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19The Objection from Touch: Sensation, Extension, and the Soul in Augustine’s The Quantity of the SoulHistory of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 24 (2): 268-295. 2020.In The Quantity of the Soul, Augustine puts forward the view that the soul is immaterial and that its quantity (quantitas) must be understood in terms of power rather than spatial extension. Against this view, his friend and interlocutor Evodius raises an important objection, The Objection from Touch, which argues that the soul’s exercise of tactile sensation requires that it be extended through the parts of the body. This paper examines Evodius’s objection and Augustine’s response to it. Partic…Read more
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148Al-Ghazālī on Possibility and the Critique of CausalityJournal of Nietzsche Studies 10 (1): 23-46. 2001.One of the most striking features of speculative theology (kalaam) as it developed within the Ash'arite tradition of Islam is its denial of causal power to creatures. Much like Malebranche in the seventeenth century, the Ash'arites saw this denial as a natural extension of monotheism and were led as a result to embrace an occasionalist account of causality. According to their analysis, causal power is identical with creative power, and since God is the sole and sovereign creator, God is the only…Read more
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17Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical StudyCornell University Press. 2016.External World Skepticism: The Deception of the Senses.
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15Nicholas of Autrecourt and William of Ockham on Atomism, Nominalism, and the Ontology of MotionMedieval Philosophy & Theology 5 (1): 63-85. 1996.
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1Descartes' Theistic Metaphysics in its Scholastic ContextDissertation, University of Pennsylvania. 1993.Descartes' relation to the scholastic tradition is poorly understood. In the dissertation I begin to redress this deficiency by studying his theism in relation to its scholastic predecessors. This is a natural starting point since it is in the theistic doctrine that we not only see Descartes' profound indebtedness to scholasticism, but find the foundations of his radically anti-Aristotelian scientific program as well. I begin with an analysis of Descartes' views on the relation of philosophy, th…Read more
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47Indifference, necessity, and Descartes's derivation of the laws of motionJournal of the History of Philosophy 34 (2): 193-212. 1996.Indifference, Necessity, and Descartes's Derivation of the Laws of Motion BLAKE D. DUTTON WHILE WORKING ON Le Monde, his first comprehensive scientific treatise, Des- cartes writes the following to Mersenne: "I think that all those to whom God has given the use of this reason have an obligation to employ it principally in the endeavor to know him and to know themselves. This is the task with which I began my studies; and I can say that I would not have been able to discover the foundations of ph…Read more
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31Emotions in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (review)Review of Metaphysics 60 (1): 162-163. 2006.
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8Afterword to Part IIIn Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press. pp. 253-256. 2016.
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33Descartes and the Last Scholastics (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 38 (2): 275-277. 2000.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Descartes and the Last ScholasticsBlake D. DuttonRoger Ariew. Descartes and the Last Scholastics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. Pp. xi + 230. Cloth, $42.50.The attempt to understand Descartes vis-à-vis the scholastic tradition dates back to the studies of Etienne Gilson early in this century. Though Descartes saw himself as a revolutionary who would overthrow the Aristotelianism entrenched in the universities, G…Read more
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116. The Error of the AcademicsIn Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press. pp. 120-138. 2016.
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99. Platonism and the Apprehensible Truths of PhilosophyIn Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press. pp. 195-213. 2016.
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7IndexIn Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press. pp. 265-278. 2016.
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57Descartes’s Dualism and the One Principal Attribute RuleBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 11 (3). 2003.This Article does not have an abstract
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8AbbreviationsIn Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press. 2016.
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122. Socrates, the Academics, and the Good LifeIn Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press. pp. 33-48. 2016.
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18Nicholas of Autrecourt and William of Ockham on Atomism, Nominalism, and the Ontology of MotionMedieval Philosophy & Theology 5 (1): 63-85. 1996.
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8FrontmatterIn Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press. 2016.
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12BibliographyIn Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press. pp. 257-264. 2016.
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35Spinoza's Heresy: Immortality and the Jewish Mind (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 41 (1): 130-131. 2003.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Philosophy 41.1 (2003) 130-131 [Access article in PDF] Steven Nadler. Spinoza's Heresy: Immortality and the Jewish Mind. New York: Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, 2001. Pp. xvi + 225. Cloth, $35.00. Steven Nadler's Spinoza's Heresy opens with the following declaration: "It is a splendid mystery" (1). The mystery, of course, is how a gifted son of the Jewish community of Amsterdam, a young man whom …Read more
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114. The Inaction ObjectionIn Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press. pp. 75-94. 2016.
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54Physics and metaphysics in Descartes and GalileoJournal of the History of Philosophy 37 (1): 49-71. 1999.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Physics and Metaphysics in Descartes and GalileoBlake D. Duttonin his classic biography of Descartes, Charles Adam passes this judgment on the influence of Galileo’s condemnation on the development of Cartesian metaphysics:Sans la condemnation de Galilée, nous aurions eu tout de même la métaphysique de Descartes. Mais nous ne l’aurions problement pas eue sous la forme volumineuse qu’elle a prise avec toutes ces Objections et Reponses…Read more
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6IntroductionIn Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press. pp. 1-8. 2016.
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2210. Defense of the SensesIn Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press. pp. 214-227. 2016.
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81. Augustine and the AcademicsIn Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press. pp. 9-30. 2016.
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67. The Academic Denial of the Possibility of KnowledgeIn Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press. pp. 145-164. 2016.
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19Nicholas of Autrecourt and William of Ockham on Atomism, Nominalism, and the Ontology of MotionMedieval Philosophy & Theology 5 (1): 63-85. 1996.
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1011. First-Person TruthsIn Augustine and Academic Skepticism: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press. pp. 228-252. 2016.
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26The Cambridge Companion to Augustine (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 40 (1): 118-119. 2002.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Philosophy 40.1 (2002) 118-119 [Access article in PDF] Book Review The Cambridge Companion to Augustine Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann, editors. The Cambridge Companion to Augustine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. xv + 307. Cloth, $59.95. Paper, $21.95. Given the immeasurable influence of Augustine upon the Western tradition, a volume devoted to him in the Cambridge Companion Series ha…Read more
Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |