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Anscombe Society event
On April 11, I’ll be giving the Princeton Anscombe Society 10th Anniversary Lecture, on the subject “Natural Law and the Foundations of Sexual Ethics.” Prof. Robert George will be the moderator....
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Reasons of the Hart
A couple of years ago, theologian David Bentley Hart generated a bit of controversy with some remarks about natural law theory in an article in First Things. I and some other natural law theorists...
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Pigliucci on metaphysics
At Scientia Salon, philosopher Massimo Pigliucci admits to “always having had a troubled relationship with metaphysics.” He summarizes the reasons that have, over the course of his career, made it...
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Web of intrigue
Analytical Thomist John Haldane has been appointedto the J. Newton Rayzor Sr. Distinguished Chair in Philosophy at Baylor University.At The Times Literary Supplement, Galen Strawson arguesthat it is...
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Was Aquinas a materialist?
Denys Turner’s recent book Thomas Aquinas: A Portrait is beautifully written and consistently thought-provoking. It is also a little mischievous, in a good-natured way. A main theme of the book is...
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Albertus Magnus Center summer program
The Albertus Magnus Center for Scholastic Studies is sponsoring a two-week summer program in Norcia, Italy, from July 12-25. The theme is Aquinas’s commentary on I Corinthians. Details can be found...
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The two faces of tolerance
What is proclaimed and practiced as tolerance today, is in many of its most effective manifestations serving the cause of oppression.Herbert MarcuseDemocracy is the theory that the common people know...
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Hart jumps the shark
In the April issue of First Things, David Bentley Hart takes Thomists to task for denying that some non-human animals posses “irreducibly personal” characteristics, that they exhibit “certain rational...
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Back from Princeton
This past Saturday, I gave the Princeton Anscombe Society’s 10th Anniversary Lecture, on the subject “Natural Law and the Foundations of Sexual Ethics.” Prof. Robert George was the moderator. The...
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Toner and McInerny on Scholastic Metaphysics
Two new reviews of Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction. First, in the Spring 2015 issue of the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Prof. Patrick Toner (pictured at left) kindly...
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Review of Mele
Over at the online edition of City Journal, I review Alfred Mele’s recent book Free: Why Science Hasn't Disproved Free Will.
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Animal souls, Part I
Here’s a postscript, in two parts, to my recent critique in Public Discourse of David Bentley Hart’s case for there being animals in heaven. In this first part, I discuss in more detail than I did in...
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Animal souls, Part II
Recently, in First Things, David Bentley Hart criticized Thomists for denying that there will be non-human animals in Heaven. I responded in an article at Public Discourse and in a follow-up blog...
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A linkfest
My review of Charles Bolyard and Rondo Keele, eds., Later Medieval Metaphysics: Ontology, Language, and Logic appears in the May 2015 issue of Metaphysica.At Thomistica.net, Thomist theologian Steven...
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Lewis on transposition
C. S. Lewis’s essay “Transposition” is available in his collection The Weight of Glory, and also online here. It is, both philosophically and theologically, very deep, illuminating the relationship...
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Pigliucci on metaphysics
At Scientia Salon, philosopher Massimo Pigliucci admits to “always having had a troubled relationship with metaphysics.” He summarizes the reasons that have, over the course of his career, made it...
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Stupid rhetorical tricks
In honor of David Letterman’s final show tonight, let’s look at a variation on his famous “Stupid pet tricks” routine. It involves people rather animals, but lots of Pavlovian frenzied salivating. I...
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D. B. Hart and the “terrorism of obscurantism”
Many years ago, Steven Postrel and I interviewed John Searle for Reason magazine. Commenting on his famous dispute with Jacques Derrida, Searle remarked:With Derrida, you can hardly misread him,...
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Aristotle watches Blade Runner
You can never watch Blade Runner too many times, and I’m due for another viewing. In D. E. Wittkower’s anthology Philip K. Dick and Philosophy, there’s an article by Ross Barham which makes some...
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Religion and superstition
The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy of Religion, edited by Graham Oppy, has just been published. My essay “Religion and Superstition” is among the chapters. The book’s table of contents...
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