Michael Rea
Biographic Data
| ID | 4281702 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael Rea |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael |
| FAMILY NAME | Rea |
| SIGNATURE | REA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Notre Dame |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1820-037X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 24 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Epistemic authenticity
There are better and worse ways to acquire epistemic virtues and more generally to be disposed to change or maintain one's epistemic dispositions over time. This is a dimension along which one might be better or worse as an epistemic agent that, we argue, cannot be explained with reference to current normative categories in epistemology but requires recognition of a new norm or virtue—namely, “epistemic authenticity”—which is the central virtue i…
Beauty is a social property
The ontology of beauty has been relatively neglected in both metaphysics and aesthetics over the past century or more, and nowhere more than in the literature devoted to feminist critique of contemporary beauty ideals. Superficially, this is puzzling. In this paper, I explain why the omission makes sense, and I argue for the conclusion that beauty is a contextually conferred social property. Central to my argument is the claim that this conceptio…
Self-annihilation in Marguerite Porete
This article critically engages Christina Van Dyke's interpretation of ‘annihilation’ in Marguerite Porete's Mirror of Simple Souls . Van Dyke's interpretation – well in accord with the consensus line among Porete scholars – emphasizes the alienness of Porete's understanding of union with God, and so seemingly guts the challenge of Porete's text. In other words, if Porete is saying what Van Dyke takes her to be saying, it is no wonder that anyone…
The Metaphysics of the Narrative Self
This essay develops a theory of identities, selves, and ‘the self’ that both explains the sense in which selves are narratively constituted and also explains how the self relates to a person's individual autobiographical identity and to their various social identities. I argue that identities are the contents of narratively structured representations, some of which are hosted individually and are autobiographical in form, and others of which are …
Hopeful universalism
This article argues against the rationality of ‘hopeful universalism’, the components of which include the unconditional considered hope that soteriological universalism is true, and an absence of belief that it is true. Some proponents maintain that there is simply not enough evidence to affirm or deny universalism; others believe that it is probably false but nonetheless hope they are mistaken. This article argues that worshippers of God who ma…
Voices from the Edge: Centring Marginalized Perspectives in Analytic Theology
Over the past several decades, scholars working in biblical, theological, and religious studies have increasingly attended to the substantive ways that our experiences and understanding of God and God’s relation to the world are structured by our experiences and concepts of race, gender, disability, and sexuality. These personal and social identities and their intersections serve as a hermeneutical lens for our interpretations of God, self, the o…
Voices from the Edge: Centering Marginalized Perspectives in Analytic Theology
Hiddenness and Transcendence
Following on from Chapter 3, which described a continuum on which characterizations of divine transcendence generally fall, this chapter makes a case for avoiding both poles, thus locating the correct understanding of transcendence somewhere in between. Rather than advocating for a specific analysis of transcendence, however, the chapter aims to identify several consequences of a theologically adequate understanding of divine transcendence, follo…
The Hiddenness of God
Gender as a divine attribute
It is standard within the Christian tradition to characterize God in predominantly masculine terms. Let ‘traditionalism’ refer to the view that this pattern of characterization is theologically mandatory. In this article, I seek to undercut the main motivations for traditionalism by showing that it is not more accurate to characterize God as masculine rather than feminine (or vice versa). The novelty of my argument lies in the fact that it presup…
Metaphysics: The Basics
Metaphysics: The Basics is a concise and engaging introduction to the philosophical study of the world and universe in which we live. Concerned with questions about reality, existence, time, identity and change, metaphysics has long fascinated people but to the uninitiated some of the issues and problems can appear very complex. In this lively and lucid book, Michael Rea examines and explains key questions in the study of metaphysics such as: Can…
Hylomorphism and the incarnation1
This chapter offers a model of the incarnation that incorporates two central features of Aristotelian metaphysics which have elsewhere been deployed in solving the so—called Logical Problem of the Trinity: i a hylomorphic understanding of material objects and, by analogy, the divine persons, and ii a doctrine of numerical sameness without identity. The model that is offered ties in with and extends what that is taken to be the most philosophicall…
Hylomorphism Reconditioned1: Hylomorphism Reconditioned
The Trinity
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Theology
I. THEOLOGICAL PROLEGOMENA II. DIVINE ATTRIBUTES III. GOD AND CREATION IV. TOPICS IN CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY V. NON-CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY
An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion
An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion provides a broad overview of the topics which are at the forefront of discussion in contemporary philosophy of religion. Prominent views and arguments from both historical and contemporary authors are discussed and analyzed. The book treats all of the central topics in the field, including the coherence of the divine attributes, theistic and atheistic arguments, faith and reason, religion and ethics, …
Hyperspace and The Best World Problem: A Reply To Hud Hudson
Lynne Baker on Material Constitution
Constitution and Kind Membership
Personal Identity and Psychological Continuity
In a recent article, Trenton Mericks argues that psychological continuity analyses (PCanalyses) of personal identity over time are incompatible with endurantism. We contend that if Merricks's argument is valid, a parallel argument establishes that PC-analyses of personal identity are incompatible with perdurantism; hence, the correct conclusion to draw is simply that such analyses are all necessarily false. However, we also show that there is goo…
Sameness without Identity: An Aristotelian Solution to the Problem of Material Constitution
In this paper, I present an Aristotelian solution to the problem of material constitution. The problem of material constitution arises whenever it appears that an object a and an object b share all of the same parts and yet are essentially related to their parts in different ways. (A familiar example: A lump of bronze constitutes a statue of Athena. The lump and the statue share all of the same parts, but it appears that the lump can, whereas the…
Temporal Parts Unmotivated
In debate about the nature of persistence over time, the view that material objects endure has played the role of champion and the view that they perdure has played the role of challenger.' As in other contests, the champion's job is merely to defend her title, whereas the challenger's job is to prove herself worthy. I have no view about how these roles came to be assigned; but the historical fact is that perdurantists have traditionally borne th…
In Defense of Mereological Universalism
The Problem of Material Constitution
There are various puzzles that set our intuitions about composition and identity against one another. Four that are particularly well known are the Growing Argument (also known as the Paradox of Increase), the Ship of Theseus Puzzle, the Body-minus Argument (usually presented by way of Peter Geach's story about Tibbles the cat), and Allan Gibbard's puzzle about Lumpl and Goliath (a piece of clay and a statue, respectively). Such puzzles have rece…
Hylomorphism Reconditioned1: Hylomorphism Reconditioned
In Defense of Mereological Universalism
Temporal Parts Unmotivated
In debate about the nature of persistence over time, the view that material objects endure has played the role of champion and the view that they perdure has played the role of challenger.' As in other contests, the champion's job is merely to defend her title, whereas the challenger's job is to prove herself worthy. I have no view about how these roles came to be assigned; but the historical fact is that perdurantists have traditionally borne th…
The Problem of Material Constitution
There are various puzzles that set our intuitions about composition and identity against one another. Four that are particularly well known are the Growing Argument (also known as the Paradox of Increase), the Ship of Theseus Puzzle, the Body-minus Argument (usually presented by way of Peter Geach's story about Tibbles the cat), and Allan Gibbard's puzzle about Lumpl and Goliath (a piece of clay and a statue, respectively). Such puzzles have rece…
Lynne Baker on Material Constitution
Personal Identity and Psychological Continuity
In a recent article, Trenton Mericks argues that psychological continuity analyses (PCanalyses) of personal identity over time are incompatible with endurantism. We contend that if Merricks's argument is valid, a parallel argument establishes that PC-analyses of personal identity are incompatible with perdurantism; hence, the correct conclusion to draw is simply that such analyses are all necessarily false. However, we also show that there is goo…
The Problem of Material Constitution
There are various puzzles that set our intuitions about composition and identity against one another. Four that are particularly well known are the Growing Argument (also known as the Paradox of Increase), the Ship of Theseus Puzzle, the Body-minus Argument (usually presented by way of Peter Geach's story about Tibbles the cat), and Allan Gibbard's puzzle about Lumpl and Goliath (a piece of clay and a statue, respectively). Such puzzles have rece…
Sameness without Identity: An Aristotelian Solution to the Problem of Material Constitution
In this paper, I present an Aristotelian solution to the problem of material constitution. The problem of material constitution arises whenever it appears that an object a and an object b share all of the same parts and yet are essentially related to their parts in different ways. (A familiar example: A lump of bronze constitutes a statue of Athena. The lump and the statue share all of the same parts, but it appears that the lump can, whereas the…
Temporal Parts Unmotivated
In debate about the nature of persistence over time, the view that material objects endure has played the role of champion and the view that they perdure has played the role of challenger.' As in other contests, the champion's job is merely to defend her title, whereas the challenger's job is to prove herself worthy. I have no view about how these roles came to be assigned; but the historical fact is that perdurantists have traditionally borne th…
In Defense of Mereological Universalism
Constitution and Kind Membership
Personal Identity and Psychological Continuity
In a recent article, Trenton Mericks argues that psychological continuity analyses (PCanalyses) of personal identity over time are incompatible with endurantism. We contend that if Merricks's argument is valid, a parallel argument establishes that PC-analyses of personal identity are incompatible with perdurantism; hence, the correct conclusion to draw is simply that such analyses are all necessarily false. However, we also show that there is goo…
Lynne Baker on Material Constitution
An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion
An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion provides a broad overview of the topics which are at the forefront of discussion in contemporary philosophy of religion. Prominent views and arguments from both historical and contemporary authors are discussed and analyzed. The book treats all of the central topics in the field, including the coherence of the divine attributes, theistic and atheistic arguments, faith and reason, religion and ethics, …
Hyperspace and The Best World Problem: A Reply To Hud Hudson
The Trinity
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Theology
I. THEOLOGICAL PROLEGOMENA II. DIVINE ATTRIBUTES III. GOD AND CREATION IV. TOPICS IN CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY V. NON-CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY
Hylomorphism and the incarnation1
This chapter offers a model of the incarnation that incorporates two central features of Aristotelian metaphysics which have elsewhere been deployed in solving the so—called Logical Problem of the Trinity: i a hylomorphic understanding of material objects and, by analogy, the divine persons, and ii a doctrine of numerical sameness without identity. The model that is offered ties in with and extends what that is taken to be the most philosophicall…
Hylomorphism Reconditioned1: Hylomorphism Reconditioned
Metaphysics: The Basics
Metaphysics: The Basics is a concise and engaging introduction to the philosophical study of the world and universe in which we live. Concerned with questions about reality, existence, time, identity and change, metaphysics has long fascinated people but to the uninitiated some of the issues and problems can appear very complex. In this lively and lucid book, Michael Rea examines and explains key questions in the study of metaphysics such as: Can…
Gender as a divine attribute
It is standard within the Christian tradition to characterize God in predominantly masculine terms. Let ‘traditionalism’ refer to the view that this pattern of characterization is theologically mandatory. In this article, I seek to undercut the main motivations for traditionalism by showing that it is not more accurate to characterize God as masculine rather than feminine (or vice versa). The novelty of my argument lies in the fact that it presup…
Hiddenness and Transcendence
Following on from Chapter 3, which described a continuum on which characterizations of divine transcendence generally fall, this chapter makes a case for avoiding both poles, thus locating the correct understanding of transcendence somewhere in between. Rather than advocating for a specific analysis of transcendence, however, the chapter aims to identify several consequences of a theologically adequate understanding of divine transcendence, follo…
The Hiddenness of God
Voices from the Edge: Centring Marginalized Perspectives in Analytic Theology
Over the past several decades, scholars working in biblical, theological, and religious studies have increasingly attended to the substantive ways that our experiences and understanding of God and God’s relation to the world are structured by our experiences and concepts of race, gender, disability, and sexuality. These personal and social identities and their intersections serve as a hermeneutical lens for our interpretations of God, self, the o…
Voices from the Edge: Centering Marginalized Perspectives in Analytic Theology
The Metaphysics of the Narrative Self
This essay develops a theory of identities, selves, and ‘the self’ that both explains the sense in which selves are narratively constituted and also explains how the self relates to a person's individual autobiographical identity and to their various social identities. I argue that identities are the contents of narratively structured representations, some of which are hosted individually and are autobiographical in form, and others of which are …
Hopeful universalism
This article argues against the rationality of ‘hopeful universalism’, the components of which include the unconditional considered hope that soteriological universalism is true, and an absence of belief that it is true. Some proponents maintain that there is simply not enough evidence to affirm or deny universalism; others believe that it is probably false but nonetheless hope they are mistaken. This article argues that worshippers of God who ma…
Self-annihilation in Marguerite Porete
This article critically engages Christina Van Dyke's interpretation of ‘annihilation’ in Marguerite Porete's Mirror of Simple Souls . Van Dyke's interpretation – well in accord with the consensus line among Porete scholars – emphasizes the alienness of Porete's understanding of union with God, and so seemingly guts the challenge of Porete's text. In other words, if Porete is saying what Van Dyke takes her to be saying, it is no wonder that anyone…
Epistemic authenticity
There are better and worse ways to acquire epistemic virtues and more generally to be disposed to change or maintain one's epistemic dispositions over time. This is a dimension along which one might be better or worse as an epistemic agent that, we argue, cannot be explained with reference to current normative categories in epistemology but requires recognition of a new norm or virtue—namely, “epistemic authenticity”—which is the central virtue i…
Beauty is a social property
The ontology of beauty has been relatively neglected in both metaphysics and aesthetics over the past century or more, and nowhere more than in the literature devoted to feminist critique of contemporary beauty ideals. Superficially, this is puzzling. In this paper, I explain why the omission makes sense, and I argue for the conclusion that beauty is a contextually conferred social property. Central to my argument is the claim that this conceptio…
Philosophy (20 works) · Epistemology (17 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Theology (8 works) · Aesthetics (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Argument (complex analysis) (5 works) · Philosophy and Theoretical Science (5 works)