March 26, 2014
March 21, 2014
Dissertation Defended!
You may call me 'doctor' now.
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March 19, 2014
Quote of the Day: Bayle on the Skeptical Consequences of Multi-Location
[If multi-location is possible] it follows that neither you nor I can be certain whether we are distinct from other men, or whether we are at this moment in the seraglio of Constantinople, in Canada, in Japan, and in every city of the world, under different conditions in each place. Since God does nothing in vain, would he create many men when one, created in various places and possessing different qualities according to the places, would suffice?
- Pierre Bayle, Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697), tr. Popkin, s.v. "Pyrrho," note B
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March 18, 2014
March 10, 2014
The Puzzle of Existence: Concluding Thoughts and Table of Posts
I have now completed my series of posts on The Puzzle of Existence. I'll conclude by saying that I enjoyed most of the essays in this book quite a lot, and found them interesting food for thought. Further reflection on the points raised by the various authors stands to enrich metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and the theory of explanation. Additionally, most of the essays are quite accessible for non-specialists, including advanced undergraduate students. Assuming that a less expensive paperback version becomes available, this book would be a great choice for graduate or advanced undergraduate courses covering explanation in metaphysics, the...
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March 6, 2014
McDaniel's Ontological Pluralism and the Puzzle of Existence
The very last essay in The Puzzle of Existence is the article by Kris McDaniel which examines the bearing of ontological pluralism on the question, why is there something rather than nothing? Ontological pluralism, as McDaniel uses that term, is the thesis that there is more than one kind of being, existence, or reality. (McDaniel usually prefers the term 'being,' but seems to use 'existence' and 'reality' as synonyms.) This is not simply the trivial thesis that there are many different kinds of beings (i.e., that there are things of many different kinds), and it is not a metaphysically deflationary...
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March 5, 2014
March 4, 2014
Maitzen on the Explanatory Power of Penguins
In his contribution to The Puzzle of Existence, Stephen Maitzen defends the surprising claim that penguins hold the answer to the deep mysteries of the universe. Well, that's not exactly what he says. Maitzen's position is that the only interpretation of 'why is there something rather than nothing?' on which that sentence expresses a legitimate, well-formed question is one on which it is not a deep mystery at all, but a trivial empirical question to which 'because there are penguins' is a perfectly adequate answer. It is interesting to note that Maitzen's article is, in a way, just the reverse...
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Topic(s):
Contemporary Thinkers
,
Cosmological Argument
,
Existence of God
,
Explanation
,
Marc Lange
,
Metaphysics
,
Modality
,
Natural Kinds
,
Philosophy
,
Philosophy of Religion
,
Philosophy of Science
,
Stephen Maitzen
,
Tyron Goldschmidt
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March 1, 2014
Lange on the Natural Necessity of Something
Marc Lange's contribution to The Puzzle of Existence, begins with this remark: I read recently about a baby who was trapped during the night of February 26, 2011, in a locked bank vault in Conyers, Georgia. Naturally, I wondered why that had happened (235). In the article which follows this fantastic opening, Lange appeals to the theory of necessity and laws of nature from his 2009 book, Laws and Lawmakers, to argue that one can explain why there is something rather than nothing only by showing that something exists as a matter of natural necessity (or, in a qualification he...
Continue reading "Lange on the Natural Necessity of Something"
Topic(s):
Contemporary Thinkers
,
Cosmological Argument
,
Existence of God
,
Explanation
,
Marc Lange
,
Metaphysics
,
Modality
,
Philosophy
,
Philosophy of Religion
,
Philosophy of Science
,
Tyron Goldschmidt
Posted by
Kenny at
3:35 PM
|
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