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13Living fossils and conservation valuesFrontiers in Earth Science 20. 2023.Horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) have been in decline in Long Island Sound, and recently there has been discussion of whether the state of Connecticut should stop issuing licenses for commercial harvesting. This paper argues that in spite of concerns about the living fossil concept, the fact that the horseshoe crabs are living fossils should count in favor of more stringent protection. The paper distinguishes four different views about the status of the living fossil concept: 1) eliminativis…Read more
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28Creativity Without Agency: Evolutionary Flair & Aesthetic EngagementErgo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 10 (n/a). 2023.Common philosophical accounts of creativity align creative products and processes with a particular kind of agency: namely, that deserving of praise or blame. Considering evolutionary examples, we explore two ways of denying that creativity requires forms of agency. First, we argue that decoupling creativity from praiseworthiness comes at little cost: accepting that evolutionary processes are non-agential, they nonetheless exhibit many of the same characteristics and value associated with creati…Read more
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12Brill Online Books and JournalsJournal of the Philosophy of History 6 (1): 1-19. 2012.Starting with Ben-Menahem’s definition of historical contingency as sensitivity to variations in initial conditions, we suggest that historical events and processes can be thought of as forming a complex landscape of contingency and necessity. We suggest three different ways of extending and elaborating Ben-Menahem’s concepts: By supplementing them with a notion of historical disturbance; by pointing out that contingency and necessity are subject to scaling effects; by showing how degrees of con…Read more
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24Narrative Explanation and Non-Epistemic ValueJournal of the Philosophy of History 17 (1): 53-76. 2023.Explanations in the natural historical sciences often take the form of stories. This paper examines two accounts of the sources of narrative’s explanatory power: Beatty’s suggestion that narrative explanation is closely connected to historical contingency, and that narratives explain by contrasting what happened with what might have happened; and Ereshefsky and Turner’s view that narratives explain by organizing events around a central subject with a distinctive direction of historical developme…Read more
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27Historical Contingency: A Special Issue on Epistemic & Non-Epistemic Values in Historical SciencesJournal of the Philosophy of History 17 (1): 1-8. 2023.
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44The Lack of Clarity in the Precautionary PrincipleEnvironmental Values 13 (4). 2004.The precautionary principle states, roughly, that it is better to take precautionary measures now than to deal with serious harms to the environment or human health later on. This paper builds on the work of Neil A. Manson in order to show that the precautionary principle, in all of its forms, is fraught with vagueness and ambiguity. We examine the version of the precautionary principle that was formulated at the Wingspread Conference sponsored by the Science and Environmental Health Network in …Read more
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42Monkeywrenching, Perverse Incentives and EcodefenceEnvironmental Values 15 (2). 2006.By focusing too narrowly on consequentialist arguments for ecosabotage, environmental philosophers such as Michael Martin (1990) and Thomas Young (2001) have tended to overlook two important facts about monkeywrenching. First, advocates of monkeywrenching see sabotage above all as a technique for counteracting perverse economic incentives. Second, their main argument for monkeywrenching – which I will call the ecodefence argument – is not consequentialist at all. After calling attention to these…Read more
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63Gould’s replay revisitedBiology and Philosophy 26 (1): 65-79. 2011.This paper develops a critical response to John Beatty’s recent (2006) engagement with Stephen Jay Gould’s claim that evolutionary history is contingent. Beatty identifies two senses of contingency in Gould’s work: an unpredictability sense and a causal dependence sense. He denies that Gould associates contingency with stochastic phenomena, such as drift. In reply to Beatty, this paper develops two main claims. The first is an interpretive claim: Gould really thinks of contingency has having to …Read more
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122The Topography of Historical ContingencyJournal of the Philosophy of History 6 (1): 1-19. 2012.Abstract Starting with Ben-Menahem's definition of historical contingency as sensitivity to variations in initial conditions, we suggest that historical events and processes can be thought of as forming a complex landscape of contingency and necessity. We suggest three different ways of extending and elaborating Ben-Menahem's concepts: (1) By supplementing them with a notion of historical disturbance; (2) by pointing out that contingency and necessity are subject to scaling effects; (3) by showi…Read more
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A teacher and two students : Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Meister EckhartIn Fran O'Rourke & Patrick Masterson (eds.), Ciphers of transcendence: essays in philosophy of religion in honour of Patrick Masterson, Irish Academic Press. 2019.
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49This Is Not a Peace Pipe: Towards a Critical Indigenous PhilosophyUniversity of Toronto Press. 2006.Explores indigenous intellectual culture and its relationship to, and within, the dominant Euro-American culture. This book also contends that indigenous intellectuals need to engage the legal and political discourses of the state, respecting both indigenous philosophies and Western European intellectual traditions.
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11Graded fMRI Neurofeedback Training of Motor Imagery in Middle Cerebral Artery Stroke Patients: A Preregistered Proof-of-Concept StudyFrontiers in Human Neuroscience 14. 2020.
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8Neural Correlates of Single- and Dual-Task Walking in the Real WorldFrontiers in Human Neuroscience 11. 2017.
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78Measuring the Frequency of Inner-Experience Characteristics by Self-Report: The Nevada Inner Experience QuestionnaireFrontiers in Psychology 9. 2019.
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18The Price of Truth: Herbert McCabe on Love Politics and DeathNew Blackfriars 98 (1073): 5-18. 2017.
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12Faith, Reason and the Existence of GodCambridge University Press. 2004.The proposition that the existence of God is demonstrable by rational argument is doubted by nearly all philosophical opinion today and is thought by most Christian theologians to be incompatible with Christian faith. This book argues that, on the contrary, there are reasons of faith why in principle the existence of God should be thought rationally demonstrable and that it is worthwhile revisiting the theology of Thomas Aquinas to see why this is so. The book further suggests that philosophical…Read more
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Silence and the Word: Negative Theology and Incarnation (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2002.Negative theology or apophasis - the idea that God is best identified in terms of 'absence', 'otherness', 'difference' - has been influential in modern Christian thought, resonating as it does with secular notions of negation developed in continental philosophy. Apophasis also has a strong intellectual history dating back to the early Church Fathers. Silence and the Word both studies the history of apophasis and examines its relationship with contemporary secular philosophy. Leading Christian th…Read more
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17How to Be an Atheist: Inaugural Lecture Delivered at the University of Cambridge, 12 October 2001Cambridge University Press. 2002.Denys Turner is a philosopher who holds a chair in Cambridge's Faculty of Divinity. In this erudite and entertaining lecture he explores the conditions for the belief that God does not exist. According to Turner, the first challenge lies in acknowledging the question 'Does God exist?' to be a valid one. Once the question is established, various things follow, each one making it harder to maintain 'atheism' as a credible or interesting position. Turner boxes atheists into a philosophical corner, …Read more
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8Thomas Aquinas: A PortraitYale University Press. 2013._A concise and illuminating introduction to the elusive Thomas Aquinas, the man and the saint_ Leaving so few traces of himself behind, Thomas Aquinas seems to defy the efforts of the biographer. Highly visible as a public teacher, preacher, and theologian, he nevertheless has remained nearly invisible as man and saint. What can be discovered about Thomas Aquinas as a whole? In this short, compelling portrait, Denys Turner clears away the haze of time and brings Thomas vividly to life for contem…Read more
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5Julian of Norwich, TheologianYale University Press. 2011.For centuries readers have comfortably accepted Julian of Norwich as simply a mystic. In this astute book, Denys Turner offers a new interpretation of Julian and the significance of her work. Turner argues that this fourteenth-century thinker's sophisticated approach to theological questions places her legitimately within the pantheon of other great medieval theologians, including Thomas Aquinas, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Bonaventure. Julian wrote but one work in two versions, a Short Text recor…Read more
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7Julian of Norwich, TheologianYale University Press. 2011.For centuries readers have comfortably accepted Julian of Norwich as simply a mystic. In this astute book, Denys Turner offers a new interpretation of Julian and the significance of her work. Turner argues that this fourteenth-century thinker's sophisticated approach to theological questions places her legitimately within the pantheon of other great medieval theologians, including Thomas Aquinas, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Bonaventure. Julian wrote but one work in two versions, a Short Text recor…Read more
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8Thomas Aquinas: A PortraitYale University Press. 2013.Leaving so few traces of himself behind, Thomas Aquinas seems to defy the efforts of the biographer. Highly visible as a public teacher, preacher, and theologian, he nevertheless has remained nearly invisible as man and saint. What can be discovered about Thomas Aquinas as a whole? In this short, compelling portrait, Denys Turner clears away the haze of time and brings Thomas vividly to life for contemporary readers—those unfamiliar with the saint as well as those well acquainted with his teachi…Read more
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18Disclosure of HIV Status Among Female Youth With HIVEthics and Behavior 25 (4): 314-331. 2015.Minority female youth are significantly affected by the HIV epidemic. The purpose of this pilot study was to explore sexual behavior practices, disclosure of HIV status, attitudes about disclosure, and knowledge of HIV disclosure laws among female youth with HIV. Findings suggest that the majority of YWH studied have been sexually active since their HIV diagnosis, although the nature and extent of sexual activity varied. Rates of nondisclosure to sexual partners varied based on the type of quest…Read more
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Philosophy of Law |