ABOUT
Robert C Trundle, PhD in Philosophy from the University of Colorado (Boulder), has been a faculty member at both the University of Colorado and Regis College at Col Springs; an award-winning and early-promoted full Professor at NKU (ret); and Fellow, Adler-Aquinas Institute. [1] He has been a member of both the International Science & Commonsense Assoc (Rome) and Catholic Academy of Sciences (Cor Mbr in USA).
In an issue sponsored by the US State Department in 2012, he was later awarded the 2014 JSRI Int'l Prize in Philosophy for his article "America's Religion vs Religion in America" by the Journal for Study of Religions and Ideolog…
ABOUT
Robert C Trundle, PhD in Philosophy from the University of Colorado (Boulder), has been a faculty member at both the University of Colorado and Regis College at Col Springs; an award-winning and early-promoted full Professor at NKU (ret); and Fellow, Adler-Aquinas Institute. [1] He has been a member of both the International Science & Commonsense Assoc (Rome) and Catholic Academy of Sciences (Cor Mbr in USA).
In an issue sponsored by the US State Department in 2012, he was later awarded the 2014 JSRI Int'l Prize in Philosophy for his article "America's Religion vs Religion in America" by the Journal for Study of Religions and Ideologies . Ideologies wedded to religions were warned against, especially if rooted in a wannabe king's hubristic self-idolatry . Also, he was appointed to the Advisory Board of Sensus Communis: Annuario di Logica Aletica Pubblica, after his article in 2002, by its Director (Rev Msgr Antonio Livi, PhD, Dean Emeritus of the Faculty of Philosophy and Professor of Logic at the Pontificia Università Lateranense) . See, for example, https://www.vanthuanobservatory.org/eng/i-nostri-libri/il-libro-della-settimana/ . See article on religion at https://philpapers.org/rec/TRUARV .
His book Integrated Truth and Existential Phenomenology was published by Brill-Rodopi (Leiden) in 2015. And in 2017 Routledge re-published his book From Physics to Politics, first published in 1999 by Transaction (Rutgers ---The State University) . As well, he has been a referee for several philosophical journals: Laval Théologique et Philosophique (Université Laval) , Philosophy of Science (Am Philosophy of Science Assoc) , and Dialogue : Canadian Philosophical Review (Official Journal of the Canadian Philosophical Assoc). And he has been an evaluator for the Canadian Government’s most prestigious scholarly award, the Killam Research Fellowship (Conseil des arts du Canada) .
Besides logic and the philosophy of logic, his interests include the history of philosophy, philosophy of science, existential phenomenology, St Thomas, Søren Kierkegaard, Camus, Sartre, and Wittgenstein with over sixty published peer-reviewed works. These works led Physics Prof Dr Maria Falbo-Kenkel to invite his talk on how natural theology is related logically to science at the Scientific Research Society of Sigma Xi . For his above book Integrated Truth & Existential Phenomenology, which relates phenomenology and modal logic to St Thomas, see a book review in the Review of Metaphysics at https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Trundle%2C+Robert+C.%3A+Integrated+Truth+and+Existential+Phenomenology%3A+A...-a0455285248 (by Prof Robert A Delfino). See also https://www.coursehero.com/file/88267283/Handout-09-Realism-and-Antirealismpdf/ .
EVOLVING PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES
A modal logic of what it makes sense to say via Wittgenstein (viz where doubt may be unreasonable but also logically impossible with “no clear boundary between them”) bears on phenomena that, pace Kant, are rooted ontologically in things themselves . [2] There is a sheer direct consciousness of things themselves, apart from concepts, both of which we are always indirectly conscious. Inclusions of both this direct consciousness and things themselves, in conceptual observation, afford ordinary observational objectivity. And besides the objectivity, we are indirectly conscious of our direct consciousness as not being either our thoughts or the things observed, resulting in a dilemma for science that brings to mind David Chalmers' Anglo-American hard problem.
A Novel Hard Problem of Consciousness
A novel problem from a Continental (Sartre-like) standpoint is that we cannot be directly conscious of a consciousness of which we are not already indirectly conscious as not being a structured thing (néant ) and that, anyway, could not be structured on pain of obstructing our being conscious of structured things. We are in fact objectively aware of external structured things. Otherwise, we could not get from our desk to the door . Precisely, consciousness without a structure---while excluding consciousness as something entirely subject to scientific inquiry, is why we can see things with approximate objectively. Objectivity is explicated by an existential phenomenology of consciousness that strengthens FI Dretski’s analytic philosophy of a non-epistemic seeingn (awareness).
Consciousness and a Sound Modal Logic
Modal logic and consciousness as such afford a robust realism that defends St Thomas inter alios against a tradition of Hume, Kant, Popper, Kuhn, Feyerabend, Lakatos, Lauden, Hacking, Cartwright etc. And the realism supports both sensorial and theoretical knowledge that are understood inter alia by theoretical (universal) entities, not existing apart from particulars, but rather manifest in particulars that are observable. The observable aside, WH Newton-Smith's influential inductive pessimism about any true future scientific theories, is challenged by my inductive optimism of commonsense: Science yields ever truer major theories that presuppose a modalized causal principle.
The principle as a modal conditional, which reflects the actual foundation of Thomas' first-cause proof, is denotable by either (~C ⇒ ~E ) or Nec (~C → ~E ) . Thus Necessarily if "there is no cause" (~C ), then "there is no event" (~E ) where it is physically impossible that ~E is false when ~C is true. The latter modality is inferably true, affording intelligible scientific inquiries that avoid a K-K Thesis of "how we know we know" : Knowledge in science need not presuppose an unknowable truth by the causal principle’s Kantian reduction to a truthless synthetic-a priori metaphysics. The metaphysics is famously noted succinctly by Fred Suppe: “If skepticism is to be avoided, the exploitation of... ‘causal’ regularities in obtaining a posterior knowledge must not require prior knowledge of those regularities.” [3] The regularities as allegedly unknowable in toto, however, presuppose a truth-functional logic that disregards a fuzzy middle ground (or border) between the "synthetic" and "analytic". Thus although the "analytic" is logically necessary where doubt is irrational and the "synthetic" as empirically contingent is where doubt can be unreasonable, the more than unreasonable but less than invincibly irrational relate to Wittgenstein.
Modal Logic: St Thomas and Wittgenstein
Wittgenstein and Thomas thus bear on the causal principle being more than unreasonable to doubt and so, via science, strictly implying (⇒) a first cause. And the cause's modal-logic proof proceeds pari passu with its being a supreme norm (“good”) that created our psycho-biological nature as it ought to be. What else could be the good without circularly being itself causally created? So by virtue of our created analogical nature, which affords inter alia both our creating things that are relatively (objectively) good and the good sought via perfection (qua a first cause), there is no naturalistic fallacy. Thus the fallacy aside, a naturalistic ethics is inferable from how our nature is since it is as it ought to be. And via this is-ought bridging ethics for fulfilling our nature, it should be fulfilled inter alia by healthful art and political policies (not fact-flouting ideologies) that are inferably true from this ethics. And so the ethics, which should be institutionalized by politics, is inferable from the general sciences and scientific descriptions of our psycho-biological nature. Our nature as related logically to ethics relies on scientific theories having truth and ever truer domains of major historical theories (simplistically as Aristotle, Newton, Einstein etc).
