•  6
    The New Intuitionism (edited book)
    A&C Black. 2011.
    Some of the world's leading scholars in metaethics, epistemology and moral psychology explore the latest insights into and challenges to Robert Audi's intuitionism.
  •  9
    Wonder Woman vs. Harley Quinn
    with Allie Hernandez
    In Jacob M. Held (ed.), Wonder Woman and Philosophy, Wiley. 2017.
    This chapter is unique for several reasons. First, it brings together two unlikely authors, a PhD ethicist and her 15‐year‐old high‐school daughter, whose diverse interests include thinking about depictions of female characters in graphic novels. Second, it compares two unlikely DC female characters, Wonder Woman (the Amazonian princess heroine who protects innocent citizens from evil) and Harley Quinn (the ever‐evolving anti‐hero who vacillates between being an outright villain to being merely …Read more
  •  4
    The Existential Ground of True Community
    In Fritz Allhoff, Scott F. Parker & Michael W. Austin (eds.), Coffee, Wiley‐blackwell. 2011.
    This chapter contains sections titled: A Dark Brew: Traditional Existentialism and Community Coffee and Otherness: Community and Coffee Coffee, Community, and Hope.
  •  6
    This chapter contends that Phillis Wheatley, African-American slave-turned-poet, can and should be read as a philosopher of religion. Her work, collectively, takes up the problem of evil and demonstrates a commitment to moral improvement in the face of suffering, and knowledge of divine benevolence and care for all people. As early modern philosophy, her work presents courageous arguments about the equality of those on the margins of moral considerability, as well as criticisms of the system of …Read more
  •  5
    This chapter explores Marcel’s relationship with German idealism, the impact idealism had on his existentialism, his philosophical evolution beyond idealist conceptions of objectivity and consciousness, and his own move towards the authentic “ethical self,” whose goal is a reciprocal, intersubjective relationship with others who are freely seeking the inner meaning of experience. It will argue that the authentic self is fundamentally personal because it is embodied, non-objective, and creates op…Read more
  •  27
    Problems for Problematizing the Philosophical Canon: A Modest Proposal
    Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal 16 (1): 3-13. 2021.
  •  9
    This paper explores the constraints of narrative theodicy to account for the misery of the powerless and uses Mary of Bethany as a case study as evaluated through the early modern theodical writings of Mary Astell and Mary Hays. Eleonore Stump has pointed out that Mary of Bethany’s misery is interesting because it is so personal; it results from losing her heart’s desire. But, Mary of Bethany’s case fails as narrative theodicy because it cannot sufficiently demonstrate the power of God in situat…Read more
  •  20
    Transmuted Goods and the Legacy of the Atrocity Paradigm
    Social Philosophy Today 35 103-114. 2019.
    This paper responds to a recent challenge posed to Claudia Card’s atrocity paradigm by “transmuted goods,” or, goods which positively transmute victims of atrocity in ways which are difficult for the paradigm to explain. Whereas the legacy of Card’s atrocity paradigm will surely be its demand that we hold others culpable for allowing and perpetuating systems of harm which threaten our ability to flourish, this paper suggests a way for the paradigm to incorporate transmuted goods in a manner that…Read more
  •  23
    This paper maps out Marcel’s conception of evil onto his fundamental distinction between problem and mystery, shows that the distinction creates two effective methodologies for dealing with evil in the world, draws the antinomy of evil based on these methodologies, and then demonstrates that the antinomy can be dissolved through an existentially engaged, communal encounter with evil and hope. The antinomy between the problem of evil and the mystery of evil is not one to be solved, then, but is o…Read more
  •  340
    This paper argues that, although Margaret Cavendish’s main philosophical contributions are not in philosophy of religion, she makes a case for a defense of God, in spite of the worst sorts of harms being present in the world. Her arguments about those harms actually presage those of contemporary feminist ethicists, which positions Cavendish’s scholarship in a unique position: it makes a positive theodical contribution, by relying on evils that contemporary atheists think are the best evidence ag…Read more
  •  313
    Exaltation and atrocity: why kenotic humility can’t justify divine concurrence of evil
    International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 79 (5): 493-506. 2017.
    ABSTRACT‘Exaltation views’ of humility are grounded on a kenotic view of humility, such that divine blessing comes proportionate to the extent to which an agent humbles herself. This article rejects exaltation views of humility which define humility kenotically, justify their arguments from a divine hiddenness perspective, and which conclude that divine concurrence with evil is justified as long as all humble believers eventually are exalted and blessed. Rather, I will contend that exaltation vi…Read more
  •  33
    The God Relationship: The Ethics for Inquiry about the Divine (review)
    Faith and Philosophy 35 (2): 272-276. 2018.
