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14Chesterton and PolicingAmerican Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 99 (2): 315-335. 2025.Philosophers are increasingly interested in studying policing, often with an eye to reforming it or even abolishing it. In this paper, I bring together some of G. K. Chesterton’s scattered remarks on the subject. I show that Chesterton anticipates many of the ideas current in the policing literature. Having tried to bring some order to these disparate comments, I then try to construct a preliminary philosophy of policing based on them. I connect Distributist thought to ideas in a recent book by …Read more
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47A thomistic argument for the containment view of pregnancyPhilosophical Quarterly. forthcoming.The ‘containment view’ of pregnancy is widely held, but it has recently been subjected to sustained criticism by Elselijn Kingma. According to the containment view, human foetuses (among others) are animals in their own right, contained within their mothers. Kingma's alternative to this is the ‘parthood view,’ according to which a foetus is a maternal part. Despite the prevalence of the containment view, there are not a great many arguments in its favour, and Kingma has searchingly criticized se…Read more
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18The Political Economy of Distributism: Property, Liberty, and the Common Good by Alexander William SalterAmerican Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 98 (3): 365-368. 2024.
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90Hylemorphic animalism and conjoined twinsPhilosophical Studies 181 (1): 205-222. 2024.Animalism is the doctrine that you and I are animals. Like any substantive philosophical position, animalism faces objections. For example, imagine a case of conjoined twins, where there are two heads, but only one “body,” and where each head seems to have its own typically human and fully discrete mental life. It would be natural to assume that each of the twins is a thing like you and me—each twin is one of us. But it appears that each twin cannot be a distinct human animal, since it appears i…Read more
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58“Stand Your Ground”: A ClarificationCriminal Justice Ethics 41 (3): 215-237. 2022.“Stand Your Ground” (SYG) laws are subject to controversy within both the philosophical literature and the legal literature; and of course they are hotly debated outside of academia as well. In this paper I show that a great part of these discussions is predicated on often very serious errors about what SYG is or isn’t, and I explain them in the context of self-defense law. Though my main purpose is clarification and the correction of some errors in the literature, I close with some brief though…Read more
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51Eternal Life and Human Happiness in Heaven: Philosophical Problems, Thomistic SolutionsAmerican Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 96 (4): 667-670. 2022.
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56Critical Study of Fabrizio Amerini's Aquinas on the Beginning and End of Human LifeOxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy 2 (1). 2014.This is a critical study of Fabrizio Amerini’s recent book, ‘Aquinas on the Beginning and End of Human Life.’ It briefly summarizes the book’s main line of argument, and then raises some objections, principally to Amerini’s contention that St Thomas’s metaphysical views should lead the Thomistically-inclined philosopher to accept delayed hominization even given modern embryological knowledge. The topics discussed include abortion and euthanasia, although the first of these is dealt with at great…Read more
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126St. Thomas Aquinas on Mixture and the Gappy Existence of the ElementsHistory of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 18 (1): 255-268. 2015.When elements join together in a mixture, those elements remain in the mixture, but only virtually. They are present with their powers, but without their substantial forms. When the mixture corrupts, the elements come to be actually present. And so my question: according to St. Thomas, are the elements that come to be actually present as a result of the corruption of the mixed body numerically identical with the elements that came together to create the mixture? I answer yes. This answer entails…Read more
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43Reading ‘is’ Existentially in Republic 476–80British Journal for the History of Philosophy 19 (2): 171-183. 2011.An existential reading of ‘is’ in the argument at Republic 476–480 is widely thought to be objectionable because it commits Plato to belief in degrees of existence. In this paper, I argue that neither proposed alternative—the veridical reading or the predicative reading—can be reconciled with the text, thus forcing the existential reading upon us. Further, I show that when Plato's doctrine of existence is properly understood, his commitment to degrees of existence is not at all absurd.
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160On SubstanceAmerican Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 84 (1): 25-48. 2010.In this paper, I offer a theory of substance. There are three steps in the argument. First, I present and explain my definition of substance. Second, I argue that the definition yields the right results: that is, my definition rules that (among other things) events and universals, privations and piles of trash, are not substances, but at least some ordinary physical objects are. Third, I defend the definition by rebutting two obvious objections to it.
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200Independence accounts of substance and substantial partsPhilosophical Studies 155 (1). 2011.Traditionally, independence accounts of substance have held pride of place. Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes and Spinoza—among many others—accepted independence accounts in one form or another. The general thrust of such views is that substances are those things that are apt to exist in themselves. In this paper, I argue that several contemporary independence theories of substance—including those of Kit Fine, E.J. Lowe and Michael Gorman—include an ad hoc element that renders them unacceptable. I'l…Read more
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65Beauty and Being: Thomistic Perspectives. By Piotr Jaroszyński. Translated by Hugh McDonald (review)American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 87 (4): 786-788. 2013.