An historical sequence to Einstein etc of ever truer major theories may be said to violate a rule of logic where one false conjunct falsifies a conjunctive proposition, bearing on theories as conjunctions of laws. But may we not ordinarily say that (p ∧ q ∧ r ) with one false conjunct and (s ∧ t ∧ u ) with two are not equally false, that one is more true? Truer theories as such are proposed in my book Consciousness and Being : From Being to Truth... (2019). To wit: For how a given major theory can be roughly true in any domain, see the following epistemic conditional (pace Popper's famous but false truth-functional falsification): e2 ⇒ [e1 ˄ (e1 ≈ t1 ) ˄ (t1 ˄ To ⊦ t2 ) ˄ (t2 ≈ e2 )]. That is, Necessarily if e2, then [e1 ˄ (e1 ≈ t1 ) ˄ (t1 ˄ To ⊦ t2 ) ˄ (t2 ≈ e2 )] where there is an epistemic impossibility that the consequent is entirely false when e2 . Here, e2 as the antecedent may denote systematically successful (true) predictions in a given domain. The domain may be Newton's where Planck's constant is negligible and phenomena do not approach the speed of light, or Einstein's larger domain that includes Newton's but more. And the consequent [e1 ˄ (e1 ≈ t1 )... (t2 ≈ e2 )] coordinates empirical and theoretical state descriptions (e and t ) for a given theory To.
Challenge to Søren Kierkegaard's Leap of Faith
The theory To holds for increasing domains of scientific truth about our psycho-biological nature and Nature that inform a naturalistic ethics. And the ethics’ increasing truth proceeds pari passu with increasing truths of art and politics. Politics should largely institutionalize a naturalistic ethics. And the ethics, art, politics, science and natural theology are interrelated logically. Logically as well, the principle of non-contradiction is often misunderstood. This misunderstanding plus the natural theology of a first cause, bridging a supposed rational philosophy and irrational supernatural theology, has the extraordinary result of challenging Søren Kierkegaard’s signature Leap of Faith.
For how this Faith is often related to misunderstood contradictions, see below Trundle's "Aristotle Vs Van Til and Łukasiewicz on Contradiction". See also Consciousness and Being: From Being to Truth... (2019) where natural theology bridges supernatural theology and philosophy, excluding the single Leap from an alleged philosophical rationality to an irrational supernatural theology — and where also the theological paradox (contradiction) of Christ being both man and not man (God) is not irrationally affirmed a priori. On a priori versus a posteriori contradiction, see among other articles my article "Aristotle Versus Van Til and Łukasiewicz on Contradiction" in Logos and Episteme at http://logos-and-episteme.acadiasi.ro/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/ARISTOTLE-VERSUS-VAN-TIL-AND-LUKASIEWICZ-ON-CONTRADICTION.pdf (favoring Łukasiewicz).
MEMBERSHIP (PAST, PRESENT, AND INVITED)
Scientific Research Society of Sigma Xi ; Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society ; the New York Academy of Sciences ; the American Philosophical Association ; Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy ; Federation of American Scientists ; American Association for the Advancement of Science ; Cooperating Member of the International Science and Commonsense Association (headed by Rev Msgr Antonio Livi, PhD, Dean Emeritus) ; elected by voting members to be an Academician at the Catholic Academy of Sciences in the USA (declined because of required travel) ; Corresponding Member of the Catholic Academy of Sciences in the USA ; and Military Officers Association of America (the MOAA).
SEVERAL AWARDS AND OTHER RECOGNITION
Advanced Honors in Philosophy, Ohio State University ; Ohio State University Scholarship ; Graduate Teacher/Teaching Assistant, University of Toledo ; Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi ; offer by Antony Flew of PhD study at the University of Reading UK, 1974/5 (declined, family unsupported) ; two scholarly graduate awards by Prof Michael Ruse for PhD study at Guelph--McMaster Universities CA, 1974/5 (declined for family) ; Rice University Fellowship 1975 ; Outstanding Jr Prof for Scholarship and Teaching at NKU ; early promotion to full Professor at NKU ; invited referee for the journals Philosophy of Science (Phil of Science Assoc), Laval Théologique et Philosophique (Laval Université), and Dialogue: Canadian Phil Review (official journal of the Canadian Philosophical Assoc) ; appointed to Advisory Board (comitato di redazione) of Sensus Communis: Annuario di Logica Aletica ; invited evaluator for Canada’s most prestigious scholarly award, the Killam Research Fellowship (Conseil des arts du Canada) ; Marquis Who's Who in America, 73rd ed. ; Writer’s Directory (Gale Group) ; Directory of American Scholars (Gale) ; Contemporary Authors (Gale) ; in an issue sponsored by the US State Department, awarded the 2014 Intl JSRI Prize in Phil (by the Editorial Board of the Journal for Study of Religions and Ideologies) for the article "America's Religion versus Religion in America" ; Member, Editorial Board of Gilson Studies, starting about 2015/16 for Value Inquiry Book Series at Brill-Rodopi Publishers (Leiden).
BOOKS: BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS AND INFORMATION
See Several Longer Summaries Below This Section
Consciousness and Being: From Being to Truth in the Thomistic Tradition (La Vergne: Wipf and Stock, 2019) . This book is of vital interest to anyone who yearns to know how science, theology, ethics, art, and politics do really afford objective truths. Not only that, but how these truths in currently clashing areas are both interrelated by a commonsense modal logic and rooted in our irrefutable consciousness of Being itself. Being itself, as the basis for truth, is defended against truth-denying modern philosophers who, having headed the wrong way with murderous ideologies, have completely neglected the simple origin of truth in the realist tradition of Aristotle, Aquinas, Étienne Gilson and others. See https://wipfandstock.com/9781532649684/consciousness-and-being/ 2019.
Integrated Truth & Existential Phenomenology : A Thomistic Response to Iconic Anti-Realists in Science. Value Inquiry Book Series of Philosophy and Religion (Leiden: Brill-Rodopi, 2015). My "Principle of Optimistic Induction" is introduced, which contrasts to W.H. Newton-Smith's famous "Pessimistic Induction" in The Rationality of Science. See a favorable review of the book by Prof Robert Delfino in The Review of Metaphysics Vol. 69, No. 4, June 2016 at https://www.jstor.org/stable/44806883?seq=1as well as at https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Trundle%2C+Robert+C.%3A+Integrated+Truth+and+Existential+Phenomenology%3A+A...-a0455285248. See also Brill-Rodopi Publishers at https://brill.com/view/book/9789004299757/B9789004299757-s007.xml?lang=en (with a chapter).
