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17Best Possible World TheodicyIn Justin P. McBrayer & Daniel Howard‐Snyder (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to the Problem of Evil, Wiley. 2013.Well‐known arguments for atheism have been grounded on the alleged lack of morally justifying reasons to permit particular moral and natural evils and on the thesis that God would have to create the best possible world. After discussing obstacles to the suggestion that there is a best of all possible worlds, I examine the prospects for responding to these atheistic arguments by exploring the case for our own world's being the best of all possible worlds against the backdrop of the multiverse hyp…Read more
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15Non‐Naturalistic MetaphysicsIn Kelly James Clark (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Naturalism, Wiley. 2016.First, I pair and critically discuss a methodological naturalism (construed as a research program heavily inspired by epistemological naturalism) with the kind of work that is currently being practiced under the heading “contemporary analytic metaphysics.” Second, I pair and critically discuss an ontological naturalism with the kind of work that could be described under the heading “theistically informed metaphysics.” Each pairing provides a window on the sort of confrontation to be had between …Read more
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Part] IV. Abstracta across the arts. Reflections on the metaphysics of sculptureIn Christy Mag Uidhir (ed.), Art & Abstract Objects, Oxford University Press. 2013.
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15A grotesque in the gardenWilliam B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2020.A short philosophical narrative about an angel wrestling with the decision to rebel against God and leave his post in the Garden of Eden.
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38Iblis, Abraham, and Teleological SuspensionsThe Monist 104 (3): 281-299. 2021.In this essay, I shall scold a Jinn, recommend a position in Islamic theology to my Muslim neighbors, explore a famous dilemma recounted in Genesis, and participate in a debate occasioned by an interpretive puzzle in Kierkegaard studies. I investigate two opposed ways of understanding the phrase, ‘the teleological suspension of the ethical’, offer some critical remarks on the interpretation of that phrase in Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, and defend a range of considerations that speak in fav…Read more
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Beautiful EvilsIn Dean Zimmerman (ed.), Oxford Studies in Metaphysics Volume 2, Oxford University Press. 2006.
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68A Materialist Metaphysics of the Human PersonCornell University Press. 2001.Hud Hudson presents an innovative view of the metaphysics of human persons according to which human persons are material objects but not human organisms. In developing his account, he formulates and defends a unique collection of positions on parthood, persistence, vagueness, composition, identity, and various puzzles of material constitution. The author also applies his materialist metaphysics to issues in ethics and in the philosophy of religion. He examines the implications for ethics of his …Read more
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68The liberal view of receptaclesAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 80 (4). 2002.This Article does not have an abstract
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11Chapter 4. The Criterion of Personal IdentityIn A materialist metaphysics of the human person, Cornell University Press. pp. 113-144. 2001.
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6BibliographyIn A materialist metaphysics of the human person, Cornell University Press. pp. 193-198. 2001.
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9Chapter 5. A Portrait of the Human PersonIn A materialist metaphysics of the human person, Cornell University Press. pp. 145-148. 2001.
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2IndexIn A materialist metaphysics of the human person, Cornell University Press. pp. 199-203. 2001.
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8Chapter 6. Pre-Persons, Post-Persons, Non-Persons, and Person-PartsIn A materialist metaphysics of the human person, Cornell University Press. pp. 149-166. 2001.
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4Chapter 3. Vagueness and CompositionIn A materialist metaphysics of the human person, Cornell University Press. pp. 72-112. 2001.
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9Chapter 7. Nothing But Dust and AshesIn A materialist metaphysics of the human person, Cornell University Press. pp. 167-192. 2001.
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21Chapter 1. The Many Problematic Solutions to the Problem of the ManyIn A materialist metaphysics of the human person, Cornell University Press. pp. 11-44. 2001.
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5Chapter 2. Persistence and the Partist ViewIn A materialist metaphysics of the human person, Cornell University Press. pp. 45-71. 2001.
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2IntroductionIn A materialist metaphysics of the human person, Cornell University Press. pp. 1-10. 2001.
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A Materialist Metaphysic of the Human PersonPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 68 (3): 713-723. 2004.
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5On Constitution and All‐FusionsPacific Philosophical Quarterly 81 (3): 237-245. 2000.Recently, Judith Jarvis Thomson has offered a definition of the constitution relation against the backdrop of a robust ontology of objects she calls all‐fusions. Despite finding her reasons to believe in all manner of all‐fusions intriguing, in this paper I note an unsatisfactory consequence of her position for constitution‐theorists. I argue that an unrestricted commitmentto all‐fusions should lead the constitution‐theorist to reject her definitionof the constitution relation, on the grounds th…Read more
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13Précis of The Metaphysics of HyperspacePhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 76 (2): 422-426. 2008.
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35Feinberg on the Criterion of Moral PersonhoodJournal of Applied Philosophy 13 (3): 311-318. 1996.In a very influential paper, Abortion, Joel Feinberg offers a series of arguments against four popular proposals for the criterion of moral personhood and defends a fifth proposal. In this paper, I demonstrate that two widely‐accepted arguments employed by Feinberg against the modified species criterion and the strict potentiality criterion, respectively, are unsound. Moreover, I argue that there is a general feature of his inquiry into the criteria for moral personhood which undermines his effo…Read more
Bellingham, Washington, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Religion |
Metaphysics |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Religion |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |
Aesthetics |
Normative Ethics |