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63The prayer of the molinistHeythrop Journal 49 (6): 940-947. 2008.According to the ‘Power of Prayer’ objection to Molinism, the insights of the Church's great saints and spiritual directors regarding how best to grow in the spiritual life conflict with Molinism: spiritual growth is best achieved by praying from a Thomistic attitude towards Providence. Thomas Flint has recently replied to this objection as it was raised by Fr. Reginald Garrigou‐Lagrange. In this paper, I respond on behalf of Garrigou‐Lagrange.
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46Rejoinder to Adam Reed, "Not Even False: A Commentary on Parrish and Toner" (Spring 2008): God-Talk and the ArbitraryJournal of Ayn Rand Studies 9 (2). 2008.In this brief note, Toner discusses Adam Reed's reply ("Not Even False," The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, Spring 2008) to his earlier paper, "Objectivist Atheology" (The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, Spring 2007). He argues that Reed's criticisms do not hold up under scrutiny
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52On Departing HominizationAmerican Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 89 (2): 175-194. 2015.It is a matter of dispute whether St. Thomas Aquinas accepted the doctrine of “departing hominization.” Departing hominization is the view that in the process of human death, the rational soul departs first, leaving a mere animal ensouled by a sensitive soul, and then the sensitive soul departs, leaving a corpse. This would be a surprising thing for St. Thomas to believe, but he does appear to endorse the view in at least one place. I argue that he does not, in fact, accept departing hominizatio…Read more
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137St. Thomas Aquinas on the Problem of Too Many ThinkersModern Schoolman 89 (3-4): 209-222. 2012.It has been argued that St. Thomas Aquinas’s anthropological views fall prey to the problem of “Too Many Thinkers.” The worry, roughly, is that his views entail that I—a human person—am able to think, but that my soul—which is not a human person—is also able to think. Hence, too many thinkers: there are too many ofus having my thoughts. In this paper, I show why this is not a problem for St. Thomas. Along the way, I also address Peter Unger’s argument for substance dualism.
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106Meta-ontology and accidental unityPhilosophical Quarterly 56 (225). 2006.My wife and I and our three children may stand in various relations: being a family, being a basketball team, and so on. I show that Frege's doctrine of existence, when coupled with this simple point, easily solves the problem of material constitution and blocks the overdetermination argument for eliminativism. It does all this work while providing a plausible and clear reductionistic account of material objects. These seem to be very good reasons for accepting Frege's doctrine of existence
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135Contingently Existing Propositions?Philosophical Studies 129 (3): 421-434. 2006.It is fairly common, among those who think propositions exist, to think they exist necessarily. Here, I consider three arguments in support of that conclusion. What I hope to show is not that that claim is false, but, rather, that the arguments used in its defense tend to presuppose a certain kind of approach to modality: a roughly Plantingian view. What the arguments show, then, is that one cannot accept that approach to modality and accept contingently existing propositions. But there are othe…Read more
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56Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction. By Edward FeserAmerican Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 89 (2): 340-342. 2015.
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272On Hylemorphism and Personal IdentityEuropean Journal of Philosophy 19 (3): 454-473. 2009.Abstract: There is no such thing as ‘the’ hylemorphic account of personal identity. There are several views that count as hylemorphic, and these views can be grouped into two main families—the corruptionist view, and the survivalist view. The differentiating factor is that the corruptionist view holds that the persistence of the soul is not sufficient for the persistence of the person, while the survivalist view holds that the persistence of the soul is sufficient for the persistence of the pers…Read more
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324Hylemorphic animalismPhilosophical Studies 155 (1). 2011.Roughly, animalism is the doctrine that each of us is identical with an organism. This paper explains and defends a hylemorphic version of animalism. I show how hylemorphic animalism handles standard objections to animalism in compelling ways. I also show what the costs of endorsing hylemorphic animalism are. The paper's contention is that despite the costs, the view is worth taking seriously
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97Pascal’s First Wager ReconsideredInternational Philosophical Quarterly 46 (1): 75-90. 2006.There are at least two versions of the famous Wager argument to be found in Pascal’s Pensées. In contemporary work on the Wager, attention is almost always focused on the second. In this paper, we take a look at the first, which is often quickly dismissed as a failure. Indeed, it seems to be generally believed that Pascal himself quickly dismissed it as a failure. We fi rst argue that Pascal himself accepted the argument. Then we argue (more importantly) that those who accept a virtue theoretic …Read more
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57Objectivist AtheologyJournal of Ayn Rand Studies 8 (2). 2007.Objectivists insist on the primacy of existence—the axiom that existence exists. This axiom is taken to entail that the universe exists independent of any consciousness, human or divine. Objectivists hold that a straightforward consequence of this axiom is that God does not exist. The central argument of this paper is that the Objectivist atheological argument based on the primacy of existence fails. Atheological arguments based on the alleged incoherence of the Divine attributes are at best inc…Read more
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Religion |
Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Aesthetics |