A Theology of Science : From Science to Ethics to an Ethical Politics, ILLUSTRATED BLACK & WHITE THROUGHOUT (Boca Raton: BrownWalker Press, 2007; 2nd ed 2009). See a favorable book review by Prof Tom Michaud, Chair of Philosophy at WJU, in The Review of Metaphysics Vol 62, No 1 (2008), 162–164 : “I was somewhat cynical that a theological critique of modern science could deliver anything more than a religious… exhortation [but] I was schooled! This book is one of those exceptional works which is both challenging in its philosophical sophistication and edifying in its moral argumentation… [Dr. Trundle] succeeds brilliantly .” See reference to the book review at https://www.jstor.org/stable/20131085?seq=1 . See also http://www.bookpump.com/bwp/pdf-b/9424266b.pdf
Is ET Here? (Vicroria, CA: EcceNova Pub). Chair of Philosophy at Tulane University (later Prof of Philosophy and Dir of Humanities Emeritus at the Univ of Colorado), Dr. Michael Zimmerman, stated: “With his knowledge of the philosophy of science, epistemology and logic,” Trundle erodes “the justifications used by many mainstream scientists, journalists and opinion-shapers when they ignore or attack credible testimony… of artificial flying objects not produced by human beings.” He adds, “This well-written book will appeal especially to those interested in a philosophically and technically sophisticated treatment." [4] Contains plausible reports of reliable witnesses and films of the phenomena that some leading scientists and G8 governments acknowledge. Eg, see former CIA Director John Brennan who notes "other forms of life" at https://www.foxnews.com/science/former-cia-director-unexplained-phenomenon-different-form-of-life
Camus' Answer: “No" to the Western Pharisees Who Impose Reason on Reality (UK: Sussex Academic Press, 2002). A Paragon Press reviewer stated that “it is rather unique and represents a kind of scholarship that very view even try to, let alone succeed at, engage in. On the whole, the discussion of Camus is informative and is nicely connected both to Western philosophy and Eastern accents.” [5] See the publisher's page at http://www.sussex-academic.com/sa/titles/philosophy/Trundle.htm . See also https://www.amazon.com/Camus-Answer-Western-Pharisees-Reality/dp/1902210999
UFOs: Politics, God & Science: Philosophy on a Taboo Topic with a foreword letter of strong support by Pulitzer-Prize winning psychiatrist John E. Mack, MD, Harvard University Medical School (Florence, Italy: European Press Academic Publishing, 2001). See http://www.e-p-a-p.com/author/55 and http://www.e-p-a-p.com/book/8883980077 . For news reports see https://time.com/5680192/navy-confirms-ufo-videos-real/ as well as https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/06/uk/helen-sharman-aliens-exist-scli-scn-gbr-intl/index.html . Finally, see a photo of former 1st Lt Walter Haut (USAAF) and I, when I interviewed him . Recalling 1947 (when the CIA was formed by Pres Truman), Lt Haut said that he was ordered to report publicaly the Roswell UFO crash and then, soon afterwards, to deny it. See https://www.thenortherner.com/news/2005/02/02/professors-new-book-explores-space-ufos/. See also Lt. Haut's alleged affidavit after his death (2002) at http://vincentamatoauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/11-Sealed-Affidavit-Of-Walter-G.-Haut.pdf
From Physics to Politics: Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Philosophy . Re-published by Routledge, 2nd ed (NY and Oxon: Taylor and Francis Group, 5 July 2017) after its initial publication by Transaction Publishers (NJ: Rutgers --- The State University, 1999, 2nd ed, 2001) . See https://www.routledge.com/From-Physics-to-Politics-The-Metaphysical-Foundations-of-Modern-Philosophy/Trundle/p/book/9780765809018.
Medieval Modal Logic & Science, forewords by Dr (Prof) David Lamb, Hon Reader in Philosophy, School of Medicine at the University of Birmingham and J. Roland Ramirez, Duquesne University --- PhD Institut Catholique de Paris (Lanham, MD: Roman & Littlefield Publishers/UPA, 1999). See https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780761813989/Medieval-Modal-Logic-and-Science-Augustine-on-Scientific-Truth-and-Thomas-on-its-Impossibility-Without-a-First-Cause . Paolo Crivelli (Oxford University) cites this book on p. 60 per Aristotle’s modal logic in Aristotle on Truth (Cambridge, 2004). Crivelli states that "Many commentators take Aristotle to endorse the statistical account of modalities, but there is disagreement on whether it is his only, or most basic, account (see e.g. Trundle (1981), 52–4)" at http://www.filosofia.unimi.it/zucchi/NuoviFile/Paolo%20Crivelli-Aristotle%20on%20Truth-Cambridge%20University%20Press%20(2004).pdf
Ancient Greek Philosophy: Its Development & Relevance to Our Time (London, UK: Ashgate Publishing, Avebury Series in Philosophy, 1994). Dr. Ralph McInerny, Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Notre Dame stated, “The high level of historical and philosophical discussion is admirable, yet eminently accessible.” [6] The book is listed at a special medieval collection at the University of Notre Dame. And Prof Konstantine Boudouris, both Chair of Philosophy at the University of Athens and Editor of The Greek Philosophical Review, stated that the book is “very important”. [7] See Dr. Boudouris' full description and book review, in Greek, at http://www.kenef.phil.uoi.gr/dynamic/bookfull.php?Book_ID=9745&contents=
Beyond Absurdity: The Philosophy of Albert Camus with R Puligandla (London /Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Pub/UPA, 1985/86). Living with moral and logical absurdity is related uniquely to Western and Eastern philosophies. See favorable reviews by, among others, Hazel Barnes and Fernande Bartfeld (Revue d'Histoire littéraire de la France 90e Année, No.2, 1990, 276) at https://www.jstor.org/stable/40530087
JOURNALS (SOME HAVING MULTIPLE ARTICLES)
Aquinas: Revista Internazionale di Filosofia (Pontificia Università Lateranense , Rome) ; In Spanish ---Augustinus: Revista Trimestral Publicada Por Los Padres Agustinos Recoletos (Madrid, Librería Editorial Augustinus) ; Bulletin Ind. Institute of the History of Medicine (with Michael Vossmeyer, MD) ; Christian Perspectives on Science and Technology — Institute for the Study of Christianity in an Age of Science and Technology (ISCAST) ; Cultura: International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology ; Darshana International ; Diálogos (Universidad de Puerto Rico) ; Epistemologia: Italian Journal for the Philosophy of Science ; Ethics & Politics (Edizioni Università di Trieste) ; Filosofia: International Journal of Philosophy ; Filosofiska Notiser (Philosophical Notes) at Stockholm University, Sweden (submitted) ; Journal for the Study of Religions & Ideologies ; Journal of Business Ethics ; Idealistic Studies: An International Philosophical Journal ; Laval Théologique et Philosophique (Laval Universite) ; Logique et Analyse (Belgium National Centre for Logical Investigation) ; Logos & Episteme: An International Journal of Epistemology ; Modern Schoolman: A Quarterly Journal of Philosophy (St Louis U) ; National Forum ; Philosophy in Review ; Philosophy in Science (Pontifical Academy of Theology) Kraków and Pachart Foundation Tucson ; Res Publica , Belgium Institute of Political Science ; Review Journal of Philosophy & Social Science ; Science and Method: Journal for the Empirical Study of the Foundations of Science , The Netherlands ; Sensus Communis: An International Quarterly for Studies and Research on Alethic Logic ; Studies in Conflict and Terrorism (Interim Editor, Rand Corp) ; and Thought: A Review of Culture and Idea aka Thought: Fordham University Quarterly
SOME JOURNAL ARTICLES AND BOOK REVIEWS
Reviews and lengthy commentary in some cases
Marxism and Spirituality by Benjamin Page (Ed) . This is an invited book review for Victoria University's Philosophy in Review 13.5 (1993) 181-86. Marx's incoherent deterministic materialism, despite an alleged "teleological" dialectic , is as toxic ideologically as both Sartre's illogical absolutist free will and unfettered will to power of Nietzsche. Spirituality is foreign to these views, despite also Nietzsche's so-called Positive Christianity (https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/pir/article/view/8689 ).
Lengthy commentary on the above:
In order to avoid political ideologies as fact-flouting a priori Weltanschauungen, which ignore our psycho-biological nature, see my other writings where we limitedly both have and do not have free will (our being causally determined --- extra-biologically and biologically) . Biologically, for example, manic depression causes clinical symptoms most of which are vainly willed against. Extra-biologically, causes via Newton's 2nd law F = ma (as mg = md2s/dt2 for free fall) bear on forensic investigations : One's screaming "no, no, no" after falling from a building indicates one's willing to not fall (eg. murder) and "my problems are over" one's willing to fall (suicide). We are immediately, irrefutably and phenomenologically conscious of our freely willing to do or not do something (an ineffectiveness of free will notwithstanding in many cases) . So our free will is not reliant on abstract proofs but rather on our undeniable, immediate, experience of ourselves. And despite its limits, free will is presupposed for both a coherent culpability in ethics and in science for uncaused truth-claims ; claims that beg for an intelligible truth-condition. See among other works, my books Integrated Truth and Existential Phenomenology, pp. 14-15 and Consciousness and Being, p. 25 as well as https://www2.units.it/etica/2007_1/TRUNDLE.pdf
"Has global ethnic conflict superseded cold war ideology?" in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Vol 19.1 (1996) 93-107 . Editor --- Rand Corporation, Taylor & Francis publishers . See https://doi.org/10.1080/10576109608435997 as well as www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10576109608435997 . The article is included in the libraries of several US military/intelligence organizations.
"Paradoxes of Human Nature" in Etica & Politica /Ethics & Politics (EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste) , Vol. IX.1 (2007) 181-186 . See https://philpapers.org/rec/TRUPOH ; https://www.openstarts.units.it/handle/10077/5262 as well as https://www2.units.it/etica/2007_1/TRUNDLE.pdf . Finally, free will and determinism, with their import for politics, are clarified by my article "Quantum Fluctuation, Self-Organizing Biological Systems, and Human Freedom" at https://www.pdcnet.org/idstudies/content/idstudies_1994_0024_0003_0269_0281
"De Interpretatione IX: [Aristotle's] Problem of Future Truth or of Infinite Past Truth?" Modern Schoolman: A Quarterly Journal of Philosophy (aka Res Philosophica) 59 (1981): 49-55 . See William Lane Craig’s praise of this article in The Problem of Divine Foreknowledge (Leiden: Brill, 1988) . Craig states that “a good capsule summary of [Jaakko] Hintikka’s position [on modal logic] may be found in Robert Trundle, 'De Interpretatione IX...' “ (fn. 52, p. 238) at https://books.google.com/books?id=zgTV-kY-svsC&q=trundle#v=snippet&q=trundle&f=false . See also A.A. Bell and J.B. Allis' "SECTION ON MODAL LOGIC," Resources in Ancient Philosophy (London: Scarecrow Press, 1991), which refers to this article and contains its abstract. And see https://www.pdcnet.org/schoolman/content/schoolman_1981_0059_0001_0049_0055 .
"Value and Scientific Theory," Modern Schoolman: A Quarterly Journal of Philosophy (aka Res Philosophica) Vol 60, Issue 2, Jan 1983, 85-100 . See https://doi.org/10.5840/schoolman198360227 and https://www.pdcnet.org/schoolman/content/schoolman_1983_0060_0002_0085_0100 .
"Thomas' Second Way: A Defense by Modal Scientific Reasoning," Logique et Analyse 146 (Juin 1994) 145-168, Belgian National Centre for Logical Investigation . The basis of Thomas' first-cause proof is denoted (~C ⇒ ~E ) : An event E is physically impossible when there is no cause ~C . Pari passu there is a cause of the cosmic event of the world in toto that is not itself caused on pain otherwise of the cosmos (within parameters of science) coming impossibly from nowhere and nothing . See https://www.jstor.org/stable/44084415?seq=1
"Quantum Fluctuation, Self-Organizing Biological Systems, and Human Freedom," Idealistic Studies Vol 24.3 (Fall 1994) pp. 269-281 . Among other things, a so-called "indeterminism" of quantum physics, which is deterministic of probabilities, is not a basis for arguing that we have free will --- although our free will is, nonetheless, immediately and phenomenologically certifiable. See https://doi.org/10.5840/idstudies199424318
"Sex Revolution and Psycho-social Disorder," with Michael Vossmeyer, MD, Bulletin Ind. Institute of the History of Medicine . Cf. http://www.iscast.org/journal/articles/Trundle_&_Vossmeyer_2005-07_Sex_Revolution_And_Psychosocial_Disorder.pdf "Art History: From a Greek Stress On Sex To Social Constructions of Women's Fashion" (with photos) . Anistoriton Journal, vol. (2010-2011) . CLICK "CONTINUE TO HTTP SITE", BELOW, ON THAT PAGE --- /www.anistor.gr/english/enback/2010_2a_Anistoriton.pdf
"Existentialism and Phenomenology: The Overlooked Bases of Scientific Realism," Epistemologia Vol. 13.2 (1990) 279-302. See both https://philpapers.org/rec/TRUEAP and http://www.dif.unige.it/epi/rivista.htm . Having received an initial copy, which is lost, I have been unable to locate another copy. Nonetheless, the article is one of my earliest in this genre and may be retrieved in the future.
“A First Cause and the Causal Principle: How the Principle Binds Theology to Science,” Philosophy in Science X. Ed. William Stoeger, SJ, PhD Astrophysics, Cambridge University. Kraków: Papal Academy of Theology, Vatican Astronomical Observatory & University of Arizona, 2003, 107-135. See elsewhere at https://www.asa3.org/ASA/topics/Apologetics/A%20First%20Cause,%20Trundle.pdf
"The Cases For and Against Theological Approaches to Business Ethics" in Laval théologique et Philosophique . A reply to Richard T DeGeorge's response to me, at www.erudit.org/en/journals/ltp/1991-v47-n2-ltp2140/400611ar.pdf
"St. Augustine’s Epistemology: an Ignored Aristotelian Theme and its Intriguing Anticipations, " Laval théologique et philosophique / La théorie synthétique de l’évolution --- (Faculté de philosophie, Université Laval) Vol 50.1 (février 1994) pp. 187–205 at https://doi.org/10.7202/400823ar and https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/ltp/1994-v50-n1-ltp2148/400823ar.pdf "20th-Century Despair and Thomas’ Sound Argument for God" in Laval théologique et Philosophique -- (Faculté de philosophie, Université Laval) Vol 52.1 (février 1996) pp. 101–123 at https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/ltp/1900-v1-n1-ltp2154/400973ar.pdf
"Aristotle Versus Van Til and Łukasiewicz on Contradiction" in Logos and Episteme: An International Journal of Epistemology at https://www.pdcnet.org/logos-episteme/content/logos-episteme_2012_0003_0002_0323_0344 as well as at http://logos-and-episteme.acadiasi.ro/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/ARISTOTLE-VERSUS-VAN-TIL-AND-LUKASIEWICZ-ON-CONTRADICTION.pdf
SEVERAL INVITED ARTICLES FOR BOOKS
"Physics and Phenomenology," invited for New Horizons in The Philosophy of Science, Ed. by Dr (Prof Phil) David Lamb, Medical School, Department of Bioethics, University of Birmingham (London: Ashgate, Avebury Series in Philosophy 1992) 66-86 . An important point bears on Nancy Cartwright’s notable “weak” scientific realism that allows for a reality of theoretical entities, such as the electron, but denies a truth of theories --- permitting a minimal realism that avoids an alleged dilemma of the Under-determination-of-Theory-by-Data (UTD) Thesis . My rejoinder is that the UTD Thesis is a pseudo-problem for realism. For the inference to conflicting theories is coherently a posteriori (evidence based) . Also, per my article, to accept the electron's reality is to accept it in terms of a theory and thus the theory’s inexact truth. So a truth of theories is related logically to a reality of theoretical entities . See a review of the book's articles --- but not my article unsurprisingly (given a greater novelty of phenomenology in Anglo-American philosophy in 1992 ?) : Medical Ethics Vol 21.4 at https://jme.bmj.com/content/21/4/248.1 . See also my critique of the UTD Thesis in my last several books, including Consciousness and Being (2019).
“A Thomistic Integration of Truth Vs. a Truthlessness of Today’s Science, Ethics & Politics,” Sztuka I Realizm (Art & Realism), Ed. by Fr. T. Duma, A. Maryniarczyk SDB and P. Sulenta (Lublin: Polish Society of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Faculty of Philosophy at the Catholic University of Lublin (Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski) 2014) 721-738. See "Art and Realism") at https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=http://www.ptta.pl/index.php%3Fid%3Dpubl%26lang%3Dpl&prev=search, See Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelskiat http://www.fiuc.org/bdf_organisme-205_en.html
“America’s Religion Vs. Religion in America,” Religion, Culture & Ideology in America (with the Issue sponsored by US State Department), Ed. by Drs. Sandu and Mihaela Frunza, SCIRI and The Academic Society for the Research of Religions & Ideologies (Bucuresti: Tritonic Group Editorial, 2012) 9-27. For more on this article, see http://jsri.ro/ojs/index.php/jsri/article/viewFile/643/556 . Also see the book at https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ro&u=https://www.tritonic.ro/isbn-Religion_culture_and_ideology_in_America-978-606-662-033-8.htm&prev=search&pto=aue . Finally, see the Central and Eastern European Library at https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=53700
“Unidentified Flying Objects in Northern Kentucky” , Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky, P. Tenkotte and J. Claypool, eds (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2009, 1072 pages) ; published for the World Wide Web by NKY.com and Enquirer Media. This volume is also a Project of the Thomas D. Clark Foundation, Inc . See p. x at both https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Encyclopedia_of_Northern_Kentucky.html?id=Zc0eBgAAQBAJ and https://issuu.com/cincinnati/docs/nky-intro and https://inside.nku.edu/artsci/centers/cph/encyclopedia.html .
LONGER BOOK SUMMARIES
Several reviewers say my views tend to be novel, provocative and diverse. While diverse, some of my views beg for more precision. A precision of others more able than I, I hope, will press on with some of the ideas --- especially ideas on my first-cause proof and how it may logically interrelate truths of theology, science, ethics, art and politics. While it seems novel to say that politics should largely institutionalize a naturalistic ethics, the diversity is illustrated by various articles. These range from: “Art History: From a Greek Stress on Sex to Social Constructions...” (2010) and “Global Ethnic Conflict” in Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (1996) to “A First Cause & Causal Principle” in Philosophy in Science (2003) and “Unidentified Flying Objects” in The Ency of Northern Kentucky (2009).
In regard to books, Beyond Absurdity: The Philosophy of Albert Camus, with R. Puligandla, relates Camus to Eastern thought, especially to the iconic Nâgârjuna. The Nâgârjunian element continued in my next book on Camus, Camus' Answer: No to the Western Pharisees Who Impose Reason on Reality. The latter sought both to render compatible a realism with Eastern thought and to preserve an account of Camus’ rebellion against murderous ideologies of Western intellectuals. A Choice review stated, "A fine explanation of the various meanings of Camus' concept of the absurd. A useful introduction to Camus' thought." [8] And a scholarly reviewer for Paragon House publishers praised the book by noting, “it is rather unique and represents a kind of scholarship that very view even try to, let alone succeed at, engage in. On the whole, the discussion of Camus is informative and is nicely connected both to Western philosophy and Eastern accents.” [9]
Ancient Greek Philosophy: Its Development & Relevance to Our Time addresses a logical continuity of developing ideas of many Pre-Socratics, including Thales, Heraclitus, Parmenides, the Sophists and Atomists, through Plato and Aristotle. It considers how their ideas bear on perplexing ideas and dynamic events of our time. Today’s controversies, from ethics ignoring human nature to gender roles in the military and relativism in science, are discussed in sidebar columns. The columns consider enduring questions that relate, if not suggest prolific responses to, the controversies by Pre-Socratic notions of how metaphysics and physics interface, Plato's moral theory and Aristotle's unique insights on how ethics, art and politics are rooted in our psycho-biological nature. Dr. Ralph McInerny, Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Notre Dame, stated, “The high level of historical and philosophical discussion is admirable, yet eminently accessible." [10] And Professor Konstantine Boudouris, Chair of Philosophy at the University of Athens and Editor of The Greek Philosophical Review, who reviewed the book (shown on my NKU website) stated that the book is “very important.” [11]
Medieval Modal Logic & Science draws on the history of philosophy and philosophy of science to consider St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine in terms of modal logic. Having its roots in Aristotle and possibly Parmenides, this logic came to include inter alia modalities of necessity and possibility other than strictly logical ones. But due to cultural traumas of the scientific revolution and Reformation, I argue, those modalities were ignored at the dawn of modern philosophy. In their absence philosophers were unable to articulate how "truth" is ascribable to scientific theories, much less to a presupposed causal principle that, strictly implying a first cause, may render sound a cosmological proof. I seek to show how this proof and science are related logically — revealing that today’s creationism-evolution debates tend to commit a straw man fallacy by addressing a supernatural God as opposed to a God of Nature, although the two are compatible in my findings.
My findings are applied to a revitalized naturalistic ethics, aesthetics, theology, science and politics. In regard to the politics etc being considered modally, my work was acknowledged by Dr. Julian Deahl, a notable European logician and Senior Editor at Brill, who stated "you need no introduction as I had come across some of your articles on scholastic logic (my own field)." [12] And profound implications of the book were noted both by J. Roland Ramirez, PhD – Institut Catholique de Paris (Duquesne U), who said “The many questions raised by Trundle are matters from which any present-day thinker… concerned with the present or future of any philosophy or of any science could seriously benefit” and by David Lamb at Birmingham Medical School who asserted that the "range of case studies from geology and medical science to biology and physics... is first rate philosophy of science.” [13]
From Physics to Politics: The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Philosophy, published by Transaction in 1999 and re-published by Routledge in 2017, relates philosophy to political ideology. The ideology stems inter alia from confusing later Greek and medieval modal truths , by modern philosophers (eg. Hume and Kant) , with a truthless metaphysics -- Yale University logician Ruth Barcan Marcus noting sardonically “No metaphysical mysteries.” [14] The mysteries were indeed exacerbated by modern philosophy because it tended to either replace "truth" by notions such as "verisimilitude" (Sir Karl Popper) or, earlier, held that “truth” originates in superior men (fascism) and dominating classes (Marxism). Given an ensuing skepticism and predictable stress on practical philosophy in order to avoid knotty epistemic problems (Marx stating that philosophy should not merely interpret the world but change it), "truth" was largely politicized via naked ideology and a surreptitious political correctness. Popper, I note ironically, did himself express grave concern about this irrationality leading to relativism. With respect to the relativism Peter A. Redpath states that I show how these events, which left over 100 million persons dead in the twentieth century, resulted in subordinating both logic and science to ideological dreams: "Fascism, Nazism, Marxism, political correctness, and moral relativism are actually essential acts, not historical aberrations," adding that my work “is groundbreaking and daring with widespread ramifications. [Trundle’s] argument transcends the domains of logic and scientific method,” extending “to metaphysics and the history of philosophy.” [15]
Is ET Here? No Politically But Yes Scientifically... is one of my most provocative books. Nonetheless, Chair of the Philosophy Department at Tulane University (now Professor of Philosophy and Director of Humanities Emeritus at the University of Colorado), Dr. Michael Zimmerman, stated: “With his knowledge of the philosophy of science, epistemology and logic,” Trundle erodes “the justifications used by many mainstream scientists, journalists and opinion-shapers when they ignore or attack credible testimony… of artificial flying objects not produced by human beings.” He adds, “This well-written book will appeal especially to those interested in a philosophically and technically sophisticated treatment." [16] Indeed, the treatment relates to astonishing scientific advances, such as light-pulse experiments by NEC physicists at Princeton, that may soon bear on interstellar space travel in a relatively short time. If this timely travel may be feasible for us, the feasibility proceeds pari passu for more advanced non-human craft as well — rendering plausible reports of reliable witnesses and films of the phenomena that some leading scientists acknowledge, if not many major G8 governments. [17]
These governments notwithstanding, my Principle of Inductive Optimism in the philosophy of science whereby reasoning inductively from past theories indicates that superseding theories rendered possible alleged impossibilities, a reasonable pessimism is warranted about the absolute truth of any current theory that excludes the travel. In terms of the travel this principle does not mean that the theories are false (per my "optimism") but rather that their truth is restricted to various domains, as a domain of Newton is restricted to phenomena not approaching the speed of light and Planck’s constant being negligible. And so due to a limited domain of Einstein's theory (not that it necessarily excludes the travel possibility), an inductive optimism about the truth is reasonable inter alia about a future speed-of-light breakthrough that affords ET's presence. Coupled with witnesses, film, radar data, government documents released by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and other evidence, a reasonable belief in the possible, if not likely, presence is supported. In virtue of this support’s influence, Fate Magazine (published since 1948) named me, along with notable scientists and other scholars, one of the 100 most influential people in the world on the UFO subject in 2005. [18] On UFOs being real per scientists and the military, see some of the following information The Navy Times at https://www.navytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2019/04/25/aliens-ahoy-navy-developing-guidelines-on-reporting-ufo-sightings/ as well as https://time.com/5680192/navy-confirms-ufo-videos-real/
A Theology of Science: From Science to Ethics to an Ethical Politics (ILLUSTRATED BLACK & WHITE) suggests that a liberal epistemology and ontology of natural theology, if not a theology of traditional Judeo Christianity, creatively fosters novel ways for defending a strong scientific realism, not a mere reality of many theoretic entities but also for true laws or theories in terms of which the entities are understood. In understanding theories as conjunctive propositions composed of laws to which “truth” is ascribable, the ascriptions are initially rendered tenable by an epistemic modality whereby, despite Popper’s truth-functional conditional for alone falsifying theories, theories that make systematically true predictions in given domains strictly imply a truth of the theories: How can theories be entirely false when they systematically predict the phenomena? Unless the phenomena were reflected with approximate truth by the theories, how in principle could the theories predict the phenomena? And a notion that phenomena are theory-dependent wherein observational predictions cannot imply a theory’s truth since predictions presuppose theories (per Feyerabend, Kuhn, Popper etc) is avoided by a phenomenology of consciousness wherein we have a non-epistemic / non-conceptual consciousness of phenomena. Thus although observed phenomena may be theory laden, this does not obviate a limited observational truth by which the reasoning is tenable. Several tenable insights inspired by theology, permitting paradox or contradiction, bear on the philosophy of science in terms of an Underdetermination-of-Theory-by-Data (UTD) Thesis. The Thesis, used to undercut scientific realism, specifies that data afford logically inconsistent but empirically equivalent theories that equally predict or explicate the data. But this appeal to data is a false dilemma.
