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772O'Connor's Cosmological ArgumentIn Jonathan L. Kvanvig (ed.), Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion Volume, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2010.This paper criticises the cosmological argument that Tim O'Connor provides in his book *Theism and Ultimate Explanation*.
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994Review of *God and Design* (edited by Neil Manson) (review)Sophia 43 (1): 127-131. 2004.This is a review of Neil Manson (ed.) *God and Design*. The collected essays cover a wide spectrum of opinion, and will be required reading for anyone interested in contemporary debate on arguments for design.
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117Theism and Atheism: Opposing Viewpoints in Philosophy (edited book)Gale. 2019.This book is a discussion of a wide range of topics that bear on the existence of God. For each topic, there is a chapter by one (or more) theists, and a chapter by one (or more) atheists. Topics: (1) Definition; (2) Method; (3) Logic; (4) Doxastic Foundations; (5) Religious Experience; (6) Faith and Revelation; (7) Miracles; (8) Religious Diversity; (9) Causation and Sufficient Reason; (10) A Priori; (11) Our Universe; (12) Human History; (13) Human Beings; (14) Ethics; (15) Meaning; (16) Evil …Read more
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891Knowledge, 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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2862The 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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1433Evidential Arguments from Evil and Skeptical TheismPhilo 8 (2): 84-94. 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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50History 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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735Wagering 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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34Early Modern Philosophy of Religion: The History of Western Philosophy of Religion Volume 3Acumen 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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981On 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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634The Semantics of MediaAustralasian 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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153A companion to philosophy in Australia & New Zealand (edited book)Monash University Publishing. 2010.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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230The 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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75The 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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1590Critical notice of J.P. Moreland's Consciousness and the Existence of God: A Theistic ArgumentEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Religion 3 (1): 193-212. 2011.This paper is a detailed examination of some parts of J. P. Moreland's book on "the argument from consciousness". (There is a companion article that discusses the parts of the book not taken up in this critical notice.).
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776Review 'The Rationality of Theism', ed. by P. Copan and P. Moser (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 82 (3): 535-8. 2004.Critical review of *The Rationality of Theism*, a collection of new essays edited by Paul Copan and Paul Moser.
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966Late-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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867On Davies' institutional definition of artSouthern Journal of Philosophy 29 (3): 371-382. 1991.This paper is a critique of Stephen Davies' institutional definition of art. I argue that Davies' definition suffers from a range of problems.
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779Analysis of Existing: Barry Miller's Approach to God, by Elmar J. Kremer: New York: Bloomsbury, 2014, pp. xiv + 143, AU$148 (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 93 (2): 409-410. 2015.Review of Kremer's book on Barry Miller's approach to God. (I have discussed Miller's argument from contingency in other publications.)
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230Reading Philosophy of Religion (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2010._Reading Philosophy of Religion_ combines a diverse selection of classical and contemporary texts in philosophy of religion with insightful commentaries. Offers a unique presentation through a combination of text and interactive commentary Provides a mix of classic and contemporary texts, including some not anthologized elsewhere Includes writings from thinkers such as Aquinas, Boethius, Hume, Plantinga and Putnam Divided into sections which examine religious language, the existence of God, reas…Read more
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621"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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1177OmnipotencePhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 71 (1). 2005.Recently, many philosophers have supposed that the divine attribute of omnipotence is properly understood as some kind of maximal power. I argue that all of the best known attempts to analyse omnipotence in terms of maximal power are multiply flawed. Moreover, I argue that there are compelling reasons for supposing that, on orthodox theistic conceptions, maximal power is not one of the divine attributes.
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2074Arguing About The Kalam Cosmological ArgumentPhilo 5 (1): 34-61. 2002.This paper begins with a fairly careful and detailed discussion of the conditions under which someone who presents an argument ought to be prepared to concede that the argument is unsuccessful. The conclusions reached in this discussion are then applied to William Lane Craig’s defense of what he calls “the kalam cosmological argument.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, the chief contention of the paper is that Craig ought to be prepared to concede that “the kalam cosmological argument” is not a successful…Read more
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596Review of D. Jacquette, Meinongian logic (review)Mind 107 (428): 877-908. 1998.This is a review of *Meinongian Logic* (by Dale Jacquette).
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2581From the Tristram Shandy Paradox to the Christmas Shandy Paradox: Reply to OderbergArs Disputandi 3 172-195. 2003.This paper is a response to David Oderberg's criticisms of a previous paper of mine. (Bibliographical details are provided in the article.)
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1279Weak agnosticism defendedInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 36 (3). 1994.Agnosticism has had some bad press in recent years. Nonetheless, I hope to show that agnosticism can be so formulated that it is no less philosophically respectable than theism and atheism. This is not a mere philosophical exercise; for, as it happens, the formulated position is--I think--the one to which I subscribe. I include a qualification here since it may be that the position to which I subscribe is better characterised as fallibilist atheism--but more of that anon
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764Williams 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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6879Rowe's evidential arguments from evilIn Justin P. Mcbrayer (ed.), A Companion to the Problem of Evil, Wiley. pp. 49-66. 2013.This chapter discusses the two most prominent recent evidential arguments from evil, due, respectively, to William Rowe and Paul Draper. I argue that neither of these evidential arguments from evil is successful, i.e. such that it ought to persuade anyone who believes in God to give up that belief. In my view, theists can rationally maintain that each of these evidential arguments from evil contains at least one false premise.
Areas of Specialization
| Philosophy of Religion |
Areas of Interest
| Epistemology |
| Metaphysics |
| Philosophy of Language |