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1741The Tristram Shandy ParadoxPhilosophia Christi 4 (2): 335-349. 2002.This paper is a response to David Oderberg's discussion of the Tristram Shandy paradox. I defend the claim that the Tristram Shandy paradox does not support the claim that it is impossible that the past is infinite.
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783Evidential Arguments from Evil and Skeptical TheismPhilo 8 (2). 2004.In this paper we respond to criticisms by Michael Bergmann and Michael Rea in their “In Defense of Sceptical Theism : A Reply to Almeida and Oppy,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 83.
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18History of Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand (edited book)Springer. 2014.This two volume works provides a comprehensive history of philosophy in Australia and New Zealand. Volume one provides a chronological history, with one chapter devoted to the early years in which idealism dominated Australasian philosophy, and then chapters that cover each of the decades from the second world war. Volume two provides a thematic history, with treatment of most of the major areas to which Australasian philosophers have made significant contributions.
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259Wagering on an Ironic God: Pascal on Faith and Philosophy by Thomas S. Hibbs (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 56 (2): 372-373. 2018.This is a short review of Thomas S. Hibbs' book: *Wagering on an Ironic God: Pascal on Faith and Philosophy*.
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92Atheism and AgnosticismCambridge University Press. 2018.This is a Cambridge *Element*, on the topic of atheism and agnosticism. It contains four main parts. First, there is an introduction in which atheism and agnosticism are explained. Second, a theoretical background to assessment. Third, a case for preferring atheism to theism. Fourth, a case for preferring agnosticism to theism.
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13Early Modern Philosophy of Religion: The History of Western Philosophy of Religion Volume 3 (edited book)Acumen Publishing. 2013.The History of Western Philosophy of Religion brings together an international team of over 100 leading scholars to provide authoritative exposition of how history's most important philosophical thinkers - from antiquity to the present day - have sought to analyse the concepts and tenets central to Western religious belief, especially Christianity. Divided chronologically into five volumes, The History of Western Philosophy of Religion is designed to be accessible to a wide range of readers, fro…Read more
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474On Functional Definitions Of Art: A Response to RoweBritish Journal of Aesthetics 33 (1): 67-71. 1993.This paper is a critical assessment of M. W. Rowe's functional definition of art.
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160The Semantics of Media (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 79 (4): 582-583. 2001.Book Information The Semantics of Media. By Jeff Ross. Dordrecht, Kluwer. 1997. Pp. vii + 137. £56.75.
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26A companion to philosophy in Australia & New Zealand (edited book)Monash University Publishing. 2011.This work is a companion to philosophy in Australia and New Zealand. It contains over two hundred entries on: Australasian philosophy departments; notable Australasian philosophers; significant events in the history of Australasian philosophy; and areas to which Australasian philosophers have made notable contributions.
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134The Best Argument Against GodPalgrave-Macmillan. 2013.Preface -- Introduction -- Preliminary matters -- Some big ideas -- Minimal theism and naturalism -- Standard theism and naturalism -- Conclusion.
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42The Antipodean philosopher (edited book)Lexington Books. 2011.v. 1. Public lectures on philosophy in Australia and New Zealand -- 2. Interviews with Australian and New Zealand philosophers
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416On Second-Order Religion, Agatheism and Naturalism. A Reply to Branden Thornhill-Miller, Peter Millican and Janusz SalamonEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Religion 8 (3): 257--272. 2016.These comments, on the paper by Branden Thornhill-Miller and Peter Millican, and on the critique of that paper by Janusz Salamon, divide into four sections. In the first two sections, I briefly sketch some of the major themes from the paper by Thornhill-Miller and Millican, and then from the critique by Salamon. In the final two sections, I provide some critical thoughts on Salamon’s objections to Thornhill-Miller and Millican, and then on the leading claims made by Thornhill-Miller and Millican…Read more
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385Countable fusion not yet proven guilty: it may be the Whiteheadian account of space whatdunnitAnalysis 57 (4): 249-253. 1997.I criticise a paper by Peter Forrest in which he argues that a principle of unrestricted countable fusion has paradoxical consequences. I argue that the paradoxical consequences that he exhibits may be due to his Whiteheadean assumptions about the nature of spacetime rather than to the principle of unrestricted countable fusion.
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686The non-esistence of god' by Nicholas Everitt (review)Philosophical Books 47 (2): 187-9. 2006.Positive review of Nicholas Everitt's *The Non-Existence of God*.
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442Judging theistic argumentsSophia 37 (2): 30-43. 1998.This paper is a response to an earlier paper by Mark Nelson in which he argues for the claim that the best judges of the merits of arguments for the existence of God are theists whose belief in God is properly basic. I criticise Nelson's argument, and pursue some questions about the significance of the conclusion for which he argues.