The dilemma is false for these reasons: Just as theology has perennially acknowledged logically inconsistent realities by virtue of there being no contradiction in saying that reality need not abide by the principle of non-contradiction, such as God being One and not One (Triune) or our existence being triune and not triune (one) per St. Augustine, [19] the data may be composed of inconsistent predicates, as light may be a wave and non-wave (particle) per Victor de Broglie’s particle-wave equation. [20] The point is that scientific realism mandates reasoning from reality to our ideas and not imposing ideas, even logic, on reality. This realism is related to ethics. In The Review of Metaphysics (Sep 2008) Tom Michaud said, “This book is one of those exceptional works which is both challenging in its philosophical sophistication and edifying in its moral argumentation,” adding that “[Trundle] logically dismantles the problems, and then offers a strategy for correcting the course of science so that it can properly establish ethics and inform politics. His strategy succeeds brilliantly.” [21]
The strategy includes reasoning from a true causal principle, as an alethic modality, to a first cause creator who creates our psycho-biological nature as it should be. Leaning on scholars such as Peter Kreeft for this normative relation of a first cause to our nature, a naturalistic ethics may be inferred for fulfilling our nature with no naturalistic fallacy. The fallacy, accepted axiomatically by academics who construe Hume’s rants against religion as part of his “critical thought,” is not only averted but also obstacles to inferring a politics that institutionalizes the ethics (ethical and political claims being as true as scientific descriptions of our psycho-biological nature that inform those claims). After praising the book, Peter Redpath cautions that it is bold: “It is not for the faint hearted. It pulls no punches. Trundle is not Dale Carnegie. Many academics will not like it since it accurately exposes them as charlatans in ways that are difficult if not impossible to refute.”[22]
REFERENCES WITH EXPANDED NOTES
[1] While I was an award-winning and early-promoted full Professor at NKU, for which I am grateful to students and colleagues, there was a need to file (successful) formal complaints by a colleague and I to the US Dept of Ed against both NKU’s accrediting body and its autocratic administration (no hyperbole) in the Fall 2010 . See, for example, www.goACTA.org/the_forum/accreditation_controversy_at_northern_kentucky_university : "ACTA applauds [them] for holding their institution and accrediting body to account ." And see courageous commentary in NKU's student newspaper by Chief Editor Cassie Stone: "These are the kinds of professors universities need"---standing up "for what they believed in, sometimes fearing repercussions, but always pushing forward. They didn’t back down... NKU faculty and administration, be grateful you have pesky professors who will keep rattling cages ." In Aug 2011, NKU's President James Votruba announced his future resignation . For his resignation, see https://www.wkyufm.org/post/nku-president-resign-end-academic-year#stream/0 . For Cassie Stone's article in The Northerner, see www.thenortherner.com/viewpoints/2011/10/11/no-error-in-gened-headline/ .
[2] Ludwig Wittgenstein, On Certainty (NY: Harper & Row, 1986) pp. 42e, n.335 and 59e, n.454 . Also, per this paragraph : By our immediate phenomenological and irrefutable experience of ourselves, we are always directly conscious of something other than consciousness, from our thoughts to external things, and indirectly conscious of that consciousness --- a version of J-P Sartre's unity of "self-consciousness". Consciousness as such, apart from concepts, reveals external things as things themselves. When conceptually observed, an incoherent relativistic theory-dependent observation is avoided. Besides my recent books, see my "Existentialism and Phenomenology: Overlooked Bases of Scientific Realism," Epistemologia 13.2 (1990) 279-302 at https://philpapers.org/rec/TRUEAP . See also my "Physics and Phenomenology," New Horizons in the Philosophy of Science, Ed David Lamb (London: Ashgate, 1992) 66-86 . Consciousness and realism are rooted in my PhD dissertation ; my dissertation advisor, Hazel Barnes, wanting me to stress that this version of Sartre was "uniquely" my own. His ethics, anti-religion, absolute free will etc are not implied. Finally, Newton-Smith's The Rationality of Science is a superb defense of scientific realism to which I am indebted, although his rational realism presupposes a truth-functional logic that permits inferring only false theories from false predictions (T → P / ~P // ~T ) à la Popper's false falsificationism. And this falsificationism guarantees Newton-Smith's pessimistic induction that I, via an ordinary-language modal logic, challenge by an optimistic induction.
[3] Frederick Suppe is a renowned polymath with lauded expertise in the philosophy of science, history of physics, archeology, classics, and modern languages. He held/holds diverse positions ranging from Chair of Classics (Seville Center in Spain) to Chair of Philosophy at both Texas A&M University and University of Maryland . See Suppe (Ed), The Structure of Scientific Theories , 2nd ed (Chicago: UIP, 1979) p. 722 . See also some followups : Suppe's "Understanding Scientific Theories: An Assessment of Developments, 1969-1998," Philosophy of Science 67.3 (2000) S102-S115 as well as "Commentary On the Structure of Scientific Theories" (2015) at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/structure-scientific-theories/).
[4] Prof Michael Zimmerman, Chair of Philosophy at Tulane University (later Prof and Dean at the University of Colorado at Boulder), in an email to author on 6/4/04 2:51 PM ("Michael Zimmerman" [email protected]) and quoted in Trundle’s book Is ET Here? , which follows right after the copyright page.
[5] Email to Robert Trundle from Paragon editor Rosemary Byrne Yokoi with a reviewer’s comments that recommend publication (per Rosemary Byrne Yokoi [email protected], Tuesday, October 9, 2001 7:46 AM). The offer of publication was declined by me since the UK's Sussex Academic Press had already accepted my book.
[6] Letter from Prof Ralph McInerny (Univ of Notre Dame) to Robert Trundle, 1 Feb 1994, on Ancient Greek Philosophy: Its Development & Relevance to Our Time. The letter was included in Trundle’s university performance review at NKU and noted publically on his NKU public website since 2010 ( http://www.nku.edu/~trundle/ )
[7] Letter to R. Trundle on 3 Oct 1996, used in his performance review and shown publically on his NKU website since 2010. The letter is from Prof Konstantine Boudouris — Editor, Greek Philosophical Review and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Athens. Boudouris’ review of the book can be viewed via “102. Βουδούρης, Κωνσταντῖνος Ἰωάν., «Trundle Robert C., “Ancient Philosophy”, Avebury Press, 1994, 328 p. » , Ἑλληνικὴ Φιλοσοφικὴ Ἐπιθεώρηση, 13, 38 (1996), σσ. 206-207” at http://www.kenef.phil.uoi.gr/dynamic/bookfull.php?Book_ID=9745&contents=
[8] See the Choice review of my book Camus’ Answer at https://www.amazon.com/Camus-Answer-Western-Pharisees-Reality/dp/1902210999
[9] Email to Robert Trundle from Paragon editor Rosemary Byrne Yokoi with a reviewer’s comments that recommend publication (per Rosemary Byrne Yokoi [email protected], Tuesday, October 9, 2001 7:46 AM). The offer of publication was declined by me since the UK's Sussex Academic Press had already accepted my book.
[10] Letter from Prof Ralph McInerny to Robert Trundle, 1 Feb 1994, on Ancient Greek Philosophy: Its Development & Relevance to Our Time. The letter was included in Trundle’s university performance review at NKU and noted publically on his NKU website since 2010.
[11] Letter to R. Trundle on 3 Oct 1996, used in his performance review and shown publically on his NKU website since 2010. The letter is from Prof Konstantine Boudouris — Editor, Greek Philosophical Review and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Athens. Boudouris’ review of the book can be viewed via “102. Βουδούρης, Κωνσταντῖνος Ἰωάν., «Trundle Robert C., “Ancient Philosophy”, Avebury Press, 1994, 328 p. » , Ἑλληνικὴ Φιλοσοφικὴ Ἐπιθεώρηση, 13, 38 (1996), σσ. 206-207” at http://www.kenef.phil.uoi.gr/dynamic/bookfull.php?Book_ID=9745&contents=
[12] Email to Robert Trundle from Julian Deahl, Senior Acquisitions Editor of Brill Academic Publishers (Tuesday, September 22, 1998 1:53 AM).
