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15Avoidability and LibertarianismFaith and Philosophy 13 (3): 415-421. 1996.Recently, Widerker has attacked Fischer’s contention that one could use Frankfurt-type counterexamples to the principle of alternative possibilities to show that even from a libertarian viewpoint an agent might be morally responsible for a decision that he could not have avoided. Fischer has responded by: (a) arguing that Widerker’s criticism presupposes the falsity of Molinism and (b) presenting a version of libertarianism which avoids Widerker’s criticism. Here we argue that: (i) Fischer’s fir…Read more
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13Human Agency and Divine Will: The Book of GenesisRoutledge. 2020.This book explores the conjuncture of human agency and divine volition in the biblical narrative - sometimes referred to as "double causality." A commonly held view has it that the biblical narrative shows human action to be determined by divine will. Yet, when reading the biblical narrative we are inclined to hold the actors accountable for their deeds. The book, then, challenges the common assumptions about the sweeping nature of divine causality in the biblical narrative and seeks to do justi…Read more
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18Epistemic Virtue and Epistemic ResponsibilityDialectica 55 (2): 105-118. 2001.Virtue epistemology construes intellectual virtue as a reliable ability to form true beliefs. Responsibilist versions seek to substitute for the passive, reliabilist model of the knower, that of an active subject who deliberately and purposefully exercises traits of character which tend to result in true beliefs. On these views, the disposition to exercise these epistemic virtues gives rise to notions of epistemic duty.In this paper, I propose a principle of doxastic rationality based on Bernard…Read more
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12Oakeshott and the Practice of PoliticsJournal of Philosophical Research 17 265-277. 1992.Oakeshott’s thesis is that political knowledge is essentially praetical: it is not given to propositional formulation and cannot be deliberately exercised, but rather is expressed in conduct and transmitted by example and practice. I argue that this is true primarily of physical skills which depend upon unconscious, automatic physiological processes. Political practice, by contrast, is largely a matter of rule-governed activity. It is an empirical fact that we do have introspcetive access to man…Read more
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41Epistemic Obligation and Rationality ConstraintsSouthern Journal of Philosophy 34 (4): 455-470. 2010.
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20The Selling of Joseph-A Frankfurtian InterpretationIn David Widerker & Michael McKenna (eds.), Moral Responsibility and Alternative Possibilities: Essays on the Importance of Alternative Possibilities, Ashgate. pp. 327. 2003.
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66Religious luck and religious virtueReligious Studies 40 (1): 97-111. 2000.Following Linda Zagzebski's discussion of the paradoxical implications of moral luck for Christian morality, I explore the role of religious luck in two accounts of divine election – that of Paul the Apostle and that of the sixteenth-century Jewish thinker, Rabbi Judah Loeb of Prague. On both accounts, special religious status is conferred unrelated to the deserts of the beneficiary. What sense does it make to ascribe religious worth to someone if it simply came his way? Both accounts appeal to …Read more
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17Epistemic Obligation and Rationality ConstraintsSouthern Journal of Philosophy 34 (4): 455-470. 2010.
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30Intentional Action—Sometimes a Matter of LuckPhilosophical Investigations 12 (3): 234-242. 1989.
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50When Is Knowledge a Matter of Luck?Grazer Philosophische Studien 51 (1): 105-120. 1996.It is quite common that a claim to knowledge is dismissed as a matter of luck. It is demonstrated that when one cites as the reason for rejecting a true belief that it is merely lucky, this is typically because the belief has not satisfied the requirements of one's theory. So disputes on luck in fact turn out to be disputes on deep epistemological issues. Criterea for epistemological luck suggested by Thomas Nagel, Nicolas Rescher, Alvin Goldman, Mylan Engel and Richard Foley are analyzed and re…Read more
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49Salomon Maimon's Critique of Kant's Theory of ConsciousnessZeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 35 (2). 1981.
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88Epistemic virtue and epistemic responsibilityDialectica 55 (2). 2001.In this paper, I propose a principle of doxastic rationality based on Bernard Williams's argument against doxastic voluntarism. This principle, I go on to show, undermines a number of notions of epistemic duty which have been put forth within the framework of virtue theory. I then suggest an alternative formulation which remains within the bounds of rationality allowed for by my principle. In the end, I suggest that the failure of the earlier formulations and the adoption of the latter tend to v…Read more
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14When Is Knowledge a Matter of Luck?Grazer Philosophische Studien 51 (1): 105-120. 1996.It is quite common that a claim to knowledge is dismissed as a matter of luck. It is demonstrated that when one cites as the reason for rejecting a true belief that it is merely lucky, this is typically because the belief has not satisfied the requirements of one's theory. So disputes on luck in fact turn out to be disputes on deep epistemological issues. Criterea for epistemological luck suggested by Thomas Nagel, Nicolas Rescher, Alvin Goldman, Mylan Engel and Richard Foley are analyzed and re…Read more
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39Oakeshott and the Practice of PoliticsJournal of Philosophical Research 17 265-277. 1992.Oakeshott’s thesis is that political knowledge is essentially praetical: it is not given to propositional formulation and cannot be deliberately exercised, but rather is expressed in conduct and transmitted by example and practice. I argue that this is true primarily of physical skills which depend upon unconscious, automatic physiological processes. Political practice, by contrast, is largely a matter of rule-governed activity. It is an empirical fact that we do have introspcetive access to man…Read more
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18Solomon Maimon’s Interpretation of Kant’s Copernican RevolutionKant Studien 66 (1-4): 342. 1975.
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Jacob and Isaac: a tale of deception and self-deceptionIn Charles Harry Manekin & Robert Eisen (eds.), Philosophers and the Jewish Bible, University Press of Maryland. 2008.
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42Avoidability and LibertarianismFaith and Philosophy 13 (3): 415-421. 1996.Recently, Widerker has attacked Fischer’s contention that one could use Frankfurt-type counterexamples to the principle of alternative possibilities to show that even from a libertarian viewpoint an agent might be morally responsible for a decision that he could not have avoided. Fischer has responded by: (a) arguing that Widerker’s criticism presupposes the falsity of Molinism and (b) presenting a version of libertarianism which avoids Widerker’s criticism. Here we argue that: (i) Fischer’s fir…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Epistemology |
Philosophy of Religion |
Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality |
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
Philosophy of Religion |
Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality |