-
Self and Will: An Existential Theory of Motivation and Frankfurt's Theme of IdentificationDissertation, University of Notre Dame. 1998.This dissertation develops a new account of the will as a motivational power of commitment or resolve, which contrasts with volition in the 'thin' sense as a mere decision to form an intention. After tracing the historical background of these concepts in Chapter I, Chapter II argues that will involves the capacity to motivate oneself "projectively" in devotion to causes and purposes for which one did not necessarily have an antecedent "desire." "Projective motivation" differs from three types of…Read more
-
'entangled Freedom': Ethical Authority and Choice in Kierkegaard's Concept of AnixietyKierkegaardiana 21. 2000.
-
The essence of eschatology: A modal interpretationUltimate Reality and Meaning 19 (3): 206-239. 1996.This paper argues that eschatology is defined by a combination of sacred cosmogonic power and moral requirement. Moralizing religion is this combination, which claims to ground a distinctive kind of possibility (possible hereafter states). Eschatology has certain features that hold in all of its forms, with variations in whether the hereafter is conceived as a timeless and body-less eternity, or a more temporal and concrete existence. The paradigm for this analysis is found in Soren Kierkegaard'…Read more
-
21Comparison of the preliminary objection to Haskar's and Adams's critiques of Molinism. The difficulty with Haskar's 'Power Inference Principle;' Adams's "New Anti-Molinist Argument;" William Lane Craig's recent response to Adams; Craig's defense of the 'emphemeral' Molinist logical possibility of doing otherwise; the two stages of the Existentialist's alternative strategy against Molinism
-
40Review of R. Jay Wallace, Normativity and the Will: Selected Essays on Moral Psychology and Practical Reason (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2007 (12). 2007.
-
23Kierkegaard After MacIntyre: Essays on Freedom, Narrative, and VirtueOpen Court Publishing. 2001.The 1990s saw a revival of interest in Kierkegaard's thought, affecting the fields of theology, social theory, and literary and cultural criticism. The resulting discussions have done much to discredit the earlier misreadings of Kierkegaard's works.
-
Eschatological ultimacy and the best possible hereafterUltimate Reality and Meaning 25 (1): 36-67. 2002.This paper argues that the eschatological dimension of religion is distinct from other fundamental dimensions, including moral grounding, the ontological basis of reality, and the constitution of persons. It responds in particular to Tibor Horvath's conception of the category of ultimate reality. It also argues that eschatological hereafters imply something akin to an higher-time A-series, in that the hereafter can be conceived as a temporal order beyond currently existing time.
-
41A Critical Review of Natural Law and Practical RationalityInternational Philosophical Quarterly 43 (2): 229-239. 2003.This essay argues that Mark C. Murphy's original contribution to natural law ethics succeeds in finding a way between older metaphysical and newer purely practical approaches in this genre. Murphy's reconstruction of the function argument, critique of subjectivist theories of well-being, and rigorous formulation of a flexible welfarist theory of value deserve careful attention. I defend Kant against Murphy's critique and argue that Murphy faces the problem of showing that all his basic goods are…Read more
-
51Thomas D. D’Andrea, Tradition, Rationality, and Virtue: The Thought of Alasdair MacIntyre: Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing, 2006, 486 pp. . ISBN: 0-7546-5112-6 UK, £65.00 US $130.00 (review)Journal of Value Inquiry 43 (4): 559-565. 2009.
-
6Freedom, Will, and NatureProceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 81 67-89. 2007.
-
17A Phenomenology of the Profane: Heidegger, Blumenberg and the Structure of the ChthonicJournal of the British Society for Phenomenology 30 (2): 182-206. 1999.
-
14The Will: A Dual Aspect Theory (review)International Philosophical Quarterly 51 (2): 259-264. 2011.
-
19Review of Terence Cuneo (ed.), Religion and the Liberal Polity (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2005 (7). 2005.
