Being, Freedom, and Method: Themes from the Philosophy of Peter van Inwagen

by John A. Keller (Editor)

Overview

This collection of essays focuses on problems and themes from the philosophy of Peter van Inwagen, whose work has shaped the landscape in the philosophy of action, metaphysics, the philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of philosophy over the last 50 years.

The essays offer new insights and arguments about these topics from some of the most prominent living philosophers. The volume also contains seven "response essays" by van Inwagen himself, and a meta-philosophical introduction by the editor.

Topics covered include relational vs constituent ontologies, time travel, free will and moral responsibility, philosophical success and failure, the nature of nonsense, the compatibility of theism and evolution, the problem of evil, vagueness and morality, the ontological argument, and the doctrine of the atonement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198715702
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/05/2017
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

John A. Keller, Niagara University

John A. Keller attended UC Davis as an undergraduate. He went on to study at the University of Notre Dame, where he wrote his dissertation on the role of paraphrase in philosophy, under the direction of Peter van Inwagen. He currently works primarily on metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of language, and is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Niagara University, New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction, John A. KellerBeing1. Theories of Character, Michael Loux2. A One Category Ontology, L. A. Paul3. Properties as Parts of Ordinary Objects, Eric T. Olson4. Time Travel and the Movable Present, Sara BernsteinFreedom5. The Degree Argument and the Influence Strategy, Mark Heller6. Revisiting the Mind Argument, Alicia Finch7. Symposium on the Fixity of the Past, Neal A. Tognazzini and John Martin Fischer; Wesley H. HollidayGod8. Defenseless: A Critique of Van Inwagen s Response to the Argument from Evil, Louise Antony9. The Problem of Evil and Atonement, Eleonore Stump10. Swing Vote, Frances Howard-Snyder11. Theism and Allism, Alex Rosenberg12. The Evolutionary Argument for Atheism, Daniel Howard-Snyder13. Must Anselm be Interpreted as a Meinongian?, Lynne Rudder BakerMethod14. Why Isn t There More Progress in Philosophy?, David J. Chalmers15. Philosophical Individualism, John A. Keller16. Are There Any Successful Philosophical Arguments?, Thomas Kelly and Sarah McGrathAfterword17. Concluding Meditation, Peter van Inwagen

Editorial Reviews

"John A. Keller has done a great service to the philosophical community in editing this excellent volume. The book celebrates and analyzes the work of Peter van Inwagen, whose thought in metaphysics and philsophy of religion is rightly characterized throughout the book in the highest terms." — Timothy Pawl, Review of Metaphysics

From the Publisher