The Infinite Regress Step of Cosmological Arguments

Arguments for the existence of God purporting to show that there must have been a creator ex nihilo, first mover, or ultimate sustainer of physical reality all share a step that the particular sort of infinite regress that there would otherwise be is a metaphysical impossibility. I will here defend one particular kind of "no infinite regress" premise, although I don't think it goes very far in buttressing even the species of cosmological argument that can claim this true premise.

Deceptive Truth: Kant, Sandel, & Bill Clinton

Occasioned by the suggestion of Sandel that it may sometimes be morally permissible to deceive people, so long as you do so without lying, I here examine such alleged truths as “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” After setting up the issues in Section 1, in Sections 2-4 I examine questions of language, communication, and truthfulness in assessing whether candidate deceptive truths really are true. These sections require little if any prior familiarity in the area. The fifth section, however, probably will be hard to follow unless you have some acquaintance with Kant’s ethics. Lacking that, you still may well be able to follow the Sections 6-8, and the final section on the Clinton impeachment has no prerequisites.

A Notice Theory of Just Punishment

Here is a draft of a long simmering paper examining the circumstances in which the offender's knowing that he would be subject to a severe penalty before electing to commit a crime makes just the imposition of that penalty.

Is the Moving Now an Illusion if God is Omniscient?

Could it be that what is, for better or worse, called “the moving now” is an illusion, or, to put it a little more cautiously, could it be that at the deepest level description of reality there is no point in time that has the special status that we think this very moment has?

One widely held form of theism is committed to the  proposition. It is a usually unnoticed corollary of the combination of two widely held theological positions.