ArgumentsIn The Rationality of Theism, Rodopi. 2000.After a discussion of several concepts of explanation, in which the criterion of simplicity is emphasized and some interesting historical examples are used as illustration, this paper presents the cosmological and teleological arguments. The central claim is that the hypothesis of theism is more simple and elegant and so more rational than any of its alternatives.
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2EvidenceIn Trent Dougherty (ed.), Evidentialism and its Discontents, Oxford University Press. 2011.
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2Dualism IntactFaith and Philosophy 13 (1): 68-77. 1996.I have argued in many places that a carefully articulated version of Descartes’ argument to show that he is essentially an immaterial soul is sound. It is conceivable that I who am currently conscious continue to exist without my body, and that can only be if there is currently a non-bodily part of me which alone is essential for me. Recent counter-arguments of Alston and Smythe, Moser and van der Nat, Zimmerman, and Shoemaker are rejected.
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2The Construction of Reality By Michael A. Arbib and Mary B. Hesse Cambridge University Press, 1987, 286 pp., £25.00 (review)Philosophy 62 (242): 542-544. 1987.
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2From mental/physical identity to substance dualismIn Peter van Inwagen & Dean Zimmerman (eds.), Persons: Human and Divine, Clarendon Press. 2007.
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2The problem of evilIn Steven M. Cahn & David Shatz (eds.), Contemporary Philosophy of Religion, Oxford University Press. 1982.
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2The Argument from Laws of Nature ReassessedIn M. Ruse & W. Dembski (eds.), Debating Design: From Darwin to Dna, Cambridge University Press. 2004.I analyze different accounts of laws of nature: the Hume-Lewis regularity account, the Armstrong-Tooley relations between universals account, and my preferred account in terms of the powers and liabilities of individual substances. On any account it is most unlikely a priori that a universe would be governed by simple laws of nature. But if there is a God, it is quite probable that he will choose to create free agents of limited power, and to put them in a universe governed by simple laws of nat…Read more
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2The Vocation of a Natural TheologianIn K. J. Clark (ed.), Philosophers Who Believe, Clark, Kelly James (Ed), Intervarsity Pr. 1994.I outlined my academic career, and my reasons for writing the books which I did --to analyze the meaning and bring out the justification of the central claims of the Christian religion. For the first ten years of my academic career I wrote on the philosophy of science. Having developed a view about what confirms what, I applied it first to the claim that there is a God, in my trilogy on "The Philosophy of Theism"; and then to the specific claims of Christianity.
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125 Natural Evil and the Possibility of Knowledge'In Eleonore Stump & Michael J. Murray (eds.), Philosophy of Religion: The Big Questions, Blackwell. pp. 6--210. 1999.