This is an insightful interview with author and sociologist Tom Wolfe. He discusses a variety of topics including political correctness, coed dorms, and feminism. The general theme is that many people and institutions today are too concerned with ephemeral goods like social status, and for the sake of them sacrifice timeless goods like courage, temperance,… Read More: Tom Wolfe on Political Correctness »
In philosophical discussions, and especially in philosophy of religion, the term “incompatibilism” comes up in wide variety of contexts. I’ve discerned five different types of incompatibilism. Moral incompatibilism: The thesis that human moral responsibility is incompatible with thoroughgoing causal determinism. Ontic incompatibilism: The thesis that foreexistence is incompatible with future contingency. More precisely, the thesis… Read More: Versions of Incompatibilism »
My family and I are now living in South Bend, Indiana. We survived the move well enough, though unfortunately some of our furniture didn’t. (The movers wrecked the baby’s crib, broke all four of our floor lamps, and lost a box containing three of wall pictures. Next time we go U-Haul.) Anyway, my first blog… Read More: Can There Be a Self-Mover? Aquinas on Act and Potency »
Over at Bill Dembski’s blog, Uncommon Descent, I recently got into an extended discussion on the relation of intelligent design and open theism (short answer – neither entails anything regarding the other). For those who might be interested, here’s the link. (The initial comment on open theism that prompted my reply occurs near the end… Read More: Recent Discussion of Open Theism and Intelligent Design »
A blogger named Brandon has criticized the argument of my previous post as follows: What Rhoda calls “Trumping” is in fact simply a tendentious way of saying “correcting one’s own reasoning on the basis of authority”; and the Trumper Rhoda particularly has in mind is someone who says that on matters where Scripture speaks plainly… Read More: More on Trumping: Reply to an Objection »
In his contribution to a recent book, Perspectives on the Doctrine of God (Bruce A. Ware, ed.), Paul Helm leads off with an epigraph from Anselm (the exact source is not given): But if Scripture indubitably opposes our understanding, even though our reasoning appears to us to be impregnable, still it ought not to be… Read More: The Theologian’s Fallacy »
1) Philosopher William Vallicella argues that the Buddhist “no-self” doctrine (the view that nothing has an enduring self-nature) is self-refuting here. (Incidentally, if any of you want to write a paper on Buddhism, this would be a fine article to comment on.) 2) Yandell remarks that contemporary dismissals of mind-body dualism (an assumption of Jainism… Read More: Two Articles Relevant to Recent Class Topics »
In class Pluralism or 1st Definition– The idea that all religions are basically the sameDifferent Definition or 2nd definition- Religious Pluralism may describe the world view that one’s religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth, and thus recognizes that some level of truth and value exists in at least some other religions.… Read More: Religious Pluralism »
Just got back from the Open Theology and Science conference held April 10-12, 2008 at Asuza Pacific University. It was quite a fun conference. My wife and baby daughter accompanied me, and we all had a good time. Baby Janelle was a big hit with the other participants. Unfortunately, one of the presenters, Bill Hasker,… Read More: Conference Highlights »
The next four days I’ll be at an “Open Theology and Science” conference at Azusa Pacific University in California. While there, I’ll be reading a paper entitled “The Fourfold Openness of the Future” in which I distinguish between four different ways in which the future may be thought of as “open” – causal, ontic, alethic,… Read More: Open Theology and Science »