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337Williams on Kaplan on the contingent analyticRatio 8 (2): 189-192. 1995.This paper is a reply to a prior work by C. J. F. Williams in which he criticised David Kaplan's account of the contingent analytic. In this paper, I take myself to be defending Kaplan's views against Williams' attack.
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327Animism: Its Scope and LimitsIn Tiddy Smith (ed.), Animism and Philosophy of Religion, Springer Verlag. pp. 199-226. 2022.What should we be animists about? This chapter aims to answer that question. I begin by distinguishing between ontological and ideological formulations of animism. I suggest that plausible forms of animism will be merely ideological, and I distinguish between full-strength and less-than-full-strength animism. Next, I consider the extent to which idealism, pantheism and panpsychism might be taken to support some sort of universal animism. I conclude that there is no plausible form of full-strengt…Read more
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326The Two Envelope 'Paradox'Analysis 54 (1). 1994.This paper discusses the finite version of the two envelope paradox. (That is, we treat the paradox against the background assumption that there is only a finite amount of money in the world.)
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321The Philosophical Insignificance of Gödel's SlingshotMind 106 (421): 121-142. 1997.This paper is a critical examination of Stephen Neale's *The Philosophical Significance of Godel's slingshot*. I am sceptical of the philosophical significance of Godel’s Slingshot (and of Slingshot arguments in general). In particular, I do not believe that Godel’s Slingshot has any interesting and important philosophical consequences for theories of facts or for referential treatments of definite descriptions. More generally, I do not believe that any Slingshot arguments have interesting and i…Read more
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316Review : 'New Essays on the A Priori' ed. by P. Boghossian & C Peacocke (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 80 (3): 384-6. 2002.Review of *New Essays on the A Priori*, an excellent collection edited by Paul Boghossian and Christopher Peacocke. Contributors include: Tyler Burge; Quassim Cassam; Philip Kitcher; Penelope Maddy; Hartry Field; Paul Horwich; Peter Railton; Stephen Yablo; Bob Hale; Crispin Wright; Frank Jackson; Stewart Shapiro; Michael Friedman; Martin Davies; Bill Brewer; and Thomas Nagel.
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315Review of Timothy O'Connor, Theism and Ultimate Explanation: The Necessary Shape of Contingency (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2008 (6). 2008.This paper is a review of the cosmological argument that Tim O'Connor defends in "Theism and Ultimate Explanation".
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313"Humean" Supervenience?Philosophical Studies 101 (1): 77-105. 2000.As with many aspects of David Lewis’s work, it is hard to provide a better summary of his views than he provided himself. So the following introduction to what the Humean Supervenience view is will follow the opening pages of Lewis (1994a) extremely closely. But for those readers who haven’t read that paper, here’s the nickel version.
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312Whither New Atheism?In Christopher R. Cotter, Philip Andrew Quadrio & Jonathan Tuckett (eds.), New Atheism: Critical Perspectives and Contemporary Debates. pp. 15-31. 2017.In order to give a proper estimation of the place of the New Atheism in history, we shall need to have before us an overview of that history. So I shall begin with an appropriate sketch. Then I will try to give an account of the current global state of play, and to indicate some reasons why it seems reasonable to think that the worldview of the New Atheists is currently gaining ground, at least in certain quarters. After examining—and rejecting—some recent claims that the worldview of the New At…Read more
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311A fairly lengthy book review that appears at the Secular Web.
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310Rationality and WorldviewIn Paul Draper & J. L. Schellenberg (eds.), Renewing Philosophy of Religion: Exploratory Essays, Oxford University Press. pp. 174-86. 2017.In this paper, I aim to bring out the implausibility of the claim that there is a class of philosophers of religion—holders of a particular constellation of beliefs about religion—whose religious beliefs are either uniquely rational or uniquely supported by a stock of cogent arguments. My initial focus will be on models of parties to religious disagreements. These models may be simple, but I believe that there is much to be learned from them.
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308Knowledge, Belief and God: New Insights in Religious Epistemology Edited by Matthew A. Benton, John Hawthorne and Dani Rabinowitz (review)Analysis 79 (2): 381-384. 2019.This is a review of *Knowledge, Belief and God: New Insights in Religious Epistemology* (edited by Matthew Benton, John Hawthorne, and Dani Rabinowitz). The review briefly discusses the contributed essays by Benton and Isaac Choi.
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305On behalf of the foolAnalysis 71 (2): 304-306. 2011.This paper responds to a previous paper by Gary Matthews and Lynne Rudder Baker. Their paper, in turn, was a response to my reply to an even earlier paper of theirs. (The relevant bibliographical details are in this paper.) They claim to have a new, improved, simple ontological argument. I argue that the new, simple ontological argument is not, in any way, improved.
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301From physics to philosophy. Jeremy buttereld, Constantine Pagonis (review)Mind 110 (439): 732-736. 2001.This is a review of *From Physics to Philosophy* (edited by Jeremy Butterfield and Constantine Pagonis).
