•  124
    The Other Wolterstorff (review)
    Christian Scholar's Review 41 77-85. 2011.
    Review article of Nicholas Wolterstorff, Inquiring about God: Selected Essays, vol. 1, and Practices of Belief: Selected Essays, vol. 2, edited by Terence Cuneo.
  •  336
    Revisiting Reid on Religion
    Journal of Scottish Philosophy 19 (3): 261-274. 2021.
    This paper answers two interpretive questions surrounding belief in God in Thomas Reid’s philosophy, the status question and the detachability question. The former has to do with the type of justification Reid assigns to belief in God – immediate or mediate. The later question is whether anything philosophically significant depends on his belief in God. I argue that, for Reid, belief in God is immediately justified and integral to some parts of his system. Reid’s response to skepticism about God…Read more
  •  8
    Gideon Yaffe, Manifest Activity: Thomas Reid's Theory of Action (review)
    Philosophical Review 116 (1): 145-147. 2007.
  •  15
    On the Failures of Naturalism
    Review and Expositor 111 (3): 259-273. 2014.
    This article examines philosophical naturalism—the chief rival to theism in the modern world— with contemporary apologetic concerns in view. The second section introduces the central claims of naturalism and the main arguments offered on its behalf. The third section surveys the challenges naturalism faces in accounting for two key features of human nature. The final section outlines the significance of these challenges in the context of an inference to the best explanation for theism.
  •  2
    C. S. Lewis' Argument from Nostalgia: A New Argument from Desire
    with Michael Cantrell
    In Jerry L. Walls & Trent Dougherty (eds.), Two Dozen (or so) Arguments for God: The Plantinga Project. pp. 356-371. 2018.
    This chapter shows that in certain circumstances desires are a guide to possibility, and that, in these circumstances, human beings desire at least one state of affairs for which the existence of God is a necessary condition. It follows that God’s existence is possible; or, more modestly, anyone with the relevant desires has a reason to believe God’s existence is possible. Thus, a new argument in the tradition of C.S. Lewis’s argument from nostalgia is offered, an argument from certain desires t…Read more
  •  2
    Parrying Parity: A Reply to a Reidian Critique of Idealism
    In K. Pearce & T. Goldschmidt (eds.), Idealism: New Essays in Metaphysics, Oxford University Press. pp. 1-17. 2017.
    One Berkeleyan case for idealism, recently developed by Robert M. Adams, relies on a seeming disparity between our concepts of matter and mind. Thomas Reid’s critique of idealism directly challenges the alleged disparity. After highlighting the role of the disparity thesis in Adams’s updated Berkeleyan argument for idealism, this chapter offers an updated version of Reid’s challenge, and assesses its strength. What emerges from this historico-philosophical investigation is that a contemporary Re…Read more
  •  17
    Thomas Reid's Experimentum Crucis
    In Rebecca Copenhaver & Todd Buras (eds.), Thomas Reid on Mind, Knowledge, and Value. pp. 14-34. 2015.
    Hume invites would-be dissenters to produce an idea, whose content appears not to be ultimately derived or copies from impressions. Reid takes up this gauntlet in his experimentum crucis. This chapter analyzes Reid's central challenge to Hume's principles, and provides an interpretation of Reid's reasoning that withstands recent criticisms.
  •  1124
    Thomas Reid’s philosophy is a philosophy of mind—a Pneumatology in the idiom of 18th century Scotland. His overarching philosophical project is to construct an account of the nature and operations of the human mind, focusing on the two-way correspondence, in perception and action, between the thinking principle within and the material world without. Like his contemporaries, Reid’s treatment of these topics aimed to incorporate the lessons of the scientific revolution. What sets Reid’s philoso…Read more
  •  39
    James Van Cleve, Problems from Reid (review)
    Journal of Scottish Philosophy 16 (2): 204-210. 2018.
  •  368
    Counterpart Theory, Natural Properties, and Essentialism
    Journal of Philosophy 103 (1): 27-42. 2006.
    David Lewis advised essentialists to judge his counterpart theory a false friend. He also argued that counterpart theory needs natural properties. This essay argues that natural properties are all essentialists need to find a true friend in counterpart theory. Section one explains why Lewis takes counterpart theory to be anti-essentialist and why he thinks it needs natural properties. Section two establishes the connection between the natural properties counterpart theory needs and the essen…Read more
  •  158
    The function of sensations in Reid
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 47 (3). 2009.
    For Reid, the external senses have a “double province.” They give rise to both sensation and perception. This essay is about the relation of sensation and perception, a relation Reid’s sign theory of sensations describes. Drawing on Reid’s distinctions between general and particular principles of our constitution, relative and absolute conceptions, and original and acquired perception, the paper systematizes Reid’s sporadic comments on the sign theory. The aim is to offer an interpretation wh…Read more
  •  2029
    According to Peter van Inwagen, C. S. Lewis failed in his attempt to undermine naturalism with his Argument from Reason. According to van Inwagen, Lewis provides no justification for his central premise, that naturalism is inconsistent with holding beliefs for reasons. What is worse, van Inwagen argues that the main premise in Lewis's argument from reason is false. We argue that it is not false. The defender of Lewis's argument can make use of the problem of mental causal drainage, a longstandin…Read more
  •  170
    Three Grades of Immediate Perception: Thomas Reid’s Distinctions
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 76 (3). 2008.
    1. Introduction. Like other direct realists, Thomas Reid offered an alternative to indirect realist and idealist accounts of perception. Reids alternative aimed to preserve the indirect realists commitment to realism about the objects of perception, and the idealists commitment to the immediacy of the minds relation to the objects of perception. Reid holds that what you perceive is mind independent or external; and your relation to such objects in perception is direct or immediate. In his own wo…Read more
  •  15
    Thomas Reid on Mind, Knowledge, and Value (edited book)
    Oxford University Press. 2015.
    This volume offers a fresh view of the work of Thomas Reid, a leading figure in the history of eighteenth-century philosophy. A team of leading experts in the field explore the significance of Reid's thought in his time and ours, focusing in particular on three broad themes: mind, knowledge, and value. Together, they argue that Reid's philosophy is about developing agents in a rich world of objects and values, agents with intellectual and active powers whose regularity is productive. Though such…Read more
  •  104
    The Nature of Sensations in Reid
    History of Philosophy Quarterly 22 (3). 2005.
    For Reid, sensations do not enter into the analysis of perception proper. Instead they “intervene” between the effects of bodily qualities on our sense organs and our perception of those qualities (Inq VI xxi, 174).1 The question addressed in this essay is: What sort of thing does Reid take this interloper to be?2 The answer defended is that sensations are reflexive mental acts, i.e., acts which take themselves as objects.
  •  51
    Reidian Dual Component Theory defended
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 41 (S1): 4-24. 2011.
    For Reid perception, broadly speaking, was a complex of two very different mental states. Calling such views dual component theory, A. D. Smith questions whether any such theory, and whether Reid's version in particular, is a viable theory of perception. The aim of this paper is to defend Reidian Dual Component Theory from Smith's critique. Answering Smith's critique reveals the depth and resilience of Reid's approach to perception, highlighting specifically the continued interest of his thought…Read more
  •  114
    The problem with Reid's direct realism
    Philosophical Quarterly 52 (209): 457-477. 2002.
    There is a problem about the compatibility of Reid's commitment to both a sign theory of sensations and also direct realism. I show that Reid is committed to three different senses of the claim that mind independent bodies and their qualities are among the immediate objects of perception, and I then argue that Reid's sign theory conflicts with one of these. I conclude by advocating one proposal for reconciling Reid's claims, deferring a thorough development and defence of the proposal to another…Read more
  •  246
    An Argument against Causal Theories of Mental Content
    American Philosophical Quarterly 46 (2): 117-129. 2009.
    Some mental states are about themselves. Nothing is a cause of itself. So some mental states are not about their causes; they are about things distinct from their causes. If this argument is sound, it spells trouble for causal theories of mental content—the precise sort of trouble depending on the precise sort of causal theory. This paper shows that the argument is sound (§§1-3), and then spells out the trouble (§4).
  •  27
    Review of Ryan Nichols, Thomas Reid's Theory of Perception (review)
    Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2007 (8). 2007.
  •  27
    Manifest Activity: Thomas Reid's Theory of Action (review)
    Philosophical Review 116 (1): 145-147. 2007.