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2236Abortion and infanticidePhilosophy and Public Affairs 2 (1): 37-65. 1972.This essay deals with the question of the morality of abortion and infanticide. The fundamental ethical objection traditionally advanced against these practices rests on the contention that human fetuses and infants have a right to life, and it is this claim that is the primary focus of attention here. Consequently, the basic question to be discussed is what properties a thing must possess in order to have a serious right to life. The approach involves defending, then, a basic principle specifyi…Read more
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762Time, Truth, Actuality, and Causation: On the Impossibility of Divine ForeknowledgeEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Religion 2 (1). 2010.In this essay, my goal is, first, to describe the most important contemporary philosophical approaches to the nature of time, and then, secondly, to discuss the ways in which those different accounts bear upon the question of the possibility of divine foreknowledge. I shall argue that different accounts of the nature of time give rise to different objections to the idea of divine foreknowledge, but that, in addition, there is a general argument for the impossibility of divine foreknowledge that …Read more
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382Causation: a realist approachOxford University Press, Clarendon Press. 1987.Causation: A Realist Approach Traditional empiricist accounts of causation and laws of nature have been reductionist in the sense of entailing that given a complete specification of the non-causal properties of and relations among particulars, it is therefore logically determined both what laws there are and what events are causally related. It is argued here, however, that reductionist accounts of causation and of laws of nature are exposed to decisive objections, and thus that the time has com…Read more
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373Abortion: Three PerspectivesOup Usa. 2009.The newest addition to the Point/Counterpoint Series, Abortion: Three Perspectives features a debate between four noted philosophers - Michael Tooley, Celia Wolf-Devine, Philip E. Devine, and Alison M. Jaggar - presenting different perspectives on one of the most socially and politically argued issues of the past 30 years. The three main arguments include the "liberal" pro-choice approach, the "communitarian" pro-life approach, and the "gender justice" approach. Divided into two parts, the text …Read more
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327Time, Tense, and CausationOxford University Press. 1997.Michael Tooley presents a major new philosophical theory of the nature of time, offering a powerful alternative to the traditional "tensed" and recent "tenseless" accounts of time. He argues for a dynamic conception of the universe, in which past, present, and future are not merely subjective features of experience. He claims that the past and the present are real, while the future is not. Tooley's approach accounts for time in terms of causation. He therefore claims that the key to understandin…Read more
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291The nature of lawsCanadian Journal of Philosophy 7 (4): 667-98. 1977.This paper is concerned with the question of the truth conditions of nomological statements. My fundamental thesis is that it is possible to set out an acceptable, noncircular account of the truth conditions of laws and nomological statements if and only if relations among universals - that is, among properties and relations, construed realistically - are taken as the truth-makers for such statements. My discussion will be restricted to strictly universal, nonstatistical laws. The reason for t…Read more
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291Calum Miller's attempted refutation of Michael Tooley's evidential argument from evilReligious Studies (A "FirstView" article,): 1-18. 2022.In his article, ‘What's Wrong with Tooley's Argument from Evil?’, Calum Miller's goal was to show that the evidential argument from evil that I have advanced is unsound, and in support of that claim, Miller set out three main objections. First, he argued that I had failed to recognize that the actual occurrence of an event can by itself, at least in principle, constitute good evidence that it was not morally wrong for God to allow events of the kind in question. Miller's second objection was the…Read more
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270Laws of Nature (review)Philosophical Review 106 (1): 119. 1997.In this book, John Carroll argues for the following two anti-reductionist theses
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260Farewell to McTaggart’s Argument?Philosophia 38 (2): 243-255. 2010.Philosophers have responded to McTaggart’s famous argument for the unreality of time in a variety of ways. Some of those responses are not easy to evaluate, since they involve, for example, sometimes murky questions concerning whether a certain infinite regress is or is not vicious. In this paper I set out a response that has not, I think, been advanced by any other author, and which, if successful, is absolutely clear-cut. The basic idea is simply that a tensed approach to time can avoid McTagg…Read more
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178Causation: Reductionism versus realismPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 50 (n/a): 215-236. 1990.