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300Natural theologyIn Deane-Peter Baker (ed.), Alvin Plantinga: Contemporary Philosophy in Focus, Cambridge University Press. pp. 15-47. 2007.This paper is a careful examination of the various approaches that Alvin Plantinga has taken towards natural theology over the course of his academic career (from *God and Other Minds* to *Warranted Christian Belief*). In his earliest works, Plantinga has a very clear and strict conception of the project of natural theology, and he argues very clearly (and correctly) that that project fails. In his middle works, Plantinga has a tolerably clear and slightly less strict conception of the project o…Read more
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300Divine LanguageSophia. forthcoming.This is an initial survey of some philosophical questions about divine language. Could God be a language producer and language user? Could there be a divine private language? Could there be a divine language of thought? The answer to these questions that I shall tentatively defend are, respectively: Yes, No and No. (Because I use some technical terms from recent philosophy of language, there is an appendix to this chapter in which I explain my use of those terms.)
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294Analytic Philosophy of ReligionSaudi Journal of Philosophical Studies 2 163-79. 2021.This paper provides an overview of 'analytic' philosophy of religion. It begins with a historical sketch. It then examines some of the kinds of questions that are investigated by 'analytic' philosophers of religion. It concludes with brief discussion of possible futures for 'analytic' philosophy of religion. There is also a very short appendix on the treatment of Islam and Arabic philosophy within 'analytic' philosophy of religion.
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294Physical EschatologyPhilo 4 (2): 148-168. 2001.In this paper, I review evidence which strongly supports the claim that life will eventually be extinguished from the universe. I then examine the ethical implications of this evidence, focusing, in particular, on the question whether it is a bad thing that life will eventually die out.
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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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287Evil Beyond the Burden of Belief (review)Philo 3 (2): 104-107. 2000.Review of *Suffering Belief: Evil and the Anglo-American Defence of Theism* (by Andrea Weisberger). This paper was originally published at the Secular Web; it was later published in *Philo*. Details here are to the publication in *Philo*.
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287Makin on the Ontological ArgumentPhilosophy 66 (255). 1991.This paper is a critique of Stephen Makin's ontological argument. To some extent, the argument of this paper is recapitulated in *Ontological Arguments and Belief in God* (CUP, 1996).
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286The Ontological ArgumentsIn Donald M. Borchert (ed.), Philosophy: Religion, Macmillan Reference. pp. 51-64. 2017.This paper discusses: (1) Anselm’s ontological argument and its criticism by Gaunilo; (2) Plantinga’s ontological argument and its criticism by Mackie and Sobel; and (3) a simplified version of Gödel’s ontological argument. It also looks carefully at (4) Kant’s attempt to show that it is impossible for there to be a successful ontological argument.
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286Biblical Science? (review)Philo 1 (2): 68-78. 1998.Short critical review of Gerard Schroeder's *The Science of God*.
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281Conceptions of Supreme DeitySophia 1-11. forthcoming.This paper attempts to provide a high-level comparison of Eastern and Western conceptions of deity. It finds some significant similarities—involving worshipworthiness and the ideal shape of human lives—and some important differences—concerning the ultimate nature of reality, the relation of supreme deity to the rest of reality, and the relative frequency of divine incarnation.
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272Late-Twentieth-Century atheismIn Graham Oppy & Nick Trakakis (eds.), Twentieth-Century Philosophy of Religion: The History of Western Philosophy of Religion, Volume 5, Routledge. pp. 301-12. 2009.This chapter provides a brief account of atheistic philosophy of relgion in the second half of the twentieth century.
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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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269Why semantic innocence?Australasian Journal of Philosophy 70 (4). 1992.This paper rejects the imposition of "semantic innocence" as a constraint on semantic theories. In particular, it argues that recent attempts to justify the imposition of "semantic innocence" as a constraint on semantic theories fail.
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265Reply to Richard DavisPhilosophia Christi 11 (2): 423-436. 2009.This paper is a response to a paper by Rich Davis in which he argues that David Lewis' modal realism is inconsistent with classical theism. I provide what I take to be a coherent modal realist formulation of classical theism.
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260God and Infinity: Directions for Future ResearchIn Michał Heller & W. H. Woodin (eds.), Infinity: new research frontiers, Cambridge University Press. pp. 233. 2011.This paper discusses the treatment of "infinity" in philosophy of religion, including its use in discussions of divine attributes, and its use in various arguments about the existence of God (including the kalam cosmological argument and Pascal's wager). The aim of the paper is to set out -- and where possible, to resolve -- various foundational problems about infinity.
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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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259Ontological argumentsStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2014.Latest version of my SEP entry on ontological arguments, which first appeared in 1996. General discussion of ontological arguments. Includes a brief historical overview, a taxonomy of different kinds of ontological arguments, a brief survey of objections to the different kinds of ontological arguments identified in the taxonomy, and more extended discussions of Anselm's ontological argument (Proslogion 2), Godel's ontological argument, and Plantinga's ontological argument.
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Religion |
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Language |