Yujin Nagasawa's Important New Book on Perfect Being Theism

Yujin Nagasawa's important book, Maximal God: A New Defense of Perfect Being Theism, is coming out in a few weeks. Here's the blurb:
Yujin Nagasawa presents a new, stronger version of perfect being theism, the conception of God as the greatest possible being. Although perfect being theism is the most common form of monotheism in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition its truth has been disputed by philosophers and theologians for centuries. Nagasawa proposes a new, game-changing defence of perfect being theism by developing what he calls the 'maximal concept of God'. Perfect being theists typically maintain that God is an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent being; according to Nagasawa, God should be understood rather as a being that has the maximal consistent set of knowledge, power, and benevolence. Nagasawa argues that once we accept the maximal concept we can establish perfect being theism on two grounds. First, we can refute nearly all existing arguments against perfect being theism simultaneously. Second, we can construct a novel, strengthened version of the modal ontological argument for perfect being theism. Nagasawa concludes that the maximal concept grants us a unified defence of perfect being theism that is highly effective and economical.
And here's the table of contents:

Part I: Perfect Being Theism
1: Conceptual, Historical and Cognitive Roots of Perfect Being Theism
2: Perfect Being Theism and the Great Chain of Being
Part II: The Maximal God Refutation of Arguments against Perfect Being Theism
3: Maximal God and Arguments against Perfect Being Theism I
4: Maximal God and Arguments against Perfect Being Theism II
Part III: The Maximal God Defence of the Ontological Argument for Perfect Being Theism
5: A Partial Defence of the Classical Ontological Argument I
6: A Partial Defence of the Classical Ontological Argument II
7: Maximal God and the Modal Ontological Argument


Further details can be found here.

Happy reading!

Announcement: Conference on Pantheism, Panentheism, and Cosmopsychism


Pantheism and Panentheism
Royal Institute of Philosophy Workshop, Birmingham branch

November 28, 2017
Department of Philosophy, University of Birmingham

Precise venue tbc
University of Birmingham
Birmingham B15 2TT
United Kingdom

Sponsor(s):
Royal Institute of Philosophy
John Templeton Foundation

All speakers:
Samuel Lebens
University of Haifa
Yujin Nagasawa
University of Birmingham
Michael Stenmark
Uppsala Universitet
Organisers:
Nicholas K Jones
University of Birmingham
Yujin Nagasawa
University of Birmingham

Topic areas
Philosophy of Religion

Talks at this conference
God and His Imaginary Friends: Acosmism, Pantheism and Priority Monism, Pantheism, Panpsychism and Cosmopsychism

Details

Pantheism is the view that God is identical with the universe. Panentheism is the view that the universe is part of God. These views are radically different from traditional theism, which says that God is an all-powerful, all-loving creator that is ontologically distinct from the universe. Pantheism and panentheism have a long history since ancient Greece and many prominent philosophers, theologians and scientists—such as Nicholas of Cusa, Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, T. H. Green, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking—have defended or expressed sympathy with them. Yet, there has been very little discussion of these views in philosophy and theology as they have focused nearly exclusively on traditional theism.

The aim of this workshop is to create opportunities for philosophers to present their latest work on pantheism and panentheism to students and the general public.

The timetable for the workshop is:

-- 12.30 – 1.50: Yujin Nagasawa (University of Birmingham), "Pantheism, Panpsychism, and Cosmopsychism"

-- 1.50 – 2.00: Break

-- 2.00 – 3.20: Sam Lebens (University of Haifa), "God and His Imaginary Friends: Acosmism, Pantheism and Priority Monism"

-- 3.20 – 3.50: Refreshments

-- 3.50 – 5.10: Mikael Stenmark (University of Uppsala), "Panentheism and Its Rivals"

Latest Paper on the Problem of Heavenly Freedom

Matheson, Benjamin. "Tracing and Heavenly Freedom", International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, First Online: 1 September 2017. The paper is Open Access and available here.

Ricki Bliss's Cambridge Element on Grounding, Fundamentality, and Ultimate Explanations

 ...is now out , and available for free download for a limited time. Required reading.