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59The church-going philosopher who settles in for an extended reading of Dan Dennett’s new book will find himself in a familiar circumstance. What one confronts is a lot more like an extended sermon than it is a typical philosophical treatise. And, whatever one’s Sunday morning habits, one can’t help but admire the preaching skills artfully displayed. The delivery is powerful and assured; the argument is streamlined, peppered with evocative and delightful illustrations that will be recalled long a…Read more
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58The Education for Democracy ProjectInquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 23 (4): 7-12. 2004.
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57Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings, International Edition, is the most comprehensive topically organized collection of classical and contemporary philosophy available. The text includes sections on God and evil, knowledge and reality, the philosophy of science, the mind/body problem, freedom of will, consciousness, ethics, political philosophy, existential issues, and philosophical puzzles and paradoxes
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55Chicken soup for the semi-compatibilist soul: Replies to Haji and KaneThe Journal of Ethics 4 (4): 404-407. 2000.
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53The Education for Democracy ProjectInquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 23 (4): 7-12. 2004.
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539 The Transfer of NonresponsibilityIn Joseph K. Campbell (ed.), Freedom and Determinism, Bradford Book/mit Press. 2004.
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53Precis of Responsibility and Control: A Theory of Moral ResponsibilityResponsibility and Control: A Theory of Moral ResponsibilityPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 61 (2): 441. 2000.The leading idea of our theory of moral responsibility is that responsibility is associated with control. But we contend that there are two distinct kinds of control. Regulative control involves alternative possibilities: it is a kind of dual power of free action. In contrast, guidance control does not, by its nature, involve alternative possibilities. Whereas typically it might be thought that regulative and guidance control go together, the Frankfurt-type cases show that they are separate and …Read more
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52Responsibility and Control: A Theory of Moral ResponsibilityPhilosophical and Phenomenological Research 61 (2): 459-466. 1998.
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50Libertarianism and Avoid AbilityFaith and Philosophy 12 (1): 119-125. 1995.In previous work, I have claimed that the Frankfurt-style counterexamples to the Principle of Alternative Possibilities work even in a world in which the actual sequence proceeds in a manner congenial to the libertarian. In “Libertarian Freedom and the Avoidability of Decisions,” Widerker criticizes this claim. Here I cast some doubt upon the criticism. Widerker’s critique depends on the falsity of a view held by Molina (and others) about the possibility of non-deterministic grounds for “would-c…Read more
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50University Professor Lecture: Near-Death Experiences: The Stories They TellThe Journal of Ethics 22 (2): 97-112. 2018.I argue that we can interpret the stories told by near-death experiences in a naturalistic way. Thus, the profound significance of NDEs need not come from a supernaturalistic conception of them, according to which in an NDE the individual is in touch with a heavenly realm. We can respect the sincerity of NDE reports, but we can capture their meaning in a naturalistic framework.
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48Initial Design, Manipulation, and Moral ResponsibilityCriminal Law and Philosophy 15 (2): 255-270. 2021.This is a critical notice of Alfred Mele’s, Manipulated Agents: A Window to Moral Responsibility. I agree with Mele that moral responsibility is a historical phenomenon, but give some considerations in favor of a positive, rather than negative, historical condition for moral responsibility. I focus on Mele’s Zygote Argument, which is intended to present a challenge for compatibilism. I contend that the challenge can be met, and I offer an error theory of the appeal of the Zygote Argument.
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48Warren Facing Death. Epicurus and his Critics. Pp. x + 240. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004. Cased, £30. ISBN: 0-19-925289-0 (review)The Classical Review 56 (1): 67-69. 2006.
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47Stories and the Meaning of LifePhilosophic Exchange 39 (1). 2009.This paper argues that the value of acting freely and responsibly is a species of the value of self-expression. When I act freely, I write a sentence in the story of my life, and this gives my life the shape of a narrative, which, in turn, gives my life a unique sort of meaning and value.
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47The Metaphysics of Free Will: A Reply to My CriticsJournal of Social Philosophy 29 (2): 157-167. 1998.
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45Exploring Evil and Philosophical FailureFaith and Philosophy 24 (4): 458-474. 2007.In his recent book on the problem of evil, Peter van Inwagen argues that both the global and local arguments from evil are failures. In this paper, we engagevan Inwagen’s book at two main points. First, we consider his understanding of what it takes for a philosophical argument to succeed. We argue that whilehis criterion for success is interesting and helpful, there is good reason to think it is too stringent. Second, we consider his responses to the global andlocal arguments from evil. We argu…Read more
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44The Mirror-Image Argument: An Additional Reply to JohanssonThe Journal of Ethics 18 (4): 325-330. 2014.We have argued that it is rational to have asymmetric attitudes toward prenatal and posthumous non-existence insofar as this asymmetry is a special case of a more general asymmetry in our attitudes toward past and future pleasures. Here we respond to an interesting critique of our view by Jens Johansson. We contend that his critique involves an inappropriate conflation of the time from which the relevant asymmetry emerges and the time of the badness of death
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43The Frankfurt-style cases: extinguishing the flickers of freedomInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 65 (9): 1185-1209. 2022.ABSTRACT The Frankfurt-style Counterexamples to the Principle of Alternative Possibilities have been controversial. I sketch some of the major moves in the debates surrounding the FSCs, and I seek to provide an answer to a big challenge: the indeterministic horn of the ‘dilemma defense’. Given indeterminism, it is unclear how Black can know with certainty what Jones will choose and do in the future; this leaves at least some open alternatives for Jones. I adopt the strategy of positing God in Bl…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Value Theory |
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Value Theory |