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1311Omnipotence AgainFaith and Philosophy 17 (1): 26-47. 2000.One of the cornerstones of western theology is the doctrine of divine omnipotence. God is traditionally conceived of as an omnipotent or all-powerful being. However, satisfactory analyses of omnipotence are notoriously elusive. In this paper, I first consider some simple attempts to analyze omnipotence, showing how each fails. I then consider two more sophisticated accounts of omnipotence. The first of these is presented by Edward Wierenga; the second by Thomas Flint and Alfred Freddoso. I argue…Read more
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39The Psychopath Challenge to Divine Command Theory: Reply to FlannaganSophia 63 (1): 35-42. 2024.Erik Wielenberg has presented an objection to divine command theory (DCT) alleging that DCT has the troubling implication that psychopaths have no moral obligations. Matthew Flannagan has replied to Wielenberg’s argument. Here, I defend the view that, despite Flannagan’s reply, the psychopath objection presents a serious problem for the versions of DCT defended by its most prominent contemporary advocates — Robert Adams, C. Stephen Evans, and William Lane Craig.
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Evil and atheistic moral realismIn W. Paul Franks (ed.), Explaining Evil: Four Views, Bloomsbury Academic. 2019.
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65Craig’s God Cannot Create a Temporal UniversePhilosophia Christi 23 (2): 329-340. 2021.William Lane Craig’s inuential kalam cosmological argument concludes that the universe has a cause of its beginning. Craig provides some supplementary reasoning to suggest that the first cause is God—a God that exists timelessly without the universe and temporally with the universe. I argue that Craig’s hypothesis about the nature of the first cause is impossible. In particular, it cannot be the case that God timelessly wills to create the universe and the universe begins to exist.
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40In 2018, William Lane Craig and Erik J. Wielenberg participated in a debate at North Carolina State University, addressing the question: "God and Morality: What is the best account of objective moral values and duties?" Craig argued that theism provides a sound foundation for objective morality whereas atheism does not. Wielenberg countered that morality can be objective even if there is no God. This book includes the full debate, as well as endnotes with extended discussions that were not inclu…Read more
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115Divine Commands Are Unnecessary for Moral ObligationJournal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 21 (1). 2022.Divine command theory is experiencing something of a renaissance, inspired in large part by Robert Adams’s 1999 masterpiece Finite and Infinite Goods. I argue here that divine commands are not always necessary for actions to be morally obligatory. I make the case that the DCT-ist’s own commitments put pressure on her to concede the existence of some moral obligations that in no way depend on divine commands. Focusing on Robert Adams’s theistic framework for ethics, I argue that Adams’s views abo…Read more
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75Reply to Craig, Murphy, McNabb, and JohnsonPhilosophia Christi 20 (2): 365-375. 2018.In Robust Ethics, I defend a nontheistic version of moral realism according to which moral properties are sui generis, not reducible to other kinds of properties (e.g., natural properties or supernatural properties) and objective morality requires no foundation external to itself. I seek to provide a plausible account of the metaphysics and epistemology of the robust brand of moral realism I favor that draws on both analytic philosophy and contemporary empirical moral psychology. In this paper, …Read more
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52Debunking Arguments in Ethics, written by Hanno SauerInternational Journal for the Study of Skepticism 10 (2): 178-183. 2020.
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217Divine Command Theory and PsychopathyReligious Studies. forthcoming.I advance a novel challenge for Divine Command Theory based on the existence of psychopaths. The challenge, in a nutshell, is that Divine Command Theory has the implausible implication that psychopaths have no moral obligations and hence their evil acts, no matter how evil, are morally permissible. After explaining this argument, I respond to three objections to it and then critically examine the prospect that Divine Command Theorists might bite the bullet and accept that psychopaths can do no w…Read more
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92The Moral Argument for God’s Existence; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Godless MoralityThe Philosophers' Magazine 86 93-98. 2019.
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Egoism and Eudaimonia-Maximization in the Nicomachean EthicsIn David Sedley (ed.), Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy Xxvi: Summer 2004, Oxford University Press. 2004.
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33Metz’s Case Against SupernaturalismEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Religion 8 (2): 27--34. 2016.
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1Value and Virtue in a Godless UniverseInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 59 (3): 179-182. 2005.
