Profile

Career

Departmental roles

• Convener for the MA in Philosophy, Theology, and Ethics

University roles

• Provost of Vanbrugh College

Research

Overview

Research interests

Modality, The Philosophy of Christianity

Current projects

My current research focuses on modality, i.e. the philosophy of necessity and possibility, the philosophy of religion, and philosophical theology. My research programme has three main strands:

• the logic and semantics of modality with particular application to the philosophy of religion
• the metaphysics of modality with particular application to the question of whether there might have been nothing
• the metaphysics of Christian doctrine.

The first strand begins with my work on the paradox of necessary existence as variously presented by Arthur Prior, Kit Fine, Alvin Plantinga and Timothy Williamson. I have developed a new, stronger version of the paradox, and I argue that its best resolution is by denying that the modal operators are duals and that there are any necessary truths about contingent beings. This work is presented in my paper, 'Is Timothy Williamson a Necessary Existent?'

In order to build on this work, I apply the formal framework I developed in connection with the paradox of necessary existence to solve some longstanding problems in the philosophy of religion, such as showing how divine command theory (the commands of God determine what is morally right and what is morally wrong) is consistent with there being some things which are necessarily morally wrong, such as the torture of innocent children, without restricting God's nature, ('Divine Command Theory and The Semantics of Quantified Modal Logic')

The second strand of my research is centred on the metaphysics of modality, particularly, concerning the issue of whether there might have been nothing. This is a collaborative project with Tom Stoneham. The project has been concerned with defending the view that there might have been nothing concrete, a view termed 'metaphysical nihilism', particularly in our paper, 'The Subtraction Argument for Metaphysical Nihilism', and exploring the consequences of this view for modal metaphysics, in particular, the nature of possible worlds ('Combinatorialism and the Possibility of Nothing', 'Genuine Modal Realism and the Possibility of Nothing'), the principle of recombination ('What is the Principle of Recombination?'), and truthmaking theory ('Is Metaphysical Nihilism Interesting?').

The third strand of my research focuses on the question, 'What must the world be like if the catholic creeds of the Christian church, namely, the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed, are literally true?' In addition, I am particularly concerned with the metaphysics of the Body of Christ, in its three-fold form: the Incarnation, the Eucharist, and the Church. This strand of my research has an historical dimension, namely, the medieval period, particularly, the work of Anselm and Aquinas.

Collaborators

Supervision

• Daniel Molto on the logic and metaphysics of Trinity
• Richard Tamburro on the ethics and metaphysics of sin and freedom
• Dave Worsley on the ethics and metaphysics of the Atonement

Publications

Selected publications

• 'Polarized yet Warranted Christian Belief', in Scientific Approaches to the Philosophy of Religion, Yujin Nagasawa (ed), Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming.
• with Tom Stoneham, 'The Subtraction Argument for the Possibility of Free Mass (PDF , 60kb)', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 80.1 (2009): 50-57.
• 'Is Timothy Williamson a Necessary Existent? (PDF , 142kb)' in Modality: Metaphysics, Logic, and Epistemology, Bob Hale and Aviv Hoffman (eds), Oxford University Press, 2009
• 'Disjunctive Permissions and Epistemic Modality (PDF , 33kb)', in Modality: Metaphysics, Logic, and Epistemology, Bob Hale and Aviv Hoffman (eds), Oxford University Press, 2009
• 'Divine Command Theory and The Semantics of Quantified Modal Logic (PDF , 61kb)', in New Waves in Philosophy of Religion, Erik Wielenberg and Yujin Nagasawa (eds), Palgrave Macmillan, 2009
• with Tom Stoneham, 'Is Metaphysical Nihilism Interesting?', Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 90.2 (June 2009): 210-31
• with Tom Stoneham, 'Justifying Metaphysical Nihilism: a Response to Cameron', The Philosophical Quarterly 59.234 (January 2009): 132-7
• with Tom Stoneham, 'What is the Principle of Recombination?', Dialectica 62.4 (December 2008): 483-94
• with Tom Stoneham, 'Combinatorialism and the Possibility of Nothing', Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 84.2 (Special issue on The Philosophy of D.M. Armstrong) (June 2006): 269-80
  • Reply by D.M. Armstrong
• with Tom Stoneham, 'Truthmakers and Possible Worlds', Analysis 65.4, (October 2005): 290-4
• with Tom Stoneham, 'The Subtraction Argument for Metaphysical Nihilism', The Journal of Philosophy, CII.6 (June 2005): 303-25
  • Reply by Ross Cameron
• with Tom Stoneham, 'Genuine Modal Realism and the Empty World', European Journal of Analytic Philosophy, 1.1 (2005): 21-38

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Philosophy of Christianity (PDF , 101kb)
  
• Substance and Properties (PDF , 86kb)
  
• Religion and Morality (PDF , 101kb)

Postgraduate

• Christian Philosophical Theology (PDF , 97kb)
  
• Theological Ethics (PDF , 99kb)

Other teaching

• Supervisor on the Preparing Future Academics and Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice programmes
  

External activities

Memberships

• Assistant Curate and Vicarius Canonicorum, York Minster
  

Editorial duties

• Associate Editor, Mind

Invited talks and conferences

• 'Faith and Politics: The Necessity of Dissent', Inaugural Meeting of the York Branch of the Christian Socialist Movement, 26 July 2011