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150Evolution, Emergence, and the Divine Creation of Human SoulsProceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. forthcoming.In a series of publications spanning over two decades, William Hasker has argued both that (1) human beings have souls and (2) these souls are not directly created by God but instead are produced by (or “emergent from”) a physical process of some sort or other. By contrast, an alternative view of the human person, endorsed by the contemporary Catholic Church, maintains that (1) human beings have souls but that (2*) each human soul is directly created by God rather than produced by any kind of p…Read more
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303Aquinas on Persons, Psychological Subjects, and the Coherence of the IncarnationFaith and Philosophy 39 (1): 124-157. 2022.The coherence objection to the doctrine of the Incarnation maintains that it is impossible for one individual to have both the attributes of God and the attributes of a human being. This article examines Thomas Aquinas’s answer to this objection. I challenge the dominant, mereological interpretation of Aquinas’s position and, in light of this challenge, develop and defend a new alternative interpretation of Aquinas’s response to this important objection to Christian doctrine.
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3007St. Thomas Aquinas's Concept of a PersonNTU Philosophical Review 64 191-230. 2022.This article develops an argument in defense of the claim that Aquinas holds that there are some kinds of activities which can be performed only by persons. In particular, it is argued that Aquinas holds that only persons can engage in the activities proper to a rational nature, e.g., the activities of intellect and will. Next, the article turns to discuss two implications of this thesis concerning Aquinas’s concept of a person. First, the thesis can be used to resolve a prominent scholarly deba…Read more
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288Persons, Souls, and Life After DeathIn William Simpson, Koons Robert & James Orr (eds.), Neo-Aristotelian Metaphysics and the Theology of Nature, Routledge. pp. 245-266. 2021.Thomistic Hylomorphists claim that we human persons have rational or intellective souls which can continue to exist separately from our bodies after we die. Much of the recent scholarly discussion of Thomistic Hylomorphism has centered on this thesis and the question of whether human persons can survive death along with their souls or whether only their souls can survive in this separated, disembodied, post-mortem state. As a result, two rival versions of Thomistic Hyomorphism have been formul…Read more
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16Aristotle’s Explanationist Epistemology of EssenceMetaphysics 2 (1): 26-39. 2019.Essentialists claim that at least some individuals or kinds have essences. This raises an important but little-discussed question: how do we come to know what the essence of something is? This paper examines Aristotle’s answer to this question. One influential interpretation (viz., the Explanationist Interpretation) is carefully expounded, criticized, and then refined. Particular attention is given to what Aristotle says about this issue in DA I.1, APo II.2, and APo II.8. It is argued that the e…Read more
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53On Being Human and Divine: The Coherence of the IncarnationFaith and Philosophy 37 (1): 3-31. 2020.According to the doctrine of the Incarnation, one person, Christ, has both the attributes proper to a human being and the attributes proper to God. This claim has given rise to the coherence objection, i.e., the objection that it is impossible for one individual to have both sets of attributes. Several authors have offered responses which rely on the idea that Christ has the relevant human properties in virtue of having a concrete human nature which has those properties. I show why such response…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Thomas Aquinas |
Aristotle |
Free Will |
Incarnation |
Persons |
Areas of Interest
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Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy |
Thomas Aquinas |
Aristotle |
Free Will |
Incarnation |
Philosophy of Religion |
Persons |