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1616Uncaused BeginningsFaith and Philosophy 27 (1): 61-71. 2010.I defend the view that it is possible for reality to have a contingent initial state under the causal relation even though it is impossible for any other (non-overlapping) parts of reality to have no cause. I claim that, while there are good theoretical and commonsense grounds for maintaining that it is simply not possible for non-initial parts of reality to have no cause, these good grounds do not require one to claim that it is impossible that reality has an uncaused initial state.
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1282On ‘a new cosmological argument’Religious Studies 36 (3): 345-353. 2000.Richard Gale and Alexander Pruss contend that their ‘new cosmological argument’ is an improvement over familiar cosmological arguments because it relies upon a weaker version of the Principle of Sufficient Reason than that used in those more familiar arguments. However, I note that their ‘weaker’ version of the Principle of Sufficient Reason entails the ‘stronger’ version of that principle which is used in more familiar arguments, so that the alleged advantage of their proof turns out to be illu…Read more
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2514Arguments for the existence of GodOxford Bibliographies Online. 2012.This is the text of my OBO entry on arguments for the existence of God.
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119Review of 'Meinongian logic' by D Jacquette (review)Mind 107 (428): 894-8. 1998.Critical review of Dale Jacquette's *Meinongian Logic*
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705Godelian ontological argumentsAnalysis 56 (4): 226-230. 1996.This paper aims to show that Godel's ontological argument can be parodied in much the same kind of way in which Gaunilo parodied Anselm's Proslogion argument. The parody in this paper fails; there is a patch provided in "Reply to Gettings" (Analysis 60, 4, 2000, 363-7).
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1155New Atheism' versus 'Christian NationalismIn Paolo Diego Bubbio & Philip Andrew Quadrio (eds.), The relationship of philosophy to religion today, Cambridge Scholars Press. pp. 118-53. 2011.A discussion of the recent prominence of 'new atheism' and 'Christian nationalism' in the United States.
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950Atheism: A RetrospectivePhilo 10 (1): 35-58. 2007.This paper provides a detailed examination of Michael Martin’s Atheism: A Philosophical Justification (1990). I argue that Martin’s project in this book is seriously damaged by his neglect of high-level theoretical considerations about rationality, justification, and argumentation. Furthermore, I suggest that this failing is endemic to recent discussions of arguments about the existence of God: there is no prospect of making progress in this area unless much more attention is paid to high-level …Read more
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928Review of Sobel's *Logic and Theism* (review)Philo 9 (1): 73-91. 2006.This is an extended critical review of Jordan Howard Sobel's magnum opus *Logic and Theism*.
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419Facing facts?Australasian Journal of Philosophy 82 (4). 2004.In his recent book, Stephen Neale provides an extended defence of the claim that Gödel's slingshot has dramatic consequences for fact theorists (and, in particular, for fact theorists who look with favour on referential treatments of definite descriptions). I argue that the book-length treatment provides no strengthening of the case that Neale has made elsewhere for this implausible claim. Moreover, I also argue that various criticisms of Neale's case that I made on a previous occasion have met …Read more
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269The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet (review)Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences 2 (2): 247. 2015.Review of Michael Ruse (2015) *The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet*
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438What I believeIn Russell Blackford & Udo Schuklenk (eds.), 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why we are Atheists, Wiley-blackwell. pp. 50-56. 2009.This article gives a brief sketch of the naturalistic beliefs that I hold. It is not intended as a *defence* of those beliefs; the aim of the paper is simply to get the beliefs out onto the table.
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289Consider truth predicates. Minimalist analyses of truth predicates may involve commitment to some of the following claims: (i) truth “predicates” are not genuine predicates -- either because the truth “predicate” disappears under paraphrase or translation into deep structure, or because the truth “predicate” is shown to have a non-predicative function by performative or expressivist analysis, or because truth “predicates” must be traded in for predicates of the form “true-in-L”; (ii) truth predi…Read more
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66Makin's Ontological Argument (Again)Philosophy 68 (264). 1993.This paper is a reply to Stephen Makin's response to my previous criticism of his defense of a conceptual ontological argument. (All relevant bibliographical details are provided in this paper.).
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684Pruss's ontological argumentsReligious Studies 45 (3): 355-363. 2009.First, I suggest that it is possible to make some further improvements upon the Gödelian ontological arguments that Pruss develops. Then, I argue that it is possible to parody Pruss's Gödelian ontological arguments in a way that shows that they make no contribution towards 'lowering the probability of atheism and raising the probability of theism'. I conclude with some remarks about ways in which the arguments of this paper can be extended to apply to the whole family of Gödelian ontological arg…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Religion |
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Language |