Dennis Lee Sansom
Biographic Data
| ID | 1227935 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dennis Lee Sansom |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dennis Lee |
| FAMILY NAME | Sansom |
| SIGNATURE | SANSOM D L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Samford University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6195-3401 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 8 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Nietzsche as Metaphysician in advance
I argue that Nietzsche has embedded in the narrative structure of Thus Spake Zarathustra a deontic argument in which his proclamation of the moral and existential superiority of the Overman is derived from the way he depicts the fundamental nature of reality--the eternal return of the same and the will to power. For the argument to be persuasive, it must convince the reader that to know why we should advocate for the Overman, we must also know th…
Are God and Christians Evil
I show that David Lewis’s argument in “Divine Evil” has logical problems and also misrepresents Christianity. He offers a “straw figure” argument and with it commits an ad hominem against Christian people. In “Divine Evil” he fails to acknowledge that in the long and serious intellectual tradition of Christianity, his view of God is unrecognizable. In this tradition, evil is the deprivation of being and is parasitic on the goodness of being. God …
Teaching the Virtue of Kindness through Using Art Works
Art works provide a unique and influential way to teach human virtues because they can place individuals (or particular artistic expressions) within the ambiguities, complexities, and forces of the human experience. I use four art works to teach about the virtue of kindness: Giotto di Bondonie's Scene 2: St. Francis Giving His Mantle to a Poor Man; Bishop Charles Francois in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables; Adam in William Shakespeare's As You Like …
Christian Theodicy
This paper presents a justification for a Christian theodicy. It starts by critiquing William H. Gass's depiction of Christianity as superstitious, ignorant, and evil. It shows that his view is based on a caricature (that is, God as a quasi-gnostic Demiurge) of the Christian understanding of God and evil and totally ignores and misses the contributions of (what I call) the Classical View of theodicy within the Christian intellectual tradition (th…
“What you look hard at seems to look hard at you”
Gerard Manley Hopkins once said, “What you look hard at seems to look hard at you.” This phrase not only encapsulates the central emphasis of Hopkins’s poetry but also suggests a proper relationship between philosophy and art. The aesthetic experience of artworks can provide pivotal experiences for metaphysical interpretations, and I attempt to show that Hopkins’s poetry gives such a foundational and informative experience for philosophical inves…
The Perichoresis of the Trinity
According to John Hare, a “moral gap” exists between the authority of a moral demand and our inability to do the moral demand. Only the authority of the moral demander can bridge the gap, but that requires the demander experience the obligations of the demand. Christian ethics has a way to explain how to bridge of the gap. Through the doctrine of the perichoresis of triune relationships, we see how the mutual indwelling of the Father, Son, and Ho…
Where Are We Going?" Dante's Inferno or Richard Rorty's "Liberal Ironist
This paper elucidates the structure of moral action by arguing that Dante's explanation in the Inferno of why people end up in their respective circles of hell is superior in terms of accounting for the structure of moral reasoning to Richard Rorty's promotion of the "liberal ironist." The latter suffers an internal contradiction-it wants a well-lived life without any overriding aims, but such a life is understandable only in light of affirming l…
Prudential Versus Probative Arguments for Religious Faith
In this article, I show that Pascal's prudential agenda, centered on the Wager, more successfully overcomes the restrictions of Pyrrhonic skepticism expressed by Montaigne than Descartes' probative philosophy, which was based on his "ontological argument" for God's existence. Descartes' attempt to base natural science on the metaphysical certainty of a non-deceiving God fails because he cannot prove that a non-deceiving Perfect Being is a "clear …
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Prudential Versus Probative Arguments for Religious Faith
In this article, I show that Pascal's prudential agenda, centered on the Wager, more successfully overcomes the restrictions of Pyrrhonic skepticism expressed by Montaigne than Descartes' probative philosophy, which was based on his "ontological argument" for God's existence. Descartes' attempt to base natural science on the metaphysical certainty of a non-deceiving God fails because he cannot prove that a non-deceiving Perfect Being is a "clear …
Where Are We Going?" Dante's Inferno or Richard Rorty's "Liberal Ironist
This paper elucidates the structure of moral action by arguing that Dante's explanation in the Inferno of why people end up in their respective circles of hell is superior in terms of accounting for the structure of moral reasoning to Richard Rorty's promotion of the "liberal ironist." The latter suffers an internal contradiction-it wants a well-lived life without any overriding aims, but such a life is understandable only in light of affirming l…
The Perichoresis of the Trinity
According to John Hare, a “moral gap” exists between the authority of a moral demand and our inability to do the moral demand. Only the authority of the moral demander can bridge the gap, but that requires the demander experience the obligations of the demand. Christian ethics has a way to explain how to bridge of the gap. Through the doctrine of the perichoresis of triune relationships, we see how the mutual indwelling of the Father, Son, and Ho…
“What you look hard at seems to look hard at you”
Gerard Manley Hopkins once said, “What you look hard at seems to look hard at you.” This phrase not only encapsulates the central emphasis of Hopkins’s poetry but also suggests a proper relationship between philosophy and art. The aesthetic experience of artworks can provide pivotal experiences for metaphysical interpretations, and I attempt to show that Hopkins’s poetry gives such a foundational and informative experience for philosophical inves…
Christian Theodicy
This paper presents a justification for a Christian theodicy. It starts by critiquing William H. Gass's depiction of Christianity as superstitious, ignorant, and evil. It shows that his view is based on a caricature (that is, God as a quasi-gnostic Demiurge) of the Christian understanding of God and evil and totally ignores and misses the contributions of (what I call) the Classical View of theodicy within the Christian intellectual tradition (th…
Are God and Christians Evil
I show that David Lewis’s argument in “Divine Evil” has logical problems and also misrepresents Christianity. He offers a “straw figure” argument and with it commits an ad hominem against Christian people. In “Divine Evil” he fails to acknowledge that in the long and serious intellectual tradition of Christianity, his view of God is unrecognizable. In this tradition, evil is the deprivation of being and is parasitic on the goodness of being. God …
Teaching the Virtue of Kindness through Using Art Works
Art works provide a unique and influential way to teach human virtues because they can place individuals (or particular artistic expressions) within the ambiguities, complexities, and forces of the human experience. I use four art works to teach about the virtue of kindness: Giotto di Bondonie's Scene 2: St. Francis Giving His Mantle to a Poor Man; Bishop Charles Francois in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables; Adam in William Shakespeare's As You Like …
Nietzsche as Metaphysician in advance
I argue that Nietzsche has embedded in the narrative structure of Thus Spake Zarathustra a deontic argument in which his proclamation of the moral and existential superiority of the Overman is derived from the way he depicts the fundamental nature of reality--the eternal return of the same and the will to power. For the argument to be persuasive, it must convince the reader that to know why we should advocate for the Overman, we must also know th…
Epistemology (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Metaphysics (3 works) · Theology (3 works) · Theology and Philosophy of Evil (3 works) · Aesthetics (2 works) · Art (2 works) · Christian theology (2 works) · Philosophical Ethics and Theory (2 works) · Sociology (2 works)