A Short Argument that There is No God

I was thinking about Mackie and Plantinga on the problem of evil today and I thought of the following short argument that, I think, captures the spirit of Mackie’s point and avoids Plantinga appeal to transworld depravity. I would be interested to know what people thought of it.   1.  If there is a God then He [...]

Philosophers’ Carnival

#66

There Might Not Be Any Numbers

I was re-reading an old post where I expressed doubt that there are any necessary existents at all, not even numbers, and I saw Richard Chapell’s comment, I’d expect the ontological status of numbers to be non-contingent — after all, what in the world could they be contingent on? Abstract objects seem to be the kind of [...]

New Classes at LaGuardia

I am lucky enough to come to LaGuardia at a time when they are expanding the philosophy major and we are trying to introduce four new classes to the curriculum. I am responsible for designing two of them; Logic and Philosophy and Medical Ethics (the other two are Aesthetics and Environmental Ethics). I thought I would post [...]

Where Am I?

I’m back!!  The plane ride there was long and super bumpy (and I hate flying!!) and then I got strep throat and the plane ride back was a red eye that got into JFK at six a.m. (and I REALLY hate flying!!!!)…but other than that California was fantastic! The APA was fun, though I got [...]

Language, Thought, Logic, and Existence

Well, I’m off to go present my paper at the APA! I’ll be back on Monday. I guess I have Philosophy Sucks! to thank, since I was noticing that the paper grew out of some interesting discussion I had here last year. Thanks to everyone who participated!! You can enjoy the virtual version here (and on [...]

More on the Ontological Argument

The traditional version of the ontological argument is usually criticized for treating existence as a predicate. If existence is a predicate, then it is a predicate that always applies, and as Russel quipped that is the sign of a mistake. A predicate must be fail to apply to some objects in order to count as expressing a [...]

65th Philosophers’ Carnival

over at Philosophy, etc.

A Puzzle About Reductios

I finally got my internet connection back up at home now. Turns out I had a bad cable out on the side of the appartment building. Now all I have to do is get to the backlog of super interesting comments! I hope I’ll have some time to do that this weekend.  In the meantime [...]

Ontological Arguments

The ontological argument for the existence of God is often greeted with skepticism by atheists and theists alike. I don’t want to talk about particular versions of the argument, but about why people are suspicious of them. It seems to me that we are quite ready to accept ontological arguments in other areas.So, consider geometry. [...]