David S Oderberg
Biographic Data
| ID | 1067330 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David S Oderberg |
| GIVEN NAMES | David S |
| FAMILY NAME | Oderberg |
| SIGNATURE | ODERBERG D S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Reading |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9585-0515 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 22 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1987 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
In defence of panmoralism
Panmoralism is the thesis that every reason for human action is a moral reason. The thesis is easily misunderstood. It does not say that every cause of behaviour is a moral reason, or that every fact relevant to the explanation of an event is morally significant. It concerns reasons in the practical sense: considerations under which free and rational agents act, may act, or may be justified in acting. I argue that once reasons for action are unde…
Miracles and the wooden leg problem
The famous Catholic pilgrimage site at Lourdes, France, until fairly recently displayed hundreds of discarded crutches as testament to miraculous cures. It has, though, never displayed a wooden leg. Hence the Wooden Leg Problem (WLP) for believers in miracles: if God can cure paralysis, why does He seem never to have given an amputee back their lost limb? The WLP is a severe challenge for believers in miracles and must be confronted head-on. Yet …
Biological Mistakes
Organisms and other biological entities are mistake-prone: they get things wrong. The entities of pure physics, such as atoms and inorganic molecules, do not make mistakes: they do what they do according to physical law, with no room for error except on the part of the physicist or their theory. We set out a novel framework for understanding biology and its demarcation from physics – that of mistake-making. We distinguish biological mistakes from…
Action, passion, power
The active/passive distinction, once a hallmark of classical metaphysics, has largely been discarded from contemporary thought. The revival of powers theory has not seen an equally vigorous rehabilitation of the real distinction between active and passive powers. I begin an analysis and vindication with a critique of E.J. Lowe's discussion. I then argue that the active/passive problem is a metaphysical one, not a logical or logico‐linguistic one,…
Biological Mistake Theory and the Question of Function
The making of mistakes by organisms and other living systems is a theoretically and empirically unifying feature of biological investigation. Mistake theory is a rigorous and experimentally productive way of understanding this widespread phenomenon. It does, however, run up against the long-standing “functions” debate in philosophy of biology. Against the objection that mistakes are just a kind of malfunction, and that without a position on funct…
Who’s afraid of reverse mereological essentialism
Whereas Mereological Essentialism is the thesis that the parts of an object are essential to it, Reverse Mereological Essentialism is the thesis that the whole is essential to its parts. Specifically—since RME is an Aristotelian doctrine—it is a claim not about objects in general but about substances. Here I set out and explain RME as it should be understood from the perspective of the Aristotelian-Scholastic tradition, as well as proposing a kin…
Introduction—Purpose in Biology
I am delighted to introduce the papers in this year's Special Issue. They are a combination of those presented at the annual Ratio one-day conference ‘Purpose in Biology: New Directions’ (held at the University of Reading in September 2023) and some further invited contributions. The one-day conference in 2023 was held under the auspices of a research project at the University of Reading generously funded by the John Templeton Foundation: ‘Mistak…
Is Prime Matter Energy
This paper tests the hypothesis that the prime matter of classical Aristotelian-Scholastic metaphysics is numerically identical to energy. Is P = E? After outlining the classical Aristotelian concept of prime matter, I provide the master argument for it, based on the phenomenon of substantial change. I then outline what we know about energy as a scientific concept, including its role and application in some key fields. Next, I consider the argume…
Metaphysics of Good and Evil
Finality revived
Proponents of physical intentionality argue that the classic hallmarks of intentionality highlighted by Brentano are also found in purely physical powers. Critics worry that this idea is metaphysically obscure at best, and at worst leads to panpsychism or animism. I examine the debate in detail, finding both confusion and illumination in the physical intentionalist thesis. Analysing a number of the canonical features of intentionality, I show tha…
Classifying Reality
Disembodied Communication and Religious Experience
Contemporary Aristotelian Metaphysics
Aristotelian (or neo-Aristotelian) metaphysics is currently undergoing something of a renaissance. This volume brings together fourteen essays from leading philosophers who are sympathetic to this conception of metaphysics, which takes its cue from the idea that metaphysics is the first philosophy. The primary input from Aristotle is methodological, but many themes familiar from his metaphysics will be discussed, including ontological categories,…
Real Essentialism
Real Essentialism
Real Essentialism presents a comprehensive defence of neo-Aristotelian essentialism. Do objects have essences? Must they be the kinds of things they are in spite of the changes they undergo? Can we know what things are really like – can we define and classify reality? Many if not most philosophers doubt this, influenced by centuries of empiricism, and by the anti-essentialism of Wittgenstein, Quine, Popper, and other thinkers. Real Essentialism r…
Modern Moral Philosophy
Although this collection of articles is not formally a commentary on Elizabeth Anscombe's famous article of the same title, in which she criticised the moral philosophy prevalent in 1958, a number of the contributors do take Anscombe's work as a starting point. Taken together the collection could be seen as a demonstration of the extent to which moral philosophers have since attempted to answer Anscombe's challenge, and to develop an approach to …
Temporal Parts and the Possibility of Change
Human Values
In recent decades, the revival of natural law theory in modern moral philosophy has been an exciting and important development. Human Values brings together an international group of moral philosopher
On the Cardinality of the Cardinal Virtues
This paper is a detailed study of what are traditionally called the cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude. I defend what I call the Cardinality Thesis, that the traditional four and no others are cardinal. I define cardinality in terms of three sub-theses, the first being that the cardinal virtues are jointly necessary for the possession of every other virtue, the second that each of the other virtues is a species of one o…
Modal Properties, Moral Status, and Identity
Coincidence under a Sortal
The question whether two things can be in the same place at the same time is an ambiguous one. At least three distinct questions could be meant: (a) Can two things simpliciter be in the same place at the same time? (b) Can two things of the same kind be in the same place at the same time? (c) Can two substances of the same kind be in the same place at the same time?' The answers to these questions vary. In what follows, all three will be discusse…
The Metaphysics of Identity over Time
Journal Article Book Reviews Get access The Metaphysics of Identity over Time. By David S. Oderberg. (London: Macmillan, 1993. Pp. ix + 228. Price £42.50.) D.M. Armstrong D.M. Armstrong University of Sydney Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 46, Issue 185, October 1996, Pages 516–518, https://doi.org/10.2307/2956362 Published: 01 October 1996
The Metaphysics of Identity Over Time
Kripke and ‘quus’
Modal Properties, Moral Status, and Identity
Human Values
In recent decades, the revival of natural law theory in modern moral philosophy has been an exciting and important development. Human Values brings together an international group of moral philosopher
Coincidence under a Sortal
The question whether two things can be in the same place at the same time is an ambiguous one. At least three distinct questions could be meant: (a) Can two things simpliciter be in the same place at the same time? (b) Can two things of the same kind be in the same place at the same time? (c) Can two substances of the same kind be in the same place at the same time?' The answers to these questions vary. In what follows, all three will be discusse…
Biological Mistakes
Organisms and other biological entities are mistake-prone: they get things wrong. The entities of pure physics, such as atoms and inorganic molecules, do not make mistakes: they do what they do according to physical law, with no room for error except on the part of the physicist or their theory. We set out a novel framework for understanding biology and its demarcation from physics – that of mistake-making. We distinguish biological mistakes from…
Finality revived
Proponents of physical intentionality argue that the classic hallmarks of intentionality highlighted by Brentano are also found in purely physical powers. Critics worry that this idea is metaphysically obscure at best, and at worst leads to panpsychism or animism. I examine the debate in detail, finding both confusion and illumination in the physical intentionalist thesis. Analysing a number of the canonical features of intentionality, I show tha…
Temporal Parts and the Possibility of Change
Kripke and ‘quus’
The Metaphysics of Identity Over Time
Coincidence under a Sortal
The question whether two things can be in the same place at the same time is an ambiguous one. At least three distinct questions could be meant: (a) Can two things simpliciter be in the same place at the same time? (b) Can two things of the same kind be in the same place at the same time? (c) Can two substances of the same kind be in the same place at the same time?' The answers to these questions vary. In what follows, all three will be discusse…
The Metaphysics of Identity over Time
Journal Article Book Reviews Get access The Metaphysics of Identity over Time. By David S. Oderberg. (London: Macmillan, 1993. Pp. ix + 228. Price £42.50.) D.M. Armstrong D.M. Armstrong University of Sydney Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 46, Issue 185, October 1996, Pages 516–518, https://doi.org/10.2307/2956362 Published: 01 October 1996
Modal Properties, Moral Status, and Identity
On the Cardinality of the Cardinal Virtues
This paper is a detailed study of what are traditionally called the cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude. I defend what I call the Cardinality Thesis, that the traditional four and no others are cardinal. I define cardinality in terms of three sub-theses, the first being that the cardinal virtues are jointly necessary for the possession of every other virtue, the second that each of the other virtues is a species of one o…
Modern Moral Philosophy
Although this collection of articles is not formally a commentary on Elizabeth Anscombe's famous article of the same title, in which she criticised the moral philosophy prevalent in 1958, a number of the contributors do take Anscombe's work as a starting point. Taken together the collection could be seen as a demonstration of the extent to which moral philosophers have since attempted to answer Anscombe's challenge, and to develop an approach to …
Temporal Parts and the Possibility of Change
Human Values
In recent decades, the revival of natural law theory in modern moral philosophy has been an exciting and important development. Human Values brings together an international group of moral philosopher
Real Essentialism
Real Essentialism presents a comprehensive defence of neo-Aristotelian essentialism. Do objects have essences? Must they be the kinds of things they are in spite of the changes they undergo? Can we know what things are really like – can we define and classify reality? Many if not most philosophers doubt this, influenced by centuries of empiricism, and by the anti-essentialism of Wittgenstein, Quine, Popper, and other thinkers. Real Essentialism r…
Real Essentialism
Contemporary Aristotelian Metaphysics
Aristotelian (or neo-Aristotelian) metaphysics is currently undergoing something of a renaissance. This volume brings together fourteen essays from leading philosophers who are sympathetic to this conception of metaphysics, which takes its cue from the idea that metaphysics is the first philosophy. The primary input from Aristotle is methodological, but many themes familiar from his metaphysics will be discussed, including ontological categories,…
Disembodied Communication and Religious Experience
Classifying Reality
Finality revived
Proponents of physical intentionality argue that the classic hallmarks of intentionality highlighted by Brentano are also found in purely physical powers. Critics worry that this idea is metaphysically obscure at best, and at worst leads to panpsychism or animism. I examine the debate in detail, finding both confusion and illumination in the physical intentionalist thesis. Analysing a number of the canonical features of intentionality, I show tha…
Metaphysics of Good and Evil
Is Prime Matter Energy
This paper tests the hypothesis that the prime matter of classical Aristotelian-Scholastic metaphysics is numerically identical to energy. Is P = E? After outlining the classical Aristotelian concept of prime matter, I provide the master argument for it, based on the phenomenon of substantial change. I then outline what we know about energy as a scientific concept, including its role and application in some key fields. Next, I consider the argume…
Introduction—Purpose in Biology
I am delighted to introduce the papers in this year's Special Issue. They are a combination of those presented at the annual Ratio one-day conference ‘Purpose in Biology: New Directions’ (held at the University of Reading in September 2023) and some further invited contributions. The one-day conference in 2023 was held under the auspices of a research project at the University of Reading generously funded by the John Templeton Foundation: ‘Mistak…
Action, passion, power
The active/passive distinction, once a hallmark of classical metaphysics, has largely been discarded from contemporary thought. The revival of powers theory has not seen an equally vigorous rehabilitation of the real distinction between active and passive powers. I begin an analysis and vindication with a critique of E.J. Lowe's discussion. I then argue that the active/passive problem is a metaphysical one, not a logical or logico‐linguistic one,…
Biological Mistake Theory and the Question of Function
The making of mistakes by organisms and other living systems is a theoretically and empirically unifying feature of biological investigation. Mistake theory is a rigorous and experimentally productive way of understanding this widespread phenomenon. It does, however, run up against the long-standing “functions” debate in philosophy of biology. Against the objection that mistakes are just a kind of malfunction, and that without a position on funct…
Who’s afraid of reverse mereological essentialism
Whereas Mereological Essentialism is the thesis that the parts of an object are essential to it, Reverse Mereological Essentialism is the thesis that the whole is essential to its parts. Specifically—since RME is an Aristotelian doctrine—it is a claim not about objects in general but about substances. Here I set out and explain RME as it should be understood from the perspective of the Aristotelian-Scholastic tradition, as well as proposing a kin…
In defence of panmoralism
Panmoralism is the thesis that every reason for human action is a moral reason. The thesis is easily misunderstood. It does not say that every cause of behaviour is a moral reason, or that every fact relevant to the explanation of an event is morally significant. It concerns reasons in the practical sense: considerations under which free and rational agents act, may act, or may be justified in acting. I argue that once reasons for action are unde…
Miracles and the wooden leg problem
The famous Catholic pilgrimage site at Lourdes, France, until fairly recently displayed hundreds of discarded crutches as testament to miraculous cures. It has, though, never displayed a wooden leg. Hence the Wooden Leg Problem (WLP) for believers in miracles: if God can cure paralysis, why does He seem never to have given an amputee back their lost limb? The WLP is a severe challenge for believers in miracles and must be confronted head-on. Yet …
Biological Mistakes
Organisms and other biological entities are mistake-prone: they get things wrong. The entities of pure physics, such as atoms and inorganic molecules, do not make mistakes: they do what they do according to physical law, with no room for error except on the part of the physicist or their theory. We set out a novel framework for understanding biology and its demarcation from physics – that of mistake-making. We distinguish biological mistakes from…
Epistemology (18 works) · Philosophy (17 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Metaphysics (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Philosophical Ethics and Theory (7 works) · Philosophy and History of Science (7 works) · Law (4 works) · Library science (4 works) · Moral philosophy (4 works)