Michael Tooley
Biographic Data
| ID | 268406 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael Tooley |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael |
| FAMILY NAME | Tooley |
| SIGNATURE | TOOLEY M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Colorado Boulder |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9099-3250 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1972 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Is Ethics Without God Possible? An Answer, Plus Some Thoughts, About the Question
Is Ethics Without God Possible? In this article, I argue for the conclusion that ethics without God is possible. First, I begin by offering a brief overview of metaethics, outlining the main options concerning the nature of ethical statements. Next, I set out my argument. As it turns out, that argument does involve some philosophy of religion, but of a limited scope, since the only issue relevant to my argument is whether some version of the onto…
Emotion in motion: Perceiving fear in the behaviour of individuals from minimal motion capture displays
The ability to quickly and accurately recognise emotional states is adaptive for numerous social functions. Although body movements are a potentially crucial cue for inferring emotions, few studies have studied the perception of body movements made in naturalistic emotional states. The current research focuses on the use of body movement information in the perception of fear expressed by targets in a virtual heights paradigm. Across three studies…
Wes Morriston’s ‘Skeptical Demonism’ Argument from Evil and Timothy Perrine’s Response
Calum Miller's attempted refutation of Michael Tooley's evidential argument from evil
In his article, ‘What's Wrong with Tooley's Argument from Evil?’, Calum Miller's goal was to show that the evidential argument from evil that I have advanced is unsound, and in support of that claim, Miller set out three main objections. First, he argued that I had failed to recognize that the actual occurrence of an event can by itself, at least in principle, constitute good evidence that it was not morally wrong for God to allow events of the k…
The Mathematics of Desert: Merit, Fit, and Well-Being
Here, we argue for a mathematical equation that captures desert. Our procedure consists of setting out principles that a correct equation must satisfy and then arguing that our set of equations satisfies them. We then consider two objections to the equation. First, an objector might argue that desert and well-being separately contribute to intrinsic goodness, and they do not separately contribute. The concern here is that our equations treat them…
Afterthoughts
Analyzing Sterba’s argument
The experiences of cancer patients within the material hospital environment: Three ways that materiality is affective
Security and Immigration: What Is the State’s Duty Under God
In recent statements, the Episcopal and Methodist bishops conflate the church’s mission, which is to offer salvation and ministry to all in need, with the state’s divinely ordained mandate, which is to protect its population and enforce the law. The institutional church, including evangelicals, should be cautious about promoting legislative proposals as part of a larger agenda of political coalition building. Churches might more charitably and he…
Transcript: A Christian Dialogue on Immigration and Security
The government’s primary responsibility is to protect the people over which it has jurisdiction, and that includes enforcing the borders and having immigration laws that can be upheld justly and compassionately. One panelist emphasizes securing the border. Other panelists promote a multi‐faceted approach; the US cannot simply secure the border and not address the reasons people migrate to the US, including economic disparity issues. The governmen…
Knowledge of God (Great Debates in Philosophy)
Is belief in God justified? That's the fundamental question at the heart of this book. Alvin Plantinga and Michael Tooley each tackle the matter with distinctive arguments from opposing perspectives. The book opens with an explanation of the philosophers' viewpoints, followed by a lively debate in which each directly responds to the other's arguments
Time, tense, and causation
La natura del tempo
Laws of Nature
Causes and Coincidences
The Argument From Evil
The problem that suffering and other evils pose for the rationality of belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, and morally perfect person has been the focus of intense discussion for a long time. The main thing that I want to do here is to consider whether recent discussions have significantly advanced our understanding of the underlying issues. I believe that they have, and I shall try to indicate the ways in which that is so. The structure of my d…
Causation and Universals
Journal Article Book Reviews Get access Causation and Universal. By Evan Fales. (London and New York: Routledge, 1990. Pp. xxii + 362. Price £35.00.)The Secret Connexion: Causation, Realism, and David Hume. By Galen Strawson. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. Pp. xiv + 291. Price £32.50.)Causation: A Realist Approach. By Michael Tooley. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988. Pp. xiv + 360. Price £32.50.) E.J. Lowe E.J. Lowe University of Durham Search for…
Causation: A Realist Approach
Causation: A Realist Approach
Causation: Reductionism Versus Realism
Any adequate approach to causation must provide accounts of causal laws, and of causal relations between states of affairs, or events, and, in each case, one is confronted with the choice between reductionism and realism. With respect to causal laws, the relevant issue concerns the relation between causal laws and the totality of events. According to reductionism, causal laws are supervenient upon the total history of the world. According to real…
Causation: A Realist Approach
Tooley's Immodest Proposal
Sommers takes strong issue with the thesis of Michael Tooley's book, Abortion and Infanticide (New York: Oxford University Press; 1984)--that there is nothing seriously wrong with painlessly killing human infants, even those that are healthy and normal. She reviews Tooley's arguments about what constitutes personhood and his contention that human infants first become "quasi-persons" at the age of three months, then recommmends that opponents of i…
Gertrude Jekyll, Artist, Gardener, Craftswoman: A Collection of Essays
Abortion and Infanticide
The Nature of Laws
This paper is concerned with the question of the truth conditions of nomological statements. My fundamental thesis is that it is possible to set out an acceptable, non Circular account of the truth conditions of laws and nomological statements if and only if relations among universals — that is, among properties and relations, construed realistically — are taken as the truth-makers for such statements. My discussion will be restricted to strictly…
Causation: Reductionism Versus Realism
Any adequate approach to causation must provide accounts of causal laws, and of causal relations between states of affairs, or events, and, in each case, one is confronted with the choice between reductionism and realism. With respect to causal laws, the relevant issue concerns the relation between causal laws and the totality of events. According to reductionism, causal laws are supervenient upon the total history of the world. According to real…
The Argument From Evil
The problem that suffering and other evils pose for the rationality of belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, and morally perfect person has been the focus of intense discussion for a long time. The main thing that I want to do here is to consider whether recent discussions have significantly advanced our understanding of the underlying issues. I believe that they have, and I shall try to indicate the ways in which that is so. The structure of my d…
The experiences of cancer patients within the material hospital environment: Three ways that materiality is affective
Time, tense, and causation
Causation: A Realist Approach
Do Religious Claims Make Sense
Rights and Wrongs of Abortion: A Philosophy and Public Affairs Reader
John Hick and the Concept of Eschatological Verification
Many philosophers have claimed that theological statements, if taken as referring to something transcending the world of human experience, are devoid of factual content. They may be meaningful in other ways, but they cannot function to describe anything, to say anything true or false. The two most famous defences of this view are Ayer's in chapter vi of Language, Truth, and Logic , and Flew's in his essay ‘Theology and Falsification’. 1
Value and Reality: The Philosophical Case for Theism
Preface 1. Philosophy and Religion 2. The Possibility of Metaphysics 3. Criteria of Truth 4. Mind and Body 5. Moral Judgements 6. Intuitive Conviction as Evidence in Religion 7. Metaphysical Arguments for the Existence of God 8. Moral Arguments for God 9. The Problem of Evil 10. The Problem of Freedom 11. God and Man: Further Points
The Nature of Laws
This paper is concerned with the question of the truth conditions of nomological statements. My fundamental thesis is that it is possible to set out an acceptable, non Circular account of the truth conditions of laws and nomological statements if and only if relations among universals — that is, among properties and relations, construed realistically — are taken as the truth-makers for such statements. My discussion will be restricted to strictly…
Tooley's Immodest Proposal
Sommers takes strong issue with the thesis of Michael Tooley's book, Abortion and Infanticide (New York: Oxford University Press; 1984)--that there is nothing seriously wrong with painlessly killing human infants, even those that are healthy and normal. She reviews Tooley's arguments about what constitutes personhood and his contention that human infants first become "quasi-persons" at the age of three months, then recommmends that opponents of i…
Gertrude Jekyll, Artist, Gardener, Craftswoman: A Collection of Essays
Abortion and Infanticide
Causation: A Realist Approach
Causation: A Realist Approach
Causation: A Realist Approach
Causation: Reductionism Versus Realism
Any adequate approach to causation must provide accounts of causal laws, and of causal relations between states of affairs, or events, and, in each case, one is confronted with the choice between reductionism and realism. With respect to causal laws, the relevant issue concerns the relation between causal laws and the totality of events. According to reductionism, causal laws are supervenient upon the total history of the world. According to real…
The Argument From Evil
The problem that suffering and other evils pose for the rationality of belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, and morally perfect person has been the focus of intense discussion for a long time. The main thing that I want to do here is to consider whether recent discussions have significantly advanced our understanding of the underlying issues. I believe that they have, and I shall try to indicate the ways in which that is so. The structure of my d…
Causation and Universals
Journal Article Book Reviews Get access Causation and Universal. By Evan Fales. (London and New York: Routledge, 1990. Pp. xxii + 362. Price £35.00.)The Secret Connexion: Causation, Realism, and David Hume. By Galen Strawson. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. Pp. xiv + 291. Price £32.50.)Causation: A Realist Approach. By Michael Tooley. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988. Pp. xiv + 360. Price £32.50.) E.J. Lowe E.J. Lowe University of Durham Search for…
Causes and Coincidences
Laws of Nature
La natura del tempo
Time, tense, and causation
Knowledge of God (Great Debates in Philosophy)
Is belief in God justified? That's the fundamental question at the heart of this book. Alvin Plantinga and Michael Tooley each tackle the matter with distinctive arguments from opposing perspectives. The book opens with an explanation of the philosophers' viewpoints, followed by a lively debate in which each directly responds to the other's arguments
Security and Immigration: What Is the State’s Duty Under God
In recent statements, the Episcopal and Methodist bishops conflate the church’s mission, which is to offer salvation and ministry to all in need, with the state’s divinely ordained mandate, which is to protect its population and enforce the law. The institutional church, including evangelicals, should be cautious about promoting legislative proposals as part of a larger agenda of political coalition building. Churches might more charitably and he…
Transcript: A Christian Dialogue on Immigration and Security
The government’s primary responsibility is to protect the people over which it has jurisdiction, and that includes enforcing the borders and having immigration laws that can be upheld justly and compassionately. One panelist emphasizes securing the border. Other panelists promote a multi‐faceted approach; the US cannot simply secure the border and not address the reasons people migrate to the US, including economic disparity issues. The governmen…
Afterthoughts
Analyzing Sterba’s argument
The experiences of cancer patients within the material hospital environment: Three ways that materiality is affective
The Mathematics of Desert: Merit, Fit, and Well-Being
Here, we argue for a mathematical equation that captures desert. Our procedure consists of setting out principles that a correct equation must satisfy and then arguing that our set of equations satisfies them. We then consider two objections to the equation. First, an objector might argue that desert and well-being separately contribute to intrinsic goodness, and they do not separately contribute. The concern here is that our equations treat them…
Epistemology (19 works) · Philosophy (18 works) · Analytic philosophy (6 works) · Causation (6 works) · Contemporary philosophy (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Theology and Philosophy of Evil (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Philosophy and Theoretical Science (5 works) · Philosophy of religion (5 works)