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1268Hilary Putnam. Jewish Philosophy as a Guide to Life: Rosenzweig, Buber, Lévinas, Wittgenstein. Indiana University Press, 2008European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 1 (2): 139--143. 2009.
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1185Thought Experiments: State of the ArtIn Michael T. Stuart, Yiftach Fehige & James Robert Brown (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments, Routledge. pp. 1-28. 2018.This is the introduction to the Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments
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873An explorative contribution to the ongoing discussion of thought experiments. While endorsing the majority view that skepticism about thought experiments is not well justified, in what follows we attempt to show that there is a kind of “bodiliness” missing from current accounts of thought experiments. That is, we suggest a phenomenological addition to the literature. First, we contextualize our claim that the importance of the body in thought experiments has been widely underestimated. Then we d…Read more
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291Thought Experimenting with God. Revisiting the Ontological ArgumentNeue Zeitschrift für Systematicsche Theologie Und Religionsphilosophie 51 (3): 249-267. 2009.The ontological argument is one of the most intriguing lines of reasoning in Western thought. Leaving behind debates over the proper relation between science and religion, it makes a simple move from conceptual analysis to existence in order to prove the existence of god. The ontological argument will be reviewed against the background of the contemporary debate on thought experiments. Assuming that the ontological argument fails as a philosophical proof, I will argue that its move from concept …Read more
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221The Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments (edited book)Routledge. 2018.Thought experiments are a means of imaginative reasoning that lie at the heart of philosophy, from the pre-Socratics to the modern era, and they also play central roles in a range of fields, from physics to politics. The Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments is an invaluable guide and reference source to this multifaceted subject. Comprising over 30 chapters by a team of international contributors, the Companion covers the following important areas: · the history of thought experiments, fro…Read more
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174Jewish Philosophy as a Guide to Life (review)European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 1 (2): 139-143. 2009.
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161Gottesbeweis oder Gedankenexperiment christlicher Theologie? Zu Dombrowskis Verteidigung des Ontologischen ArgumentsJahrbuch für Religionsphilosophie 8 69-91. 2009.In this paper I argue that Daniel A. Dombrowski's defence of a version of Anselm's ontological argument fails.
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148Wessen Wille geschehe? Fremdnützige Forschung an Nichteinwilligungsfähigen. Die Argumente in der philosophischen KritikZeitschrift Fur Philosophie Forschung 58 (3): 397-427. 2004.This paper critically examines the predominant arguments that have been proposed either in favour or against non-benefit medical research with human subjects incapable of informed consent. It is argued that none of the arguments succeeds, while acknowledging that such research is necessary.
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121The relativized a priori and the laboratory of the mind: towards a neo-Kantian account of thought experiments in scienceEpistemologia 36 (1): 55-73. 2013.Building on a previously published contextualization of Marco Buzzoni’s Neo- Kantian account of scientific thought-experiments, this paper examines the explanatory power of this account. It is argued that Buzzoni’s account suffers from a number of shortcomings. Einstein’s clock-in-the-box thought experiment facilitates the demonstration of these deficits. In the light of both the identified inadequacies of Buzzoni’s account and the long-standing history of Kantian approaches to thought experimen…Read more
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119Quantum physics and theology: John Polkinghorne on thought experimentsZygon 47 (2): 256-288. 2012.Abstract Thought experimentation is part of accepted scientific practice, and this makes it surprising that philosophers of science did not seriously engage with it for a very long time. The situation changed in the 1990s, resulting in a highly intriguing debate over thought experiments. Initially, the discussion focused mostly on thought experiments in physics, philosophy, and mathematics. Other disciplines have since become the subject of interest. Yet, nothing substantial has been said about …Read more
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118Sexual diversity and divine creation: A tightrope walk between christianity and scienceZygon 48 (1): 35-59. 2013.Although modern societies have come to recognize diversity in human sexuality as simply part of nature, many Christian communities and thinkers still have considerable difficulties with related developments in politics, legislation, and science. In fact, homosexuality is a recurrent topic in the transdisciplinary encounter between Christianity and the sciences, an encounter that is otherwise rather “asexual.” I propose that the recent emergence of “Christianity and Science” as an academic field …Read more
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116Quantum Physics and Theology (review)American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 84 (1): 186-188. 2010.
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115This book is an introduction to philosophy of sex. The history of philosophy of sex is depicted (from Plato to Herman Schmitz) to set up the background against which the philosophy of sex by Herman Schmitz is analyzed. This leads to the discussion of topics like masturbation, the ontology of the sexed human body, and same-sex marriage.
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99On the Origins of the Philosophy of Thought Experiments: The ForerunPerspectives on Science 22 (2): 179-220. 2014.Philosophical debate about the nature and function of thought experiments would be impoverished without good historical sources. And while valuable work is being done on the history of thought experiments, a comprehensive discussion of the history of philosophical investigation into thought experiments is still absent in the literature (but see Kühne 2005; Moue et al. 2006). In what follows we take the first steps towards providing a more complete picture of the diverse attempts to shed light on…Read more
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88"Experiments of Pure Reason": Kantianism and Thought Experiments in ScienceEpistemologia 35 (1): 141-160. 2012.Marco Buzzoni has presented a Kantian account of thought experiments in science as a serious rival to the current empiricist and Platonic accounts. This paper takes the first steps of a comprehensive assessment of this account in order to further the more general discussion of the feasibility of a Kantian theory of scientific thought experiments. Such a discussion is overdue. To this effect the broader question is addressed as to what motivates a Kantian approach. Buzzoni's account and the asses…Read more
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86The negation of nonsense is nonsense: Hilary Putnam on science and religionNeue Zeitschrift für Systematicsche Theologie Und Religionsphilosophie 52 (4): 350-376. 2010.While the influential analytical philosopher Hilary Putnam has made significant contributions to philosophy of mind, philosophy of language and philosophy of science, he isn't generally regarded as a philosopher of religion or a theologian. Nonetheless, I argue that his work should be of great interest to philosophers of religion and theologians. Focusing on the relationship between science and religion, this paper explores the importance of Putnam's attempt to reconcile his anti-metaphysical st…Read more
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83The Case Against Perfection (review)American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 83 (4): 636-639. 2009.
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52Poems of Productive Imagination: Thought Experiments, Christianity and Science in NovalisNeue Zeitschrift für Systematicsche Theologie Und Religionsphilosophie 55 (1): 54-83. 2013.Thought experiments are employed for a number of reasons and in many different disciplines. This paper explores the work of Novalis in relation to the method of thought experiments in theology, with a special focus on the encounter between Christianity and the science of his day. In a first step I revisit the ongoing philosophical discussion on thought experiments in order to highlight the lack of interest in the literary features of thought experiments. Step two is dedicated to a discussion of …Read more
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52Putnams Semi-FideismusTheologische Quartalschrift 185 (3): 215-234. 2007.In this paper I argue that Hilary Putnam is a semi-fideist.
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51Motivating the History of the Philosophy of Thought ExperimentsHopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 11 (1): 212-221. 2021.This is the introduction to a special issue of HOPOS on the history of the philosophy of thought experiments.
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50The "art of dialogue" and the Christian-Jewish encounter. A first approachJahrbuch für Religionsphilosophie 9 67-93. 2010.In this paper I raise awareness of a crucial blind spot in scholarship on the Christian-Jewish dialogue. The main argument of the paper is that a closer examination of the dialogue form is necessary in order to assess the tenability of Christian-Jewish dialogue. Despite the widespread talk and intensive scholarship about the Jewish-Christian dialogue two things remain unclear: what concept of dialogue is presupposed; what makes the dialogue form appropriate for the Christian-Jewish encounter. Th…Read more
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46Living with Darwin: Evolution, Design, and the Future of Faith (review)American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 81 (4): 674-677. 2007.
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44Introduction to Special Issue of Perspectives on SciencePerspectives on Science 22 (2): 167-178. 2014.This is an introduction to a special issue of Perspectives on Science, the outcome of a workshop entitled "Thought Experiments in Science: Four Blind Spots," held at the University of Toronto, March 23rd, 2012. The recent revival in philosophical study of thought experiments has been limited to fields like epistemology, science studies, and metaphilosophy. With this issue we hope to facilitate a discussion about how some other disciplinary perspectives might bear on the subject; specifically, th…Read more
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43The Annus Mirabilis of 1986: Thought Experiments and Scientific PluralismHopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 11 (1): 222-240. 2021.This paper is about the remarkable explosion in the literature on thought experiments since the 1980s. It enters uncharted territory. The year 1986 is of particular interest: James R. Brown presents his Platonism about thought experiments for the first time in Dubrovnik, and in Pittsburgh John D. Norton shares his empiricist approach with participants in what was probably the 20th century’s very first major conference on thought experiments. It was the time when philosophy of science had taken a…Read more
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42Transsexuality: Reconciling Christianity and ScienceToronto Journal of Theology 27 (1): 51-71. 2011.Furthering the dialogue with J. Wentzel van Huyssteen over his way of reconciling Christianity and science while reflecting on human uniqueness, I offer a philosophical analysis of the phenomenon of transsexuality. The focus of my analysis is the implications of transsexuality for the metaphysics of reductive naturalism. Envisioning a pluralistic ontology of the sexed human body, I propose to account for human sexuality within the general framework of normative pragmatism. The context of my refl…Read more
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42‘Sein, das verstanden werden kann, ist Sprache’. Hommage an Hans-Georg Gadamer (review)Theologie Und Philosophie 77 (3): 460-462. 2002.
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40Die Geschlechtererosion des Semantischen Realismusmentis. 2006.This work is a contribution to analytic philosophy of sex. It deals with the scientific concept of the sexed human body by focusing in particular on the logical and the semantic implications of such a concept.
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University of Toronto, St. George CampusAssociate Professor
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Religion |
Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality |