Announcement: 2014 St. Thomas Summer Seminar in Philosophy of Religion

The 2014 St. Thomas Summer Seminar in Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology

Recent PhDs and current graduate students in philosophy, theology, or religious studies are invited to apply to the 2014 St. Thomas Summer Seminar in Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology. The seminar will be held at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minnesota, from June 17th to July 2nd, 2014. Participants will receive a stipend of $2000, as well as room and board. For more information and instructions on how to apply, go to:

http://www.stthomas.edu/philosophy/templeton/project.html

Featuring: 

• Michael Bergmann and John Hawthorne on the epistemology of religious belief 
• David Albert and Dean Zimmerman on cosmology and philosophy 
• Louise Antony and Peter van Inwagen on the problem of evil 
• John Greco on testimony and religious knowledge, and 
• Stephen Davis, C. Stephen Evans, and Evan Fales on historical evidence and Christianity. 

The deadline for receipt of applications is December 1, 2013.

Organized by: Dean Zimmerman and Michael Rota

Funded by:

The John Templeton Foundation

The University of St. Thomas

The Society of Christian Philosophers

The University of Notre Dame’s Center for Philosophy of Religion

The John Cardinal O’Hara Chair in Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame

The Philosophy Department of Rutgers University

Excellent Series of Exchanges Between Wunder and Rauser (and Sennett) on Universal Sanction and Properly Basic Beliefs

Part 1 (Sennett makes a brief reply in the comment thread)

Part 2

Wunder's first reply to Part 2

Wunder's second reply to Part 2

Rauser's rejoinder to Wunder

Required reading for those interested in evaluating Plantinga's so-called reformed epistemology.

(Wunder informs me that more is likely to come.)

Call for Papers: The 3rd Annual University of Glasgow Philosophy of Religion Seminar

3rd Glasgow Philosophy of Religion Seminar

29-30th, May 2014

The biennial Glasgow Philosophy of Religion Seminar provides a platform for discussion of work in progress in analytic philosophy of religion. The Seminar is organized by the Forum for Philosophy and Religion and will be held in the Philosophy Building, University of Glasgow. The precise schedule will be announced nearer the time, but it is anticipated that the event will run from 10.00 a.m. on the 29th May until 6.00 p.m. on the 30th May. Details will appear here as they become available.

To register for this event please email Victoria Harrison (Victoria.Harrison@glasgow.ac.uk). Refreshments will be provided and there will be a buffet lunch on the 29th May (lunch on the 30th will be by own arrangement). A registration fee of £10 (£5 for graduate students) will be payable at the door.

This event is sponsored by the Royal Institute of Philosophy and Philosophy at the University of Glasgow.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Presentations are invited on any topic within analytic philosophy of religion, broadly construed to include non-western traditions. Papers on comparative philosophy of religion are also welcome. If you would like your work to be considered for presentation at this event please email an abstract of between 300 and 500 words to Victoria Harrison (Victoria.Harrison@glasgow.ac.uk) by 15th January 2014. Your paper should have a reading time of approximately 40 minutes. Please state on your submission if you are a graduate student. You will be informed of the decision by 28th February 2014. Papers accepted for presentation will be considered for publication in Philosophy Compass, Blackwell's fully peer-reviewed online philosophy journal.

(via)

The Midwest Studies in Philosophy Special Issue on the New Atheism...

...is now out. Here's the table of contents:


Varieties of Sense-Making (pages 1–10)
A. W. Moore

Article first published online: 16 SEP 2013 | DOI: 10.1111/misp.12005
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Making Room for Faith: Does Science Exclude Religion? (pages 11–24)

Michael Ruse

Article first published online: 16 SEP 2013 | DOI: 10.1111/misp.12007
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So What Else Is Neo? Theism and Epistemic Recalcitrance (pages 25–50)

David Shatz

Article first published online: 16 SEP 2013 | DOI: 10.1111/misp.12008
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Religious Agnosticism (pages 51–67)

Gary Gutting

Article first published online: 16 SEP 2013 | DOI: 10.1111/misp.12002
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How to Vanquish the Lingering Shadow of the Long-Dead God (pages 68–86)

Kenneth A. Taylor

Article first published online: 16 SEP 2013 | DOI: 10.1111/misp.12009
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Limited Belief (pages 87–96)

Andrew Winer

Article first published online: 16 SEP 2013 | DOI: 10.1111/misp.12011
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Epistemic Toleration and the New Atheism (pages 97–108)

Richard Fumerton

Article first published online: 16 SEP 2013 | DOI: 10.1111/misp.12001
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Affective Theism and People of Faith (pages 109–128)

Jonathan L. Kvanvig

Article first published online: 16 SEP 2013 | DOI: 10.1111/misp.12003
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Discreditable Origins and the Significance of Natural Theology (pages 129–141)

Gregg Ten Elshof

Article first published online: 16 SEP 2013 | DOI: 10.1111/misp.12010
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New Atheism and the Scientistic Turn in the Atheism Movement (pages 142–153)

Massimo Pigliucci

Article first published online: 16 SEP 2013 | DOI: 10.1111/misp.12006
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The New Atheists and the Cosmological Argument (pages 154–177)

Edward Feser

Article first published online: 16 SEP 2013 | DOI: 10.1111/misp.12000
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Evidence, Theory, and Interpretation: The “New Atheism” and the Philosophy of Science (pages 178–188)

Alister E. McGrath

Article first published online: 16 SEP 2013 | DOI: 10.1111/misp.12004
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Review of Swinburne's Mind, Brain, and Free Will

David Palmer (University of Tennessee) reviews the book for NDPR.

New Center for Philosophy of Religion at Rutgers

Dean Zimmerman will be the director of the Center. Further details can be found here.

H/T: Leiter Reports

Loke's Reply to Kedrick on HIlbert's Hotel

We recently noted Landon Kedrick's reply to Craig's use of the Hilbert's Hotel thought experiment against the existence of actual infinites (and thereby the existence of a beginningless past). Andrew Loke has since offered a reply on behalf of Craig in his "No Heartbreak at Hilbert's Hotel, Religious Studies (Published online: 12 September 2013. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0034412513000346). Here's the abstract:

In his article, ‘Heartbreak at Hilbert's Hotel’, Landon Hedrick argues that the ‘Hilbert's Hotel Argument’ (HHA) proposed by William Lane Craig is ineffective against proponents of presentism, who include Craig himself. I show that there is no heartbreak if the Hotel and persons are constructed and generated in a certain way: there exists a ‘hotel room builder’ and a ‘customer generator’, they have been building hotel rooms and generating customers at regular time intervals as long as time exists, and the hotel rooms and customers have continued existing after they have been built and generated respectively.

And if a copy should find its way into my inbox...

Update: Thanks!

Forthcoming Book on Challenges to Moral and Religious Belief

A while back, we noted an important conference at Purdue -- organized by Michael Bergmann and Patrick Kain -- on the challenges of disagreement and evolution to moral and religious beliefs. It looks as though many of the papers will be polished further and published in a collection:

Bergmann, Michael and Patrick Kain, eds. Challenges to Moral and Religious Belief: Disagreement and Evolution (OUP, forthcoming). Below is the table of contents:

Michael Bergmann and Patrick Kain: Challenges to Moral and Religious Belief: Overview and Future Directions I: Moral Disagreement and Religious Disagreement 1: Ralph Wedgwood: Moral Disagreement among Philosophers 2: Walter Sinnott-Armstrong: Moral Disagreements with Psychopaths 3: Robert Audi: Normative Disagreement as a Challenge to Moral Philosophy and Philosophical Theology 4: John Pittard: Conciliationism and Religious Disagreement II: Disagreement Between Religious and Nonreligious Sources of Moral Belief 5: John Hare: Conscience and the Moral Epistemology of Divine Command Theory 6: Charles Mathewes: Theologies of Hell and Epistemological Conflict 7: Timothy Jackson: Not by "Reason" Alone, or Even First: The Priority of Sanctity over Dignity 8: Mark C. Murphy: Toward God's Own Ethics 9: Sharon Street: If Everything Happens for a Reason, Then We Don't Know What Reasons Are: Why the Price of Theism is Normative Skepticism III: Evolutionary Debunking of Moral and Religious Belief 10: Sarah F. Brosnan: Why an Evolutionary Perspective is Critical to Understanding Moral Behavior in Humans 11: Dustin Locke: Darwinian Normative Skepticism 12: William J. FitzPatrick: Why There Is No Darwinian Dilemma for Ethical Realism 13: Richard Sosis and Jordan Kiper: Religion is More Than Belief: What Evolutionary Theories of Religion Tell Us about Religious Commitments 14: Joshua C. Thurow: Does the Scientific Study of Religion Cast Doubt on Theistic Beliefs?

On the Recent Trend of Exploring Bias and Partisanship in Philosophy of Religion: Links

The recently noted post at NewAPPs is part of a larger trend in evaluating analytic philosophy of religion's current state of health. Below are links to some recent work and discussion on the topic:

Bourget and Chalmers' PhilSurveys results
Helen De Cruz's investigations.
Leiter's key post on Templeton funding.
J.L. Schellenberg's "Philosophy of Religion: A State of the Profession Report"
Paul Draper and Ryan Nichols' paper, "Diagnosing Bias in Philosophy of Religion"
Klaas Kraay's "Method and Madness in Contemporary Analytic Philosophy of Religion"
The special forthcoming issue of The Monist on cognitive science of religion includes papers on the topic.