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54Suárez’s “Best Argument” and the Dependence of Morality on GodQuaestiones Disputatae 5 (1): 30-42. 2014.I want to begin by expressing misgivings about a standard way of making out a claim for the dependence of morality on God, misgivings that I do not have about a somewhat less standard way of arguing for this dependence. I will then consider a guiding maxim for how to proceed along this less standard way, a maxim that I draw from Suárez’s account of the relationship between divine activity and the activity of secondary causes. I then sketch one way of conceiving the dependence of morality on God …Read more
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50Desire and ethics in Hobbes'sJournal of the History of Philosophy 38 (2): 259-268. 2000.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Desire and Ethics in Hobbes's Leviathan:A Response to Professor DeighAccording to the "orthodox" interpretation of Hobbes's ethics, the laws of nature are the products of means-end thinking. According to the "definitivist" interpretation recently offered by John Deigh, the laws of nature are generated by reason operating on a definition of "law of nature," where the content of this definition is given by linguistic usage.2 I aim to a…Read more
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47An Essay on Divine AuthorityCornell University Press. 2018.In the first book wholly concerned with divine authority, Mark C. Murphy explores the extent of God's rule over created rational beings. The author challenges the view—widely supported by theists and nontheists alike—that if God exists, then humans must be bound by an obligation of obedience to this being. He demonstrates that this view, the "authority thesis," cannot be sustained by any of the arguments routinely advanced on its behalf, including those drawn from perfect being theology, metaeth…Read more
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46FINNIS ON NATURE, REASON, GOD: Mark C. MurphyLegal Theory 13 (3-4): 187-209. 2007.It is often claimed that John Finnis's natural law theory is detachable from the ultimate theistic explanation that he offers in the final chapter of Natural Law and Natural Rights. My aim in this paper is to think through the question of the detachability of Finnis's theistic explanation of the natural law from the remainder of his natural law view, both in Natural Law and Natural Rights and beyond. I argue that Finnis's theistic explanation of the natural law as actually presented can be, with…Read more
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45Finnis on nature, reason, GodLegal Theory 13 (3-4): 187-209. 2007.It is often claimed that John Finnis's natural law theory is detachable from the ultimate theistic explanation that he offers in the final chapter of Natural Law and Natural Rights . My aim in this paper is to think through the question of the detachability of Finnis's theistic explanation of the natural law from the remainder of his natural law view, both in Natural Law and Natural Rights and beyond. I argue that Finnis's theistic explanation of the natural law as actually presented can be, wit…Read more
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44God and Moral Obligation, by C. Stephen Evans (review)Faith and Philosophy 31 (1): 112-117. 2014.
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43Hobbes on Tacit CovenantsHobbes Studies 7 (1): 69-94. 1994.Tacit consent theories of political obligation have fallen into disfavor. The difficulties that plague such accounts have been well-known since Hume's "Of the Original Contract"1 and have recently been forcefully reformulated by M. B. E. Smith, A. John Simmons, and Joseph Raz.2 In this article, though, I shall argue that Hobbes' version of the argument from tacit consent escapes the criticisms leveled by Hume, Smith, Simmons, and Raz against tacit consent theories as a class. Crucial to my defen…Read more
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43Pruss on the Requirement of Universal LoveRoczniki Filozoficzne 63 (3): 21-30. 2015.Throughout his excellent book One Body, Alex Pruss relies upon the view that there is a requirement of universal love: each and every one of us is required to love each and every one of us. Although he often appeals to revealed truth in making arguments for his various theses, he supports the requirement of universal love primarily through a philosophical argument, an argument that I call the “argument from responsiveness to value.” The idea is that all persons bear a sort of nonrelational value…Read more
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43God's Own Ethics: Norms of Divine Agency and the Argument From EvilOxford University Press. 2017.Mark C. Murphy addresses the question of how God's ethics differs from human ethics. Murphy suggests that God is not subject to the moral norms to which we humans are subject. This has immediate implications for the argument from evil: we cannot assume that an absolutely perfect being is in any way bound to prevent the evils of this world.
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42Reply to AlmeidaReligious Studies 40 (3): 335-339. 2004.Michael J. Almeida offers two criticisms of the argument of my ‘A trilemma for divine command theory’. The first criticism is that I mistakenly assume the validity of the following inference pattern: property A is identical to property B; property B supervenes on property C; therefore, property A supervenes on property C. The second criticism is that I have misinterpreted the moral-supervenience thesis upon which I rely in making this argument. The first of Almeida's criticisms is completely unt…Read more
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42Functioning and FlourishingProceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 73 193-206. 1999.
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36Is Goodness Without God Good Enough?: A Debate on Faith, Secularism, and EthicsRowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2008.Is Goodness Without God Good Enough contains a lively debate between William Lane Craig and Paul Kurtz on the relationship between God and ethics, followed by seven new essays that both comment on the debate and advance the broader discussion of this important issue. Written in an accessible style by eminent scholars, this book will appeal to students and academics alike.
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34Philosophy of lawBlackwell. 2007.The Philosophy of Law is a broad-reaching text that guides readers through the basic analytical and normative issues in the field, highlighting key historical and contemporary thinkers and offering a unified treatment of the various issues in the philosophy of law. Enlivened with numerous, everyday examples to illustrate various concepts of law. Employs the idea of three central commonplaces about law - that law is a social matter, that law is authoritative, and that law is for the common good -…Read more
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31Natural Law and Moral Philosophy (review)American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 71 (4): 635-638. 1997.
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30Hobbes on Conscientious DisobedienceArchiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 77 (3): 263-284. 1995.In _Leviathan Hobbes offers an argument for the conclusion that one is bound to obey one's sovereign even when one judges that obedience to the sovereign's command would require one to disobey a law of God. The basis for Hobbes's argument is his contention that the covenant that institutes sovereignty includes the renunciation of the right to act in accordance with one's private conscience. In this paper I show that Hobbes's argument fails because one that takes the law of the sovereign to be co…Read more
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27Review of Thomas Hobbes, Alan Cromartie (ed.), Quentin Skinner (ed.), Writings on Common Law and Hereditary Right, Consisting of a Dialogue Between a Philosopher and a Student, of the Common Laws of England (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2005 (12). 2005.
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25Desire and Ethics in Hobbes's Leviathan : A Response to Professor DeighJournal of the History of Philosophy 38 (2): 259-268. 2000.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Desire and Ethics in Hobbes's Leviathan:A Response to Professor DeighAccording to the "orthodox" interpretation of Hobbes's ethics, the laws of nature are the products of means-end thinking. According to the "definitivist" interpretation recently offered by John Deigh, the laws of nature are generated by reason operating on a definition of "law of nature," where the content of this definition is given by linguistic usage.2 I aim to a…Read more
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22Deviant Uses of "Obligation" in Hobbes' "Leviathan"History of Philosophy Quarterly 11 (3). 1994.
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22The Duty to Obey the Law: Selected Philosophical Readings (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1998.The question 'Why should I obey the law?' introduces a contemporary puzzle that is as old as philosophy itself. The puzzle is especially troublesome if we think of cases in which breaking the law is not otherwise wrongful, and in which the chances of getting caught are negligible. Philosophers from Socrates to H.L.A. Hart have struggled to give reasoned support to the idea that we do have a general moral duty to obey the law but, more recently, the greater number of learned voices has expressed …Read more
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20The Conscience PrincipleJournal of Philosophical Research 22 387-407. 1997.My aim is to defend the conscience principle: One ought never to act against the dictates of one’s conscience. In the first part of this paper, I explain what I mean by “conscience” and “dictate of conscience,” and I show that the notion that the conscience principle is inherently anti-authoritarian or inherently fanatical is mistaken. In the second part, I argue that the existence of mistaken conscience does not reduce the conscience principle to absurdity. In the third part, I present two argu…Read more
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16Surrender of Judgment and the Consent Theory of Political AuthorityLaw and Philosophy 16 (2): 115-143. 2005.The aim of this paper is to take the first steps toward providing a refurbished consent theory of political authority, one that rests in part on a reconception of the relationship between the surrender of judgment and the authoritativeness of political institutions. On the standard view, whatever grounds political authority implies that one ought to surrender one's judgment to that of one's political institutions. On the refurbished view, it is the surrender of one's judgment – which can plausib…Read more
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16Précis of Divine Holiness and Divine ActionJournal of Analytic Theology 11 404-410. 2023.This article is a précis of Mark C. Murphy’s _Divine Holiness and Divine Action_ (Oxford University Press, 2021), which offers an account of God’s holiness and of the difference this view of God’s holiness should make to our understanding of divine action.
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14Functioning and FlourishingProceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 73 193-206. 1999.
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13Innocence Lost: An Examination of Inescapable Moral WrongdoingPhilosophical Books 37 (1): 61-63. 1996.
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12The Difference Holiness MakesJournal of Analytic Theology 11 470-488. 2023.Terence Cuneo & Jada Twedt Strabbing, Samuel Fleischacker, Jonathan Rutledge & Jordan Wessling, and Sameer Yadav have generously engaged with the accounts of divine holiness and its implications offered in my _Divine Holiness and Divine Action_ (2021), criticizing its arguments and in some cases offering attractive alternative accounts. Here I respond to some of their criticisms.
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10Book ReviewsPhilippa Foot,. Natural Goodness.Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001. Pp. 136. $22.00Ethics 113 (2): 410-414. 2003.