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128Value, obligation and the asymmetry questionBioethics 12 (2). 1998.Is there a prima facie obligation to produce additional individuals whose lives would be worth living? In his paper ‘Is it Good to Make Happy People?’, Stuart Rachels argues not only that there is, but, also, that precisely as much weight should be assigned to the quality of life that would be enjoyed by such potential persons, if they were to be actualized, as to the quality of life enjoyed by actually existing persons. In response, I shall argue, first, that Rachels’ view is exposed to very se…Read more
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456The nature of lawsCanadian Journal of Philosophy 7 (4): 667-98. 1977.This paper is concerned with the question of the truth conditions of nomological statements. My fundamental thesis is that it is possible to set out an acceptable, noncircular account of the truth conditions of laws and nomological statements if and only if relations among universals - that is, among properties and relations, construed realistically - are taken as the truth-makers for such statements. My discussion will be restricted to strictly universal, nonstatistical laws. The reason for t…Read more
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175Philosophy, critical thinking and 'after-birth abortion: why should the baby live?'Journal of Medical Ethics 39 (5): 266-272. 2013.Confronted with an article defending conclusions that many people judge problematic, philosophers are interested, first of all, in clarifying exactly what arguments are being offered for the views in question, and then, second, in carefully and dispassionately examining those arguments, to determine whether or not they are sound. As a philosopher, then, that is how I would naturally approach the article ‘After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?’, by Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva…Read more
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72John Hick and the Concept of Eschatological VerificationReligious Studies 12 (2). 1976.Many philosophers have claimed that theological statements, if taken as referring to something transcending the world of human experience, are devoid of factual content. They may be meaningful in other ways, but they cannot function to describe anything, to say anything true or false. The two most famous defences of this view are Ayer's in chapter vi of Language, Truth, and Logic , and Flew's in his essay ‘Theology and Falsification’. 1
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383Backward causation and the Stalnaker-Lewis approach to counterfactualsAnalysis 62 (3): 191-197. 2002.
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134Analyzing Sterba’s argumentInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 87 (3): 217-222. 2020.Abstract: Michael Tooley’s Comments on James Sterba’s Book, Is a Good God Logically Possible? My comments on Jim Sterba’s book, Is a Good God Logically Possible?, were divided into the following sections. In the first section, I listed some of the attractive features of Sterba’s discussion. These included, first of all, his use of the ideas of “morally constrained freedom” and “constrained intervention by God” to show the moral evils in our world cannot be justified by an appeal to the idea of …Read more
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76A growing Block conception of the nature of time: A comment on saulsonZygon 56 (4): 946-947. 2021.Zygon®, Volume 56, Issue 4, Page 946-947, December 2021.
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42Closing statement and reponse to Plantinga's commentsIn Alvin Plantinga & Michael Tooley (eds.), Knowledge of God, Wiley-blackwell. 2009.This chapter contains sections titled: Plantinga's Responses to My Two Arguments Is Belief in God Non‐Inferentially Justified? The Argument from Evil Versus Justifications for Believing in the Existence of God Concluding Comment: Naturalism, Supernaturalism, and Theism.
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237Alvin Plantinga and the argument from evilAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 58 (4). 1980.Among the central theses defended in this paper are the following. First, the logical incompatibility version of the argument from evil is not one of the crucial versions, and Plantinga, in fostering the illusion that it is, seriously misrepresents claims advanced by other philosophers. Secondly, Plantinga’s arguments against the thesis that the existence of any evil at all is logically incompatible with God’s existence. Thirdly, Plantinga’s attempt to demonstrate that the existence of a certain…Read more
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174The Nature of Causation: A Singularist AccountCanadian Journal of Philosophy 20 (sup1): 271-322. 1990.Is a singularist conception of causation coherent? That is to say, is it possible for two events to be causally related, without that relationship being an instance of some causal law, either basic or derived, and either probabilistic or non-probabilistic? Since the time of Hume, the overwhelmingly dominant philosophical view has been that such a conception of causation is not coherent.
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341Laws of NaturePhilosophical Review 106 (1): 119. 1997.In this book, John Carroll argues for the following two anti-reductionist theses
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Causation and supervenienceIn Michael J. Loux & Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), The Oxford handbook of metaphysics, Oxford University Press. pp. 386-434. 2003.
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50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2009._50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists presents_ a collection of original essays drawn from an international group of prominent voices in the fields of academia, science, literature, media and politics who offer carefully considered statements of why they are atheists. Features a truly international cast of contributors, ranging from public intellectuals such as Peter Singer, Susan Blackmore, and A.C. Grayling, novelists, such as Joe Haldeman, and heavyweight philosophers of religion, incl…Read more
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105Plantinga’s New Argument against MaterialismPhilosophia Christi 14 (1): 29-47. 2012.In this paper, I have attempted to do two main things. First, I argue that Alvin Plantinga’s new argument against materialism, though interesting, shares the fate of his earlier arguments in that it is, in the end, unsuccessful. Secondly, I then argue, contrary to Plantinga’s view that there is no strong argument for materialism, that there is in fact very strong scientific support that can be offered against the hypothesis that the human mind is an immaterial substance, and hence in support of …Read more
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165Armstrong's proof of the realist account of dispositional propertiesAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 50 (3). 1972.This Article does not have an abstract
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50Particulars, actuality, and identity over time (edited book)Garland. 1999.First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
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63Solutions to the New Threats to Academic Freedom?Bioethics 28 (4): 163-165. 2014.In my commentary on Francesca Minerva's article ‘New Threats to Academic Freedom’, I agree with her contention that the existence of the Internet has given rise to new and very serious threats to academic freedom. I think that it is crucial that we confront those threats, and find ways to eliminate them, which I believe can be done. The threats in question involve both authors and editors. In the case of authors, I argue that the best solution is not anonymous publication, but publication using …Read more
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153``Freedom and Foreknowledge"Faith and Philosophy 17 (2): 212-224. 2000.In her book, The Dilemma of Freedom and Foreknowledge, Linda Zagzebski suggests that among the strongest ways of supporting the thesis that libertarian free will is incompatible with divine foreknowledge is what she refers to as the Accidental Necessity argument. Zagzebski contends, however, that at least three satisfactory responses to that argument are available.I argue that two of the proposed solutions are open to strong objections, and that the third, although it may very well handle the sp…Read more
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3Basic Tensed Sentences and Their AnalysisIn Aleksandar Jokic & Quentin Smith (eds.), Time, Tense, and Reference, Mit Press. pp. 409-448. 2003.
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1Probability and causationIn Phil Dowe & Paul Noordhof (eds.), Cause and Chance: Causation in an Indeterministic World, Routledge. 2003.
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277Causation: Reductionism versus realismPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 50 (n/a): 215-236. 1990.
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