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29The Nature of Moral VirtueDissertation, University of Massachusetts Amherst. 2000.The dissertation is centered around the Moral Virtuosity Project . The central task of the dissertation is to examine what other philosophers have had to say on this topic and ultimately to successfully complete this project. ;Chapter One is concerned exclusively with Aristotle's attempt to complete the Moral Virtuosity Project. I defend the view that Aristotle holds that each moral virtue is a disposition toward proper practical reasoning, action, and emotion within a certain sphere. I critical…Read more
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43Greene, Joshua. Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap between Us and Them.New York: Penguin, 2013. Pp. 422. $29.95 (review)Ethics 124 (4): 910-916. 2014.
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8Discussion note: The failure of brown's new supervenience argumentJournal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 5 3-3. 2011.
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IntroductionIn Yujin Nagasawa & Erik J. Wielenberg (eds.), New waves in philosophy of religion, Palgrave-macmillan. 2008.
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194Value and Virtue in a Godless UniverseCambridge University Press. 2005.Suppose there is no God. This might imply that human life is meaningless, that there are no moral obligations and hence people can do whatever they want, and that the notions of virtue and vice and good and evil have no place. Erik J. Wielenberg believes this view to be mistaken and in this book he explains why. He argues that even if God does not exist, human life can have meaning, we do have moral obligations, and virtue is possible. Naturally, the author sees virtue in a Godless universe as d…Read more
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80Pleasure, pain, and moral character and developmentPacific Philosophical Quarterly 83 (3): 282-299. 2002.I distinguish two kinds of pleasures – value–based pleasures, which can be explained in terms of the values of those who experience them, and brute pleasures, which cannot be so explained. I apply this distinction to three related projects. First, I critically examine a recent discussion of moral character by Colin McGinn, arguing that McGinn offers a distorted view of good character. Second, I try to elucidate certain remarks Aristotle makes about the relationships between pleasure and courage …Read more
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10318In Defense of Non-Natural, Non-Theistic Moral RealismFaith and Philosophy 26 (1): 23-41. 2009.Many believe that objective morality requires a theistic foundation. I maintain that there are sui generis objective ethical facts that do not reduce to natural or supernatural facts. On my view, objective morality does not require an external foundation of any kind. After explaining my view, I defend it against a variety of objections posed by William Wainwright, William Lane Craig, and J. P. Moreland.
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46Fiona Ellis, God, Value, and Nature: Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014, 220 pp., $99International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 78 (1): 131-135. 2015.In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle claims that just about everyone agrees that the highest good is eudaimonia while disagreeing with one another about what eudaimonia is. A similar situation exists among many contemporary philosophers: they agree that naturalism is true while disagreeing with one another about what naturalism is. By their lights, the claim that a given entity exists is worth taking seriously only if the entity in question is compatible with naturalism ; otherwise, the entity i…Read more
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151A morally unsurpassable God must create the bestReligious Studies 40 (1): 43-62. 2004.I present a novel argument for the position that a morally unsurpassable God must create the best world that He has the power to create. I show that grace-based considerations of the sort proposed by Robert Adams neither refute my argument nor establish that a morally unsurpassable God need not create the best. I conclude with a discussion of the implications of my argument for the ‘no-best-world’ response to the problem of evil. (Published Online February 17 2004).
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34The Failure of Brown's New Supervenience ArgumentJournal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (2): 1-7. 2010.No abstract.
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7Egoism and eudaimonia-maximization in the Nicomachean ethicsOxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 26 277-95. 2004.
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22New waves in philosophy of religion (edited book)Palgrave-Macmillan. 2008.List of Contributors vi Introduction vii 1 A New Definition of ”Omnipotence’ in Terms of Sets 1 Daniel J. Hill 2 Can God Choose a World at Random? 22 Klaas J. Kraay 3 Why is There Anything at All? 36 T. J. Mawson 4 Programs, Bugs, DNA and a Design Argument 55 Alexander R. Pruss 5 The ”Why Design?’ Question 68 Neil A. Manson 6 Divine Command Theory and the Semantics of Quantified Modal Logic 91 David Efird 7 Divine Desire Theory and Obligation 105 Christian B. Miller 8 The Puzzle of Prayers of Th…Read more
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29Loyal Rue. Nature is Enough: Religious Naturalism and the Meaning of LifePhilosophy, Theology and the Sciences 1 (1): 134. 2014.
Greencastle, Indiana, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Religion |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
Philosophy of Mind |