•  149
    An institutional metaphysics for the Trinity: family, unity and Mary
    TheoLogica: An International Journal for Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology 6 (2): 219-244. 2022.
    This paper explores and defends an institutional metaphysics for the Trinity as providing us with an inherently interpersonal reality, and provides general and specific methodological arguments in that direction in the first section. The actual argumentation is then first of all directed against Augustine’s rejection of the family as a suitable analogy for the Trinity. It is instead argued that the family does in fact offer an interesting and suitable analogy. Next, several more general and hist…Read more
  •  51
    Institutions as dispositions: Searle, Smith and the metaphysics of blind chess
    Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 48 (3): 254-272. 2018.
    This paper addresses the question what the fundamental nature and mode of being of institutional reality is. Besides the recent debate with Tony Lawson, Barry Smith is also one of the relatively few authors to have explicitly challenged John Searle's social ontology on this metaphysical question, with Smith's realism requirement for institutions conflicting with Searle's requirement of a one-world naturalism. This paper proposes that an account of institutions as powers or dispositions is not on…Read more
  •  41
    The aim of this research project is to shed light on the fundamental nature and mode of being of institutions. Starting from the work of John Searle, the goal is to develop an ontology of institutions that is both better metaphysically grounded than Searle's, and more developed towards applications in the social sciences and social and political philosophy. It relies on a metaphysics of powers and dispositions, as developed in the recent literature in analytic metaphysics, in order to offer an a…Read more
  •  22
    Will we be free (to sin) in heaven?
    In Simon Cushing (ed.), Heaven and Philosophy, Lexington Books. pp. 231-254. 2017.
    Since heaven is the most perfect state or position possible – namely of loving God perfectly – and sinning is failing to love God, it will not be possible to sin in heaven. However, if freedom is a mark of perfection, and loving God is only possible when one freely loves God, will we be loving God at all if we are not free not to love him? Three cumulative arguments for an affirmative answer are developed. The first is to distinguish the ability to love or sin from the opportunity to do so. In …Read more
  •  19
    Freedom, counterfactuals and economic laws: further comments on Machaj and Hülsmann
    Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 4 (20): 366-372. 2017.
    In a series of articles written around the turn of the century, Guido Hülsmann has tried to answer one simple question: “How can we reconcile the idea that there are laws of human action, that manifest themselves in market prices and the structure of production, with the idea that there is also freedom of choice?” (Hülsmann, 2000, p. 48) He has addressed the question most extensively in his “Facts and Counterfactuals in Economic Law” (Hülsmann, 2003), but his distinctive approach is present in s…Read more
  •  19
    Louis XIV and the metaphysics of a juridical christology
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 84 (3): 289-305. 2018.
    This paper provides a metaphysical framework which enables the possibility of the hypostatic union. More specifically, social ontology will be used to philosophically ground the distinction between nature or substance on the one hand, and person on the other hand, which is crucial to that debate. There are some historical precedents for a juridical approach in christological debates, but the main sections develop a systematic metaphysical account. Relying on a generic version of dispositional re…Read more
  •  18
    A Mariological metametaphysics
    International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 80 (3): 255-271. 2018.
    This paper proposes a theological grounding for the possibility of metaphysics. After a brief critique of the seeming contemporary revival of analytic philosophy as characterized by linguisticism, the two main sections give a Christological and ultimately Mariological foundation for the possibility of metaphysics. The Christological section starts with the role of the second person of the Trinity in creation, and subsequently points to the hypostatic union as ensuring that creation is therefore …Read more
  •  8
    Causes, Contingency and Freedom: A Reply to Anscombe, Mumford and Anjum
    Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 77 (4): 1315-1338. 2021.
    This paper takes Anscombe, Mumford and Anjum as key interlocutors for an exploration of the causality involved in our understanding of free will. Anscombe tried to disentangle causality from necessary determination in order to make room for free will, and a first section points to the historical and theological background of this entanglement. However, what is also crucially at stake is the relation between time and causality whereby this paper advocates a shift from a diachronic to a synchronic…Read more
  •  4
    Comments on Roversi 'Acting within and outside an institution'
    with Filip Buekens and Lode Cossaer
    Methode: Analytic Perspectives 4 (6): 213-221. 2015.
    In his stimulating contribution, Corrado Roversi uses speech act theory to propose a more nuanced and shaded account of how agents can relate themselves to institutions than H. Hart’s binary distinction between the internal and external point of view. Although we agree on the central importance of Hart in charting recent work in social ontology, we propose to recast Roversi’s contribution in terms of the various ways in which an agent’s commitment to an institution can corrode or strengthen an i…Read more
  •  4
    The ontology of fractional reserve banking
    Journal of Institutional Economics 2 (13): 447-466. 2017.
    The recent economic crisis has re-ignited the debate over the institution of fractional reserve banking (FRB) and its possible adverse economic effects. This paper brings a so far neglected aspect of the problem to the table, namely social ontology. After addressing the scope of social ontology in relation to social metaphysics, social science and FRB, a general ontological framework for money and banking is sketched and applied to the debate between Austrian opponents and proponents of FRB. It …Read more
  •  4
    status: published.
  • On the metaphysics of economics and purgatory
    In Kristof Vanhoutte & Benjamin W. McCraw (eds.), Purgatory : Philosophical Dimensions, Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 263-280. 2017.