[13] J. Roland Ramirez and David Lamb, Forewords, Medieval Modal Logic and Science, pp. ix-xii.
[14] Ruth Barcan Marcus, Modalities: Philosophical Essays (NY: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 69.
[15] Peter Redpath, Foreword, From Physics to Politics, pp. ix, x.
[16] Prof Michael Zimmerman in an email to author on 6/4/04 2:51 PM ("Michael Zimmerman" [email protected]) and quoted in Trundle’s book Is ET Here? following the copyright page.
[17] Besides Princeton and Stanford Univ scientists Robert Jahn and Peter Sturrock who support UFO inquiry --- per A. Wendt (Ohio State U) and R. Duvall (U of Minnesota) in “Sovereignty and the UFO” Political Theory 36.4 (2008) 607-33 at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0090591708317902 ), see also "UFO Researchers & People” by Prof Bernard Haisch (Dir California Institute for Physics and Astrophysics (1999-2002) and Editor of Astrophysical Journal (1993-2002)) at http://www.ufoevidence.org/researchers/detail76.htm. Finally, see https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/18/politics/navy-confirms-ufo-videos-trnd/index.html
[19] St. Augustine, Confessions, Tr. R.S. Pine-Coffin (NY: Penguin Books, 1984), pp. 318, 319.
[20] See Israeli physicist Saul Youssef (Proceedings of the NY Academy of Sciences) : We must conclude that light both is and is not a particle (wave) in “Is Quantum Mechanics An Exotic Probability Theory?” Fund Problems in Quantum Theory, Ed D.M Greenberger and A. Zeilinger (NY: Annals of the NYAS, 1995), p. 904. Youssef is augmented by S. Afshar, E. Flores, K. McDonald and E. Knoesel’s “Paradox in Wave-Particle Duality,” Foundations of Physics 37.2 (2007) 295-305, who refer to recent experiments whereby light at all times has both wave and non-wave (particle) aspects. Whether or not these aspects obtain, the point is that a liberal ontology and epistemology of theology / Scripture may inspire imaginative solutions in science. Thus Einstein asserted famously that imagination is more important than knowledge. Also, Harvard Univ physicist G. Holton (et al) in “How a Scientific Discovery is made” (American Scientist—Scientific Research Society of Sigma Xi 84 (1996) 36475) found extra-scientific influences such as theology and religion “to be essential… in major advances throughout the history of science” — from K.A. Müller’s codiscovery of high-temperature superconductors being guided by a religio-philosophical symbol to virtually all of the others. Columbia University scientist R.K. Merton called this influence the “Matthew Effect”, per Matthew 25:29.
[21] Tom Michaud, The Review of Metaphysics 62 (2008) #245, 162-4.
[22] Peter Redpath, Foreword, A Theology of Science, p. xi.
SAMPLE REFERENCES TO THE ABOVE PUBLICATIONS
Hugh G. Gauch, Scientific Method in Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2002/ 2015), cites/refers to my work Medieval Modal Logic and Science (UPA, 1987).
AF Sanders and K De Ridder, eds, Fifty Years of Philosophy: A Select Bibliography, 1955-2005 (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2007), refers to my articles “Cosmological Proof,” Sensus Communis 3/3 (2002) 185-208 and “Thomas’ 2nd Way,” Logic et Analysis 146 (1994) 145-168.
National Criminal Justice Ref Service, Administrated by the Office of Justice Programs, US Dept of Justice (2008), http://www.ncjrs.gov, refers to and summarizes my article “Has Global Ethnic Conflict Superseded Cold War Ideology?” in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 19.1, 1996.
Prof Tom Michaud’s “Critiquing Politically Correct Justice” (7th Int'l Congress on the Future of Western Civilization, 16 April 2008, at the John Paul II Catholic Univ of Lublin, Poland ) quotes my book A Theology of Science In a review in The Review of Metaphysics 62 (2008) #245, Tom Michaud states that the book is “one of those exceptional works which is both challenging in its philosophical sophistication and edifying in its moral argumentation… [Trundle corrects] the course of science so that it can properly establish ethics and inform politics. His strategy succeeds brilliantly.”
Transparency International of the Czech Republic (TIC), an NGO to Monitor Corruption , online 2007 at Odborná Literatura a Prameny (www.Transparency.CZ/Vivaetika/Infocen trum/Prameny/T.htm) , refers to my article “Is There Any Ethics in Business Ethics?” Journal of Business Ethics 8 (1989) 261-269.
Troelstra Archive Index, 2000-2001, Mathematical Inst of the Univ of Amsterdam — Archives of Anne Sjerp Troelstra, Prof of Mathematics (University of Amsterdam), Member of the Royal Dutch Acad of Science and Winner of the F. L. Bauer Prize for internationally outstanding contributions to Computer Science (15 Nov 1996), cites correspondence with me, per “R. C. Trundle (Medieval Alpha and Omega of logico-scientific reasoning),” from my book Medieval Modal Logic at www.illc.uva.nl/Publications/ResearchReports/ X-2003-01.text.doc:.
Michael S. Jones’ The Metaphysics of Religion: Lucian Blaga and Contemporary Philosophy (Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 2006) notes on page 65 that Lucian Blaga, a 20th-C philosopher who was suppressed by the Romanian Socialist Republic, states that “for humans, metaphysics is unavoidable” and that “This seems to be one of the main points of Robert C. Trundle Jr’s recent book From Physics to Politics [Transaction 1999/Routledge 2017] .”
Sarah Mahinthan etc, Existential Questions Raised in Never Let Me Go (Copenhagen: Roskilde University, 2008) http://rudar.ruc.dk/ handle, cite my book Beyond Absurdity (UPI, 2006) with R. Puligandla.
W.J. Hankey, Carnegie Prof of Classics and Ed of Dionysius at Dalhousie University, “From Metaphysics to History” (delivered to the Collège de France, Oct. 12-13, 1992: La Réception de la pensée d’Étienne Gilson dans la philosophe contemporaine en France), cites my article “Twentieth-Century Despair & Thomas’ Sound Argument for God,” Laval Thêologique et philosophique 52 (1996), online Sept 2007.
“Intentional Robots: Design of a Goal-Seeking Environment-Driven Agent,” by Dr. R. Manzotti (Computer System Sciences at Genoa University, Italy –- supported by The Italian Space Agency and European Union) cites my article “Existentialism & Phenomenology: Overlooked Bases of Scientific Realism" in Epistemologia XIII (1990) 279-302.
Dr. J. Neu’s “109th Critical Bibliography of the History of Science,” ISIS: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences, Dept History of Science at Univ of Wisconsin, Vol. 75 (1984) p. 23, lists my article "Value and Scientific Theory" in The Modern Schoolman, Vol 60, 1983 (http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/histcomp/schacter-dl_w-citing_or/node/92)
A. A. Bell and J. B. Allis, "SECTION ON MODAL LOGIC," Resources in Ancient Philosophy (London: Scarecrow Press, 1991), abstracts my article "De Interpretatione IX: [Aristotle's] Problem of Future or Infinite Past Truth?" in The Modern Schoolman 59 (1981): 49-55 .