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Two New Books on the Five Ways

My colleague, Dan Bonevac, and I are putting the final touches on two manuscripts about Thomas Aquinas’s Five Ways. One is designed for an academic press, and the other for a more popular or “trade” press. We think that the first will probably be appearing in late 2026, and the other a few months later.Continue reading “Two New Books on the Five Ways”

God’s (Finite) Mercy

That God is merciful signifies that God gives to His creatures benefits that go beyond the requirements of justice. If we assume, as Thomas does, that existence itself is a good, then God’s mercy is in evidence in His creating us, since none of us had (prior to existing) a right to exist based onContinue reading “God’s (Finite) Mercy”

God is Just, and Life Still Isn’t Fair

What is required for God to be distributively just? Not very much, according to Thomas Aquinas. It is sufficient that God create a world that makes sense, that obeys reasonable laws, containing things that are well-designed, although never perfectly designed: “Hence Dionysius says (Div. Nom. viii, 4): ‘We must needs see that God is trulyContinue reading “God is Just, and Life Still Isn’t Fair”

“Body, blood, soul, and divinity”

This is the second in a series on the doctrine of transubstantiation. Here I want to focus on further theological reasons for preferring Aristotelian hylomorphism to any kind of substance dualism (like Cartesianism). Here is what the Council of Trent taught about the Eucharist: “In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist ‘the body andContinue reading ““Body, blood, soul, and divinity””

Staunch Hylomorphism and Transubstantiation

Aristotelian natural philosophy, also known as “hylomorphism,” has the capacity to treat middle-sized things, like human beings, wafers of bread, and goblet-filling bits of wine, as first-class citizens of our ontology, that is, as substances. Substances, on this view, are unified wholes composed of matter and form, whose substantial forms impose certain powers and potentialitiesContinue reading “Staunch Hylomorphism and Transubstantiation”

Social Choice and Defeasible Reasoning

I’m the author of the article on “Defeasible Reasoning” in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. In revising my entry this month, I came across a fascinating idea proposed in 1991 by Sten Lindström (in an article first published in Theoria in 2022). As I argue in my article, the best approach to formalizing a defeasibleContinue reading “Social Choice and Defeasible Reasoning”

Strategic and Insincere Voting

Real-World Examples of Voting Paradoxes William H. Riker, Liberalism against Populism (Waveland Press, 1982). 1912 US Presidential race Popular vote: 42% Wilson 27% Roosevelt 24% Taft Thanks to the plurality rule, Wilson won (the Electoral College didn’t make a significant difference in this case. Let’s suppose that the voters formed three blocs with the followingContinue reading “Strategic and Insincere Voting”

Arrow’s Theorem and Democracy

Importance of Arrow’s Theorem Does Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem (Kenneth Arrow 1960) challenge the value of democracy? First, we have to ask: Is democracy an end in itself or a means to an end? For Locke: “For when any number of men have, by the consent of every individual, made a community, they have thereby madeContinue reading “Arrow’s Theorem and Democracy”

Against the New Natural Law: Incommensurability

Let me turn next to proposition 3, the incommensurability of basic goods. As I mentioned at the beginning, I will distinguish between weak and strong incommensurability. Weak incommensurability refers to the incommensurability of different goods in the short term, in a single moment (synchronic incommensurability). Strong incommensurability would entail that there can be no rationalContinue reading “Against the New Natural Law: Incommensurability”