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11Causation, Creaturely and DivinePhilosophia Christi 25 (2): 221-229. 2023.A biblical approach to reconciling God’s sovereignty with creaturely responsibility should avoid the extremes of global occasionalism and completely autonomous creatures. This paper evaluates the standard intermediary solutions offered by conservationists and concurrentists. It argues that while each contributes insights which a satisfactory account should retain, none is fully adequate. Even Leibniz’s sophisticated response, which accounts for providence, miracles, and moral responsibility, una…Read more
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16Darwinian Evolution and Classical Liberalism: Theories in Tension (edited book)Lexington Books. 2013.Darwinian Evolution and Classical Liberalism brings together a collection of new essays that examine the multifaceted ferment between Darwinian biology and classical liberalism
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9IntroductionIn Jonathan J. Loose, Angus John Louis Menuge & J. P. Moreland (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism, Wiley-blackwell. 2018.Substance dualism is compatible not only with Cartesian dualism but also with a number of nonCartesian alternatives, including several varieties of Thomistic dualism, William Hasker's emergent subject dualism, and the holistic anthropology of E. J. Lowe. Due to recent developments within the philosophy of mind, a renewed interest in historical and contemporary theories of the soul, and a more careful evaluation of what does and does not follow from neuroscience, substance dualism is back on the …Read more
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9Why Reject Christian Physicalism?In Jonathan J. Loose, Angus John Louis Menuge & J. P. Moreland (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism, Wiley-blackwell. 2018.According to Christian physicalism (CP), a human person does not have an immaterial soul, but is identical to or constituted by a physical object. This chapter focuses on several reasons to think CP does not adequately account for the stewardship obligations. If CP is properly confined to the resources actually available to a physicalist anthropology it seems unable to account for the capacities of stewards, including a first‐person perspective, knowledge of the natural world, reasoning, and the…Read more
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Divine sustaining causes and the mind-body problemIn Gregory E. Ganssle (ed.), Philosophical Essays on Divine Causation, Routledge. 2021.
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12The Illusions of Techno-AnthropologyPhilosophia Christi 24 (1): 85-100. 2022.Many pro-life supporters accept the substance view of human value, tying intrinsic value to properties essential to all human beings. Many pro-choice supporters accept the functionalist view of human value, tying intrinsic value to accidental functional properties. They argue that there are circumstances in which terminating human beings is permissible. I offer three reasons for rejecting FV. First, FV fails to ontologically ground intrinsic qualities. Second, FV entails that technologically enh…Read more
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11Questions of religious liberty have become flashpoints of controversy in virtually every area of life around the world. Despite protection of religious liberty at both supranational and individual state levels, there is an increasing number of conflicts concerning the proper way to recognize it, both in modern secular states, and in countries with an established religion or theocratic mode of government. This book provides an analysis of the general concept of religious liberty with a close stud…Read more
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25Onward Christian PhilosophersPhilosophia Christi 21 (1): 11-15. 2019.Christian philosophers have engaged naturalism in three main ways: direct refutation; systematic comparison; and sustained development of compelling alternative accounts. While all of these options have value, I argue that it is, and especially, that are most likely to win converts, and that we are witnessing an encouraging strategic shift in that direction. Options and bring Christian philosophers into closer dialogue with their naturalistic counterparts, building mutual respect and a greater o…Read more
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9Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From its Cultural CaptivityPhilosophia Christi 6 (2): 378-382. 2004.
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36Neuroscience, Rationality, and Free WillPhilosophia Christi 15 (1): 81-96. 2013.John Searle claims that reasoning requires libertarian free will. He hopes this can be reconciled with a naturalistic neuroscience through a sophisticated theory of emergence, which includes indeterminism, and topdown causation. This is allegedly naturalistic because each mental state is causally reducible to a realizing neuronal state. I argue that Searle’s theory fails to overcome four main problems and cannot account for reasoning without implicit appeal to nonnaturalistic entities.
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26Naturalism and Our Knowledge of Reality: Testing Religious Truth ClaimsPhilosophia Christi 15 (1): 187-191. 2013.