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177The argument from evilPhilosophical Perspectives 5 89-134. 1991.The problem that suffering and other evils pose for the rationality of belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, and morally perfect person has been the focus of intense discussion for a long time. The main thing that I want to do here is to consider whether recent discussions have significantly advanced our understanding of the underlying issues. I believe that they have, and I shall try to indicate the ways in which that is so. The structure of my discussion is as follows. The first two sections co…Read more
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175Functional Concepts, Referentially Opaque Contexts, Causal Relations, and the Definition of Theoretical TermsPhilosophical Studies 105 (3): 251-279. 2001.In his recent article, ``Self-Consciousness'’, George Bealer has set outa novel and interesting argument against functionalism in the philosophyof mind. I shall attempt to show, however, that Bealer's argument cannotbe sustained.In arguing for this conclusion, I shall be defending three main theses.The first is connected with the problem of defining theoreticalpredicates that occur in theories where the following two features arepresent: first, the theoretical predicate in question occurswithin …Read more
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151Alvin Plantinga and the argument from evilAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 58 (4). 1980.Among the central theses defended in this paper are the following. First, the logical incompatibility version of the argument from evil is not one of the crucial versions, and Plantinga, in fostering the illusion that it is, seriously misrepresents claims advanced by other philosophers. Secondly, Plantinga’s arguments against the thesis that the existence of any evil at all is logically incompatible with God’s existence. Thirdly, Plantinga’s attempt to demonstrate that the existence of a certain…Read more
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133Michael Huemer and the Principle of Phenomenal ConservatismIn Chris Tucker (ed.), Seemings and Justification: New Essays on Dogmatism and Phenomenal Conservatism, Oxford University Press Usa. pp. 306. 2013.
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125The Nature of Causation: A Singularist AccountCanadian Journal of Philosophy 20 (sup1): 271-322. 1990.Is a singularist conception of causation coherent? That is to say, is it possible for two events to be causally related, without that relationship being an instance of some causal law, either basic or derived, and either probabilistic or non-probabilistic? Since the time of Hume, the overwhelmingly dominant philosophical view has been that such a conception of causation is not coherent.
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96The nature of properties: nominalism, realism, and trope theory (edited book)Garland. 1999.First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
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89The Problem of EvilCambridge University Press. 2008.Chapter 1 addresses some preliminary issues that it is important to think about in formulating arguments from evil. Chapter 2 is then concerned with the question of how an incompatibility argument from evil is best formulated, and with possible responses to such arguments. Chapter 3 then focuses on skeptical theism, and on the work that skeptical theists need to do if they are to defend their claim of having defeated incompatibility versions of the argument from evil. Finally, Chapter 4 discusse…Read more
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88Freedom and ForeknowledgeFaith and Philosophy 17 (2): 212-224. 2000.In her book, The Dilemma of Freedom and Foreknowledge, Linda Zagzebski suggests that among the strongest ways of supporting the thesis that libertarian free will is incompatible with divine foreknowledge is what she refers to as the Accidental Necessity argument. Zagzebski contends, however, that at least three satisfactory responses to that argument are available.I argue that two of the proposed solutions are open to strong objections, and that the third, although it may very well handle the sp…Read more
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87Causation and Universals.The secret Connexion: Causation, Realism, and David Hume.Causation: A Realist ApproachPhilosophical Quarterly 41 (165): 494-498. 1991.
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73Philosophy, critical thinking and 'after-birth abortion: why should the baby live?'Journal of Medical Ethics 39 (5): 266-272. 2013.Confronted with an article defending conclusions that many people judge problematic, philosophers are interested, first of all, in clarifying exactly what arguments are being offered for the views in question, and then, second, in carefully and dispassionately examining those arguments, to determine whether or not they are sound. As a philosopher, then, that is how I would naturally approach the article ‘After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?’, by Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva…Read more
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72Wes Morriston’s ‘Skeptical Demonism’ Argument from Evil and Timothy Perrine’s ResponseSophia 63 (1): 57-83. 2024.Wes Morriston has argued that given the mixture of goods and evils found in the world, the probability of God’s existence is much less than the probability of a creator who is indifferent to good and evil. One of my goals here is, first, to show how, by bringing in the concept of dispositions, Morriston’s argument can be expressed in a rigorous, step-by-step fashion, and then, second, to show how one can connect the extent to which different events are surprising to conclusions concerning the pr…Read more
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72Laws and Causal RelationsIn Felicia Ackerman (ed.), Midwest Studies in Philosophy, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 93-112. 1981.How are causal relations between particular states of affairs related to causal laws? There appear to be three main answers to this question, and the choice among those three alternatives would seem to be crucial for any account of causation. In spite of this fact, the question of which view is correct has been all but totally neglected in present-day discussions. Indeed, since the time of Hume, one answer has more or less dominated philosophical thinking about causation. This is the view that c…Read more
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67Necessity and possibility: the metaphysics of modality (edited book)Garland. 1999.First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
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63Laws of nature, causation, and supervenience (edited book)Garland. 1999.condition T. Moreover, such a characterization would be perfectly compatible with the possibility of there being events that were causally related, ...
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62Analyzing Sterba’s argumentInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 87 (3): 217-222. 2020.Abstract: Michael Tooley’s Comments on James Sterba’s Book, Is a Good God Logically Possible? My comments on Jim Sterba’s book, Is a Good God Logically Possible?, were divided into the following sections. In the first section, I listed some of the attractive features of Sterba’s discussion. These included, first of all, his use of the ideas of “morally constrained freedom” and “constrained intervention by God” to show the moral evils in our world cannot be justified by an appeal to the idea of …Read more
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