-
39Kierkegaard's Postscript in Light of Fear and Trembling: Eschatological FaithRevista Portuguesa de Filosofia 64 (2/4). 2008.There is a single unified conception of religious faith in Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and Concluding Unscientific Postscript: existential faith is absolute trust in an eschatological promise, i.e. a miraculous realization of ethical ideals that is beyond all human power to accomplish or even predict. Faith in this sense has the precondition of "infinite resignation," which is a purified state of ethical willing in which the agent accepts her/his own inability to actualize the ethical, outw…Read more
-
Accidental devotion and gratitude : Kierkegaard in my life-storyIn Robert L. Perkins, Marc Alan Jolley & Edmon L. Rowell (eds.), Why Kierkegaard matters: a festschrift in honor of Robert L. Perkins, Mercer University Press. 2010.
-
52The deliberative relevance of refraining from deciding: A response to McKenna and Pereboom (review)Acta Analytica 21 (4). 2006.Readers familiar with Harry Frankfurt’s argument that we do not need leeway-liberty (or the power to bring about alternative possible actions or intentions) to be morally responsible will probably also know that the most famous and popular response on behalf of leeway-libertarianism remains a dilemma posed in similar forms by David Widerker, Robert Kane, and Carl Ginet: either the agent retains significant residual leeway in Frankfurt-style cases, or these cases beg the question by presupposing …Read more
-
81Just war theory, humanitarian intervention, and the need for a democratic federationJournal of Religious Ethics 39 (3): 493-555. 2011.The primary purpose of government is to secure public goods that cannot be achieved by free markets. The Coordination Principle tells us to consolidate sovereign power in a single institution to overcome collective action problems that otherwise prevent secure provision of the relevant public goods. There are several public goods that require such coordination at the global level, chief among them being basic human rights. The claim that human rights require global coordination is supported in t…Read more
-
17National Identity: Some Reflections on the Future of Europe,"(1) Habermas's specific theme is the `legitimation crisis' arising from the current situation within the European Community.(2) But the deeper philosophical point of the article is to develop a fundamental implication of Habermas's analysis of democracy in his new work, Between Facts and Norms (in which the article is included as an appendix):(3) Habermas argues that the normative content of democratic citizenship can be institutionalize…Read more
-
42Will as commitment and resolve: an existential account of creativity, love, virtue, and happinessFordham University Press. 2007.In contemporary philosophy, the will is often regarded as a sheer philosophical fiction. In Will as Commitment and Resolve , Davenport argues not only that the will is the central power of human agency that makes decisions and forms intentions but also that it includes the capacity to generate new motivation different in structure from prepurposive desires. The concept of "projective motivation" is the central innovation in Davenport's existential account of the everyday notion of striving will.…Read more
-
18Reason, Tradition, and the Good: MacIntyre’s Tradition-Constituted Reason and Frankfurt-School Critical Theory, written by Jeffrey L. NicholasJournal of Moral Philosophy 12 (4): 569-572. 2015.
-
20Levinas's Agapeistic Metaphysics of Morals: Absolute Passivity and the Other as Eschatological HierophanyJournal of Religious Ethics 26 (2). 1998.This article evaluates Emmanuel Levinas's novel "ethical metaphysics" of interpersonal relations from a religious perspective. Levinas presents a unique version of agape ethics that can be evaluated in terms of a number of the dilemmas that have traditionally attended Christian discussions of neighbor-love. Because Levinas's analysis makes our responsibility for other persons depend on their eschatological significance, it has the same problems that hamper all theories of neighbor-love that lack…Read more
-
99Fischer and Ravizza on moral sanity and weakness of willThe Journal of Ethics 6 (3). 2002.This essay evaluates John Martin Fischer and Mark Ravizza's mature semi-compatibilist account of moral responsibility, focusingon their new theory of moderate reasons-responsiveness as a model of "moral sanity." This theory, presented in _Responsibility and Control_, solves many of the problems with Fischer's earlier weak reasons-responsiveness model, such as its unwanted implication that agents who are only erratically responsive to bizarre reasons can be responsible for their acts. But I argue…Read more
-
39A global federalist paper: Consolidation arguments and transnational government (review)Journal of Value Inquiry 42 (3): 353-375. 2008.
-
40The Meaning of Kierkegaard’s Choice Between the Aesthetic and the EthicalSouthwest Philosophy Review 11 (2): 73-108. 1995.
-
15Rudd, Anthony., Self, Value, and Narrative: A Kierkegaardian Approach (review)Review of Metaphysics 67 (4): 886-888. 2014.
New York City, New York, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Social and Political Philosophy |
Normative Ethics |
19th Century Philosophy |