  •  31
    The New Intuitionism (edited book)
    Continuum. 2012.
    Since the 2004 publication of his book The Good in the Right, Robert Audi has been at the forefront of the current resurgence of interest in intuitionism – the idea that human beings have an intuitive sense of right and wrong – in ethics. The New Intuitionism brings together some of the world’s most important contemporary writers from such diverse fields as metaethics, epistemology and moral psychology to explore the latest implications of, and challenges to, Audi’s work. The book also includes …Read more
  •  30
    This paper explores the relationship between the problem of evil and a kenotic view of the Atonement evidenced not just by feminist theologians, but by analytic philosophers of religion. I will argue that, although kenosis provides an interesting story about the ability of Christ to partake in human suffering, it faces debilitating problems for understanding divine concurrence with evil in the world. Most significantly, I will argue that the potential tensions between divine justice and divine l…Read more
  •  98
    The Integrity Objection, Reloaded
    International Journal of Philosophical Studies 21 (2): 145-162. 2013.
    Bernard Williams’ integrity objection poses a significant challenge to utilitarianism, which has largely been answered by utilitarians. This paper recasts the integrity objection to show that utilitarian agents could be committed to producing the overall best states of affairs and yet not positively act to bring them about. I introduce the ‘Moral Pinch Hitter’ – someone who performs actions at the bequest of another agent – to demonstrate that utilitarianism cannot distinguish between cases in w…Read more
  •  122
    Impermissibility and Kantian Moral Worth
    Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 13 (4): 403-419. 2010.
    Samuel Kerstein argues that an asymmetry between moral worth and maxims prevents Kant from accepting a category of acts that are impermissible, but have moral worth. Kerstein contends that an act performed from the motive of duty should be considered as a candidate for moral worth, even if the action's maxim turns out to be impermissible, since moral worth depends on the correct moral motivation of an act, rather than on the moral lightness of an act. I argue that Kant cannot consistently mainta…Read more
  • "The Ethics of Patriotism" (review)
    Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. 2015.
  •  1
    On Asymmetry In Kant's Doctrine Of Moral Worth
    Florida Philosophical Review 6 (1): 43-52. 2006.
    That an act can have moral worth even if the end of the action is not realized seems asymmetrical with Kant’s dual notion that acts cannot have moral worth if the maxim for action is impermissible. Recent scholarship contends that fixing the asymmetry will allow impermissible acts done from a morally worthy motive to have moral worth. I argue against the asymmetry thesis and contend that Kant cannot consistently maintain a class of impermissible, morally worthy action and the view that right act…Read more
  •  81
    Divine Omniscience and Human Evil
    Philosophy and Theology 17 (1-2): 107-120. 2005.
    The ‘middle knowledge’ doctrine salvages free will and divine omniscience by contending that God knows what agents will freely choose under any possible circumstances. I argue, however, that the Leibnizian problem of divine knowledge of human evil is best resolved by applying a Theodicy II distinction between determined, foreseen, and resolved action. This move eliminates deference to middle knowledge. Contingent action is indeed free, but not all action is contingent, and so not all action is f…Read more
  •  144
    The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that Leibniz’s form/matter defense of omnipotence is paradoxical, but not irretrievably so. Leibniz maintains that God necessarily must concur only in the possibility for evil’s existence in the world (the form of evil), but there are individual instances of moral evil that are not necessary (the matter of evil) with which God need not concur. For Leibniz, that there is moral evil in the world is contingent on God’s will (a dimension of divine omnipote…Read more
  • "Time in the Philosophy of Gabriel Marcel" (review)
    Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. 2014.
  •  1
    "Leibniz and the Best of All Possible Worlds"
    In James Dew Chad Meister (ed.), God and Evil, Intervarsity Press. pp. 94-108. 2013.
  •  60
    The anxious believer: Macaulay’s prescient theodicy
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 73 (3): 175-187. 2013.
    Recent feminists have critiqued G.W. Leibniz’s Theodicy for its effort to justify God’s role in undeserved human suffering over natural and moral evil. These critiques suggest that theodicies which focus on evil as suffering alone obfuscate how to thematize evil, and so they conclude that theodicies should be rejected and replaced with a secularized notion of evil that is inextricably tied to the experiences of the victim. This paper argues that the political philosophy found in the writings of …Read more
  •  12
    _Early Modern Women and the Problem of Evil_ examines the concept of theodicy—the attempt to reconcile divine perfection with the existence of evil—through the lens of early modern female scholars. This timely volume knits together the perennial problem of defining evil with current scholarly interest in women’s roles in the evolution of religious philosophy. Accessible for those without a background in philosophy or theology, Jill Graper Hernandez’s text will be of interest to upper-level under…Read more