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14Knowledge of AbstractaPhilosophia Christi 18 (1): 7-27. 2016.I argue that materialism is unable to account for knowledge deriving from such abstracta as rules of inference, algorithms, and the ideals of infinity, perfection, and eternity. Both reductive and nonreductive materialism subscribe to the causal closure of the physical world, which implies that a creature’s concepts derive exclusively from the interactions of brains with the physical environment. These resources do not explain the acquisition of abstract concepts or the successful use of these c…Read more
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28The First-Person Perspective Is Not a Mere Mental PropertyPhilosophia Christi 20 (1): 67-72. 2018.Lynne Rudder Baker maintained that persons are essentially constituted by a first-person perspective. But she argued that this perspective is only an emergent property: it does not require a mental substance. In this paper, I argue that the first-person perspective cannot be a mere mental property, because it presupposes the existence of a mental substance. This makes it incoherent to claim that possession of a first-person perspective is what makes an individual a person. And, intentionality, w…Read more
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22Introduction to Symposium on Dualism and PhysicalismPhilosophia Christi 20 (1): 7-11. 2018.Routinely dismissed as a defeated position, substance dualism has seen a resurgence. This is partly due to a persistent failure of reductive physicalism to capture mental phenomena and to the instability of nonreductive alternatives. But it is also due to the return of the subject to center stage in the philosophy of mind and to the rich diversity of historical and contemporary theories of the soul. It is therefore time for a serious reevaluation of the merits of substance dualism by both dualis…Read more
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134The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2018.A groundbreaking collection of contemporary essays from leading international scholars that provides a balanced and expert account of the resurgent debate about substance dualism and its physicalist alternatives. Substance dualism has for some time been dismissed as an archaic and defeated position in philosophy of mind, but in recent years, the topic has experienced a resurgence of scholarly interest and has been restored to contemporary prominence by a growing minority of philosophers prepared…Read more
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10Against methodological materialismIn Robert C. Koons & George Bealer (eds.), The Waning of Materialism: New Essays, Oxford University Press. 2009.
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18Darwinian Conservatism and Free WillIn Stephen Dilley (ed.), Darwinian Evolution and Classical Liberalism: Theories in Tension, Lexington Books. pp. 93. 2013.
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52Robust Ethics: The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Godless Normative Realism, by Erik J. WielenbergFaith and Philosophy 33 (2): 249-253. 2016.
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8Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From its Cultural Captivity (review)Philosophia Christi 6 (2): 378-382. 2004.
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3Whereof One Can Speak, Thereof One Must Not Be Silent: A Review Essay on Tractatus Logico-TheologicusPhilosophia Christi 6 (1): 129-138. 2004.
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11Is Downward Causation Possible?Philosophia Christi 11 (1): 93-110. 2009.Downward causation (mental to physical causation) is controversial in the philosophy of mind. Some materialists argue that such causation is impossible because it (1) violates the causal closure of the physical; (2) is incompatible with natural law; and (3) cannot be reconciled with the empirical evidence from neuroscience. This paper responds to these objections by arguing that (1) there is no good reason to believe that the physical is causally closed; (2) properly understood, natural laws are…Read more
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A Causal Analysis of the Intensionality of Rationalizing ExplanationsDissertation, The University of Wisconsin - Madison. 1989.A naturalistic theory of rationalization is defended against a fundamental objection. The theory claims that: The rationalizing relation can be fully analysed in causal explanatory terms. However, is rendered problematic by the fact that: Rationalizations exhibit a higher degree of intensionality than ordinary physical causal explanations. To show that can be maintained in the face of , I develop an account of on which and may be reconciled. ;The opening chapter gives an account of the intension…Read more
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6Intelligent Design, Darwinism, and Psychological UnityPhilosophia Christi 10 (1): 119-136. 2008.Folk psychology affirms the existence of a persistent, unitary self at the center of each individual’s mental life. Darwinian psychologists have challenged this view with the selfish gene and selfish meme theories of the mind. Both theories claim that cognition arises from the interaction of blind, selfish replicators (genes or memes) and that the enduring self is an illusion. I argue that both theories suffer from an implausible atomism and an inability to explain human reasoning, subjectivity,…Read more
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