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90The Moral Basis of VegetarianismPhilosophy 53 (206). 1978.If someone abstains from meat-eating for reasons of taste or personal economics, no moral or philosophical question arises. But when a vegetarian attempts to persuade others that they, too, should adopt his diet, then what he says requires philosophical attention. While a vegetarian might argue in any number of ways, this essay will be concerned only with the argument for a vegetarian diet resting on a moral objection to the rearing and killing of animals for the human table. The vegetarian, in …Read more
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7Truth And Pragmatism in Higher EducationInternational Journal of Applied Philosophy 5 (1): 67-74. 1990.
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14"Exists" and St. Anselm's ArgumentGrazer Philosophische Studien 3 (1): 59-70. 1977.This paper examines interpretations of the doctrine that "exists" is not a predicate (existence is not a property). None, it is concluded, is both true and a refutation of St. Anselm's "ontological" argument for the existence of God.
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11Against Superkitten EthicsInternational Philosophical Quarterly 51 (4): 429-436. 2011.I here criticize the use of science-fiction examples in ethics, chiefly, though not solely, by defenders of abortion. We have no reliable intuitions concerning such examples—certainly nothing strong enough to set against the strong intuition that infanticide is virtually always wrong.
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38Truth And Pragmatism in Higher EducationInternational Journal of Applied Philosophy 5 (1): 67-74. 1990.
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60Letters to the EditorProceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 77 (2). 2003.
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6Against Interrogational Torture: Upholding a Troubled TabooIn David Boonin (ed.), Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Public Policy, Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 123-133. 2018.Until recently, torture was regarded as an unthinkable act. But in the dark years following September 11, 2001, many people have defended it openly as they have many other kinds of action previously considered taboo. And the underlying issues are complicated. Yet at least a virtually absolute prohibition on interrogational torture can be rationally defended.
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25One of the deepest problems in philosophical theology is that of divine causality and human freedom. The analogy between God and the author of a work of fiction can shed light on this and many other thorny problems in philosophical and dogmatic theology.
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31On Slippery SlopesPhilosophy 93 (3): 375-393. 2018.I here discuss an argument frequently dismissed as a fallacy – the slippery slope or camel's nose. The argument has three forms – analogical, argumentative, and prudential. None of these provides a deductive guarantee, but all can provide considerations capable of influencing the intellect. Our evaluation of such arguments reflects our background social and evaluative assumptions.
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17What’s Wrong with Torture?International Philosophical Quarterly 49 (3): 317-332. 2009.Many of us want to say that there is an absolute—or at least a virtually absolute—prohibition on torturing people. But we live in a world in which firm moral restraints of all sorts are hard to defend. Neither contemporary conventional morality, nor any of the available moral theories, provides adequate support for the deliverances of the “wisdom of repugnance” in this area. Nor do they support casuistry capable of distinguishing torture from forms of rough treatment. I here make some suggestion…Read more
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383Abortion: 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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10Natural law ethicsGreenwood Press. 1999.Presents a contemporary version of the natural law tradition as a valid approach to ethical problems.
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76What’s Wrong with Torture?International Philosophical Quarterly 49 (3): 317-332. 2009.Many of us want to say that there is an absolute—or at least a virtually absolute—prohibition on torturing people. But we live in a world in which firm moral restraints of all sorts are hard to defend. Neither contemporary conventional morality, nor any of the available moral theories, provides adequate support for the deliverances of the “wisdom of repugnance” in this area. Nor do they support casuistry capable of distinguishing torture from (sometimes legitimate) forms of rough treatment. I he…Read more
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82Creation and Evolution: PHILIP E. DEVINEReligious Studies 32 (3): 325-337. 1996.Despite the bad reputation of the legal profession, law remains king in America. A highly diverse society relies on the laws to maintain a working sense of the dignity and inviability of each individual. And a persistent element in contemporary debates is the fear that naturalistic theories of the human person will erode our belief that we have a dignity greater than that of other natural objects. Thus the endurance of the creation vs. evolution debate is due less to the arguments of creationist…Read more
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22The Religious Significance of the Ontological Argument: PHILIP E.DEVINEReligious Studies 11 (1): 97-116. 1975.It seems clear that the ontological argument can no longer be dismissed as a silly fallacy. The dogma of the impossibility of necessary existence is seriously threatened by the case of necessary existential truths in mathematics, and as for the claim that the ontological argument must beg the question, since by mentioning God in the premise his existence is presupposed, it is undermined by the fact that we often refer to things—Hamlet for instance— we do not for a moment think exist. The doctrin…Read more
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16The Evidential Force of Religious Experience (review)Review of Metaphysics 44 (2): 419-420. 1990.Caroline Franks Davis here undertakes an assessment of the value of religious experiences as evidence for religious beliefs. She distinguishes this question from that of the veridical character of particular experiences or their value for the person undergoing them or his community. She attends both to the phenomenological variety of religious experiences and the variety of cultural settings in which they take place. She concludes that religious experience can form an important part of the case …Read more
Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Law |
Philosophy of Religion |
Areas of Interest
Social and Political Philosophy |
Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality |