Curriculum Vitae
Alexander R. Pruss
November, 2024
Department of Philosophy
Born January 5, 1973. Canadian citizen and permanent U.S. resident. Married. Three children.
Ph.D., Philosophy,
Dissertation title: Possible Worlds: What They Are Good For and What They Are, advised by Nicholas Rescher
Ph.D., Mathematics,
Dissertation title: Symmetrization, Green’s Functions, Harmonic Measures and Difference Equations, advised by John J. F. Fournier
B.Sc. (hon.), Mathematics and Physics,
2013- : Professor (tenured),
Department of Philosophy,
2007-2013: Associate Professor
(tenured), Department of Philosophy,
2006-2007: Associate Professor
(tenured), Department of Philosophy,
2003-2007: Faculty in Residence to the Culture and Performance Living and Learning Community, Georgetown University
2001-2006: Assistant Professor
(tenure-track), Department of Philosophy,
Aquinas Medalist, American Catholic Philosophical Association (2025)
Wilde Lecturer in Natural and
Comparative Religion,
Outstanding Tenured Faculty Research
Award,
Junior Faculty Fellowship (Fall 2005)
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend (2002)
Living and Learning Community Advisor of the Year Award from Georgetown University Residence Life (2006 and 2007; the Culture and Performance community that I advised itself received a Community of the Year Award in 2006)
Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of
Fellowship to attend week-long workshop
on the historical Jesus,
Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship (1996–1997)
The Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Predoctoral Fellowship (1995–1996)
First Prize in Judaic Seminar’s Purim Essay Contest (1994)
W. Reymont Foundation Scholarship (1991–1992)
Mackenzie King Open Scholarship (1991;
one awarded in all of
The “1967” National Sciences and Engineering Research Council Graduate Scholarship (1991–1995)
Infinity,
Causation and Paradox,
with Joshua Rasmussen, Necessary Existence,
One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics, Notre Dame University Press, 2012
Actuality, Possibility and Worlds, Continuum, 2011
The Principle of Sufficient Reason:
A Reassessment,
with Richard M. Gale (eds.), The
Existence of God, with 30,000 word introduction, International Research
Library of Philosophy,
with
Levi Durham, “How infinitely valuable could a person be”, Philosophia, forthcoming
“An
alternative to the privation theory of evil”, Faith and Philosophy, forthcoming
“Two
theories of divine conservation”, Proceedings
of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, forthcoming
“The
dialectics of accuracy arguments for probabilism”, Synthese 201 (2023)
“Strict
dominance and symmetry”, Philosophical
Studies 180 (2023) 1017–1029
“Necessary
and sufficient conditions for domination results for proper scoring rules”, Review of Symbolic Logic, online
publication date 2023
“Accuracy,
probabilism and Bayesian update in infinite domains”, Synthese 200
(2022)
“Ineffability
and creation”,
“A
classical way forward for the regularity and normalization problems”, Synthese 199 (2021) 11769–11792
“Non-classical
probabilities invariant under symmetries”, Synthese
199 (2021) 8507–8532
with
Andrew Bailey, “Human beings among the beasts”, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 102 (2021) 455–467
“Sexuality
as secularly sacred”, in:
“Avoiding
Dutch Books despite inconsistent credences”, Synthese 198
(2021): 11265–11289
“Underdetermination of infinitesimal probabilities”, Synthese 198 (2021): 777–799
with
Robert C. Koons, “Skepticism and the Principle of Sufficient Reason”, Philosophical Studies 178 (2021): 1079–1099
“The
cosmos as a work of art: A skeptical theist approach that isn’t too skeptical”,
Proceedings of American Catholic
Philosophical Association 94
(2020) 205–213
“Might
all infinities be the same size?”, Australasian
Journal of Philosophy 98
(2020): 604–617
with
Hilary Yancey, “Privation in the problem of evil: Impairment, health,
wellbeing, and a case of humans and betazoids”,
with
Ross Inman, “On Christian theism and unrestricted composition”, American Philosophical Quarterly 56 (2019) 345-360
“Conditionals
and conditional probabilities without triviality”, Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 60 (2019) 551-558
“Counseling
lesser and proportionate evils: A principled defense”, Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 92 (2018) 151–160
with
Calum Miller, “Human organisms begin to exist at fertilization”, Bioethics 31 (2017) 534-542
“An
open infinite future is impossible”, Faith
and Philosophy 33 (2016) 461-464
“The
Principle of Sufficient Reason and probability”,
“Being
sure and being confident that you won't lose confidence”, Logos & Episteme 7
(2016) 45-54
“Divine
creative freedom”,
“Possibility
is not consistency”, Philosophical
Studies 172 (2015) 2341-2348
“Popper
functions, uniform distributions and infinite sequences of heads”, Journal of Philosophical Logic 44 (2015) 259–271
with
Joshua Rasmussen, “Problems with plurals”,
with
Joshua Rasmussen, “Time without creation?”, Faith
and Philosophy 31 (2014) 401–411
“Nested
modes, ‘qua’ and the Incarnation”, European Journal for the Philosophy of
Religion 6 (2014)
“Regular
probability comparisons imply the Banach-Tarski Paradox”, Synthese 191 (2014)
3525-3540
“Independent
tests and the log-likelihood-ratio measure of confirmation”, Thought 3 (2014) 124-135
with
Joshua Rasmussen, “Explaining counterfactuals of freedom”, Religious Studies 50
(2014) 193-198
“Infinitesimals
are too small for countably infinite fair lotteries”, Synthese 191 (2014)
1051-1057
with
Trent Dougherty, “Evil and the problem of anomaly”, in Jonathan L. Kvanvig
(ed.),
“Aristotelian
forms and laws of nature”, Analysis and
Existence 24 (2013) 115-132
“Incompatibilism
proved”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy
43 (2013) 430–437
“Null
probability, dominance and rotation”, Analysis
73 (2013) 682–685
“Probability,
regularity and cardinality”, Philosophy of
Science 80 (2013) 231–240
“Omnipresence,
multilocation, the real presence and time travel”, Journal of Analytic Theology 1
(2013) 60–73
“The
accomplishment of plans: A new version of the Principle of Double Effect”, Philosophical Studies 165 (2013) 49–69
“Omnirationality”,
Res Philosophica 90 (2013) 1–21
“Infinite
lotteries, perfectly thin darts and infinitesimals”, Thought 1 (2012) 81–89
“Conditional
probabilities”, Analysis 72 (2012) 488–491
with
Kenneth L. Pearce, “Understanding omnipotence”, Religious Studies 48
(2012) 403–414
“The
badness of being certain of a falsehood is at least 1/(log 4 – 1) times greater
than the value of being certain of a truth”, Logos & Episteme 3
(2012) 229–238
“A counterexample to Plantinga’s Free Will
Defense”, Faith and Philosophy 29 (2012) 400–415
“Sincerely
asserting what you do not believe”, Australasian
Journal of Philosophy 90 (2012)
541–546
“A
deflationary theory of diachronic identity”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 90 (2012) 19–37
“A new
way to reconcile creation with current evolutionary science”, Proceedings of the American Catholic
Philosophical Association 85
(2011) 213–222
“Lies
and dishonest endorsements”, Proceedings
of the American Catholic Philosophical
Association 84 (2010) 213-222
“From
restricted to full omniscience”, Religious
Studies 47 (2011) 257-264
“The
A-theory of time and induction”, Philosophical
Studies 152 (2011) 335-345
“Probability
and the open future view”, Faith and
Philosophy 27 (2010) 190-196
“The ontological
argument and the motivational centers of lives”, Religious Studies 46
(2010) 233-249
“A
Gödelian ontological argument improved”, Religious
Studies 45 (2009) 347-353
“Another
step in divine command dialectics”, Faith
and Philosophy 26 (2009) 432-439
“The
essential divine perfection objection to the free will defense”, Religious Studies 44 (2008) 433-444
“Toner
on judgment and eternalism”, Faith and Philosophy 25 (2008)
“How
not to reconcile the creation of human beings with evolution”, Philosophia
Christi 9 (2007) 145-163
“Prophecy without middle knowledge”, Faith and Philosophy 24 (2007) 433-457
“Conjunctions, disjunctions and Lewisian semantics for counterfactuals”, Synthese 156 (2007) 33-52
“Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit: Arguments
new and old for the Principle of Sufficient Reason”, in: J. Campbell, M.
O’Rourke and H. Silverstein (eds.), Causation and Explanation,
“A restricted Principle of Sufficient Reason and the Cosmological Argument”, Religious Studies 40 (2004) 165–179
“David Lewis’s counterfactual arrow of time”, Noûs 37 (2003) 606–637
“A new free will defense”, Religious Studies 39 (2003) 211–233
“Post’s critiques of omniscience and of talk of ‘all true propositions’”, Philo 6 (2003) 49–58 (special issue in honor of Richard M. Gale)
“Not out of lust but in accordance with truth: Theological and philosophical reflections on sexuality and reality”, Logos 6 (2003) 51–80
with Richard M. Gale, “A response to Almeida and Judisch”, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 53 (2003) 65–72
“Christian faith and belief”, Faith and Philosophy 19 (2002) 291–303
“Śaṃkara’s principle and two ontomystical arguments”, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 49 (2001) 111–120
“The cardinality objection to David Lewis’s modal realism”, Philosophical Studies 104 (2001) 167–176
“Christian sexual ethics and teleological organicity”, The Thomist 64 (2000) 71–100
with Richard M. Gale, “A new cosmological argument”, Religious Studies 35 (1999) 461–476; reprinted in Richard M. Gale and Alexander R. Pruss (eds.), The Existence of God
“Professor Lucas’ second epistemic way”, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 45 (1999) 189–194
“Lying and speaking your interlocutor’s language”, The Thomist 63 (1999) 439–453
“Leibniz’s approach to individuation and Strawson’s criticisms”, Studia Leibnitiana 30 (1998) 116–123
“The Hume-Edwards Principle and the Cosmological Argument”, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 43 (1998) 149–165; reprinted in Richard M. Gale and Alexander R. Pruss (eds.), The Existence of God
“Some arguments for divine simplicity”, in: Classical Theism: New Essays on the Metaphysics of God, J. Fuqua and R. C. Koons (eds.), Routledge, 2023
“Fatalism and some varieties of
contrastive explanation”, in: Theological
Determinism, P. Furlong and L. Vicens (eds.),
“Evolution and creation: Best-fit probabilities and omnirationality to the rescue”, in: Neo-Aristotelian Metaphysics and the Theology of Nature, W. Simpson, R. C. Koons, and J. Orr (eds.), Routledge, 2022
“A traveling forms interpretation of
Quantum Mechanics”, in: Neo-Aristotelian
Perspectives on Contemporary Science, W. Simpson, R. C. Koons and
“Gödelian ontological arguments”, in: Ontological Arguments, Graham Oppy
(ed.),
“Sceptical Theism, the Butterfly Effect and bracketing the unknown”, Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements 81 (2018) 71–86
with Robert Koons, “Must
functionalists be Aristotelians?” in: Causal
Powers, Jonathan Jacobs (ed.),
“Counterfactuals,
Vagueness and God”, in: Two Dozen (or so)
Arguments for God: The Plantinga Project, Jerry L. Walls and Trent
Dougherty (eds.),
“One Body: Overview”, Annals of Philosophy 63 (2015) 7-19
“One Body: Responses to Critics”, Annals of Philosophy 63 (2015) 155-175
“The
first sin: A dilemma for Christian determinists”, in: D. Alexander and D.
Johnson (eds.), Calvinism and the Problem
of Evil, Wipf and Stock, 2016
“The
divine belief theory of truth: Might it work?” in: M. Szatkowski (ed.), God, Truth, and Other Enigmas, de
Gruyter: Berlin/Munich/Boston, 2015, pp. 141-151.
with W.
A. Wallace, “Cosmological Argument”, New
Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012-13: Ethics and Philosophy, Gale
Publishing, 2013
“A Gödelian ontological argument improved even
more”, in: M. Szatkowski (ed.), Ontological
Proofs Today, Ontos Verlag, 2012, pp. 203-211
“I was
once a fetus: That is why abortion is wrong” (expanded version), in: S. Napier
(ed.), Persons, Moral Worth, and Embryos:
A Critical Analysis of Pro-Choice Arguments from Philosophy, Law, and Science,
Springer, 2011, pp. 19-42
“From
love to union as one body”, in: H. Watt (ed.), Fertility & Gender, Anscombe Bioethics Centre, 2011
“Some
recent progress on the cosmological argument”, in: K. Timpe (ed.), Arguing about Religion, Routledge, 2009
“Altruism,
normalcy and God”, in: S. Coakley and M. Nowak (eds.), Evolution, Games, and God,
“Brower
and Rea’s constitution account of the Trinity”, in: T. McCall and M. Rea
(eds.), Philosophical and Theological
Essays on the Trinity,
“Leibnizian
cosmological arguments”, in: W. L. Craig and J. P. Moreland (eds.), Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology,
“The
Eucharist: Real presence and real absence”, in: Thomas Flint and Michael Rae
(eds.), Oxford Handbook of Philosophical
Theology,
“Programs,
bugs, DNA and a design argument”, in: Y. Nagasawa and
“Complicity,
fetal tissue, and vaccines”, National
Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 6
(2006) 461–470
“Ultimate explanations”, Contemporary Pragmatism 2 (2005) 35–48
with Richard M.
Gale, “Cosmological and design arguments”, in: William J. Wainwright (ed.), Oxford
Handbook of Philosophy of Religion,
“The actual and
the possible”, in: Richard M. Gale (ed.), Blackwell Guide to Metaphysics,
“Correction: Non-Classical Probabilities Invariant
Under Symmetries”, Synthese 200 (2022)
“Erratum for ‘Conditionals and conditional
probabilities without triviality’”, Notre
Dame Journal of Formal Logic 61
(2020) 501
“The need for human nature”, Sapientia, May 15, 2020,
https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/2020/05/the-need-for-human-nature/
with John Norton, “Correction to John D. Norton
‘How to Build an Infinite Lottery Machine’”, European Journal for Philosophy of Science 8 (2018) 143–144
with Christopher Tollefsen, “The case against false
assertion”, First Things: On The Square,
2011
<http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/09/the-case-against-false-assertions>
with
Anthony McCarthy, “Condoms and HIV transmission”, in: H. Watt (ed.), Fertility & Gender, Anscombe
Bioethics Centre, 2011
“Artificial intelligence and personal identity”, Faith and Philosophy 26 (2009)
“On two
problems of divine simplicity”, in Jonathan L. Kvanvig (ed.), Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion,
Volume 1,
“Fine and coarse tuning, normalizability and probabilistic reasoning”, Philosophia Christi 7 (2005) 405–424
“Cooperation
with past evil and use of cell-lines derived from aborted fetuses”, Linacre
Quarterly 71 (2004) 335–350; reprinted in: Helen Watt (ed.), Cooperation,
Complicity and Conscience: Problems in Healthcare, Science, Law and Public
Policy,
with Richard M.
Gale, “A Response to Oppy and to Davey and
“I was once a fetus: That is why abortion is wrong”, Life and Learning 12 (2002) 169–182
Review of Developmental Theism: From Pure Will to Unbounded Love by Peter Forrest, Mind 118 (2009) 1132–1135
Review of Arguing about Gods by Graham Oppy, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2007
Review of Why there is Something rather than Nothing by Bede Rundle, Philosophia Christi 7 (2005)
Review of Thomas Aquinas’s Trinitarian Theology: A Study in Trinitarian Method by Timothy L. Smith, Speculum, 2005
Review of Nature and Understanding: The Metaphysics and Method of Science by Nicholas Rescher, Review of Metaphysics, 2002
Review of Other Times: Philosophical Perspectives on Past, Present and Future by David Cockburn, Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review 39 (2000) 199–202
with Richard M. Gale, Review of Atheism & Theism by J.J.C. Smart and J. Haldane, Faith and Philosophy 16 (1999) 106–113
“Teleology
beyond ends”, plenary lecture, American Catholic Philosophical Association,
November, 2023
“Aquinas and Shields on regresses”, satellite
session, American Catholic Philsoophical Association, November, 2023
“God
and fine-tuning in ethics and epistemology”, satellite session, American
Catholic Philosophical Association, November, 2023
“The
value of disagreement”, Baylor Institute for Faith and Learning annual
conference, October, 2023
“Two
theories of divine conservation”, American Catholic Philosophical Association,
November 2022
“The
knowledge problem for divine simplicity”, Baylor satellite session, American
Catholic Philosophical Association, November 2022
“Three
mysteries of the concrete: Causation, mind and normativity”, Christian
Philosophy 2022, online,
“Kalaam
and Leibnizian cosmological arguments”, Bringing Contemporary Philosophy of
Religion to Latin American Scholars: Second Online Workshop, August 2022
“Conservation,
presentism and eternalism”, Space and Time summer workshop,
“Eternalism
and theology”, Space and Time summer workshop,
“Apparently
arbitrary parameters in applied ethics”, Romanell Workshop,
“Trust
in human nature”, Edith Stein Lecture,
“A
norm-based design argument”,
“Privation
and the metaphysical problem of evil”, Stapledon Colloquium,
“An
alternative to the privation theory of evil”, New Perspectives in Philosophy of
Religion,
“Defining
murder”, Bios Centre,
“The
cosmos as a work of art: A skeptical theist approach that isn’t too skeptical”,
American Catholic Philosophical Association, November 2020, presented online
“Regular
hyperreal and qualitative probabilities invariant under symmetries”,
foundations of probability working group, Princeton/Rutgers University, October
2020, presented online
“God
and beauty”, keynote, Christian Philosophy 2020 Conference,
“Secularly
arguing for the sacredness of sex”, Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project
Satellite Session, American Catholic Philosophical Association,
Panel discussion
of Masek’s Intention, Character and
Double Effect, Ohio Dominican Satellite Session, American Catholic
Philosophical Association,
“Apparently
arbitrary parameters: Morality, rationality and epistemology”, Thomistic
Institute graduate seminar,
“Might
all infinities be the same size?”, philosophy of mathematics group, Texas
A&M, October, 2019
“Might
all infinities be the same size?”, Oriel philosophy group presentation,
“God,
human nature and mathematics”, series of five presentations, Wilde Lectures in
Natural and Comparative Religion,
“Paradoxes
of infinity and the first cause argument”,
“Counseling
lesser and proportionate evils: A principled defense”, American Catholic
Philosophical Association,
“Arbitrary
parameters and ethics”, Theistic Ethics Workshop, Wakeforest University,
October, 2018
Comments
on Artificial Intelligence talks, Villefranche Meeting,
“Recent
work on the cosmological argument”, Villefranche Meeting,
“Marriage
is a natural kind”, Humanae Vitae 50
Years Later conference,
“Evolution
and creation: Frequentism and omnirationality to the rescue”, Catholic
Engagement with Philosophy of Science group session at American Catholic
Philosophical Association meeting, November, 2017
“Defeat
and compensation”, Baylor group session at American Catholic Philosophical
Association meeting, November, 2017
“Naturalism
and a new Pelagianism”, Society of Christian Philosophers Midwest Meeting,
October, 2017
“Naturalism
and a new Pelagianism”, Dominican Colloquium in
“Sceptical
theism, the butterfly effect and bracketing the unknown”, pre-read, Philosophy
of Religion Reading Group,
Panelist,
discussion of fine tuning,
“Marriage
is a natural kind”, Society of Christian Philosophers Mid-West Conference,
“Causal
finitism and the kalaam argument”, New Theists conference,
“Leibniz,
physics and teleology”, The Continuing Relevance of Leibniz conference, plenary
address, Franciscan University of Steubenville, April, 2016
“One
body”, Biola University, March, 2016
“Being
sure and being confident that you won't lose confidence”, American
Philosophical Association, Chicago, March, 2016
“Causal
finitism and the kalaam argument”, Catholic University of America, February,
2016
“Internal
ends, external ends, cheating and throwing a match”, The Spirit of Sports,
Institute of Faith and Learning conference, Baylor University, November, 2015
“Chance,
chaos and the Principle of Sufficient Reason”, plenary talk, American Catholic
Philosophical Association Annual Meeting, Boston, October, 2015
“Privative
evils: Humans and betazoids”, workshop on theism and value theory, Rutgers
University, August, 2015
“Infinity
and causation”, University of Oklahoma, April, 2015
“Probability
and God’s will”, Continuous Creation workshop, École Normale Supérieure, Paris,
December, 2014
“Evolution
and creation: Frequentism and omnirationality to the rescue”, Randomness and
Foreknowledge Conference, Dallas, TX, October, 2014
“Children
as the Fruits of Love”, Franciscan University, Steubenville, OH, October, 2014
“Is
naturalism simpler than theism?”, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Santiago,
Chile, March, 2014
“The
Principle of Sufficient Reason”, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile,
Santiago, Chile, March, 2014
“Quantifiers,
quasi-quantifiers and ordinary language”, California Metaphysics Conference,
University of Southern California, January, 2014
“Christology,
‘qua’ and tropes”, Analytic Theology Conference on Faith, Knowledge, and the
Trinity, Prague, September, 2013
(presented
by Marcin Koszowy) “The divine belief theory of truth: Might it work?”, God,
Truth and Other Enigmas Conference, Warsaw, September, 2013
“Implications
of cosmology for the philosophy of religion”, University of California at Santa
Cruz Institute for the Philosophy of Cosmology, July, 2013
“The
divine belief theory of truth: Might it work?”, Canadian Society of Christian
Philosophers, Victoria, BC, June, 2013
“Infinitesimals
don’t help”, Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science,
Victoria, BC, June, 2013
“One
body: A beginning for Christian sexual ethics”, Franciscan University of
Steubenville, Steubenville, OH, April, 2013
“The
accomplishment of plans: A new version of the Principle of Double Effect”,
consultation on Action and Intention in Moral Analysis, Princeton University,
September, 2012
“Divine creative freedom”, workshop on divine freedom, Tallahassee, March, 2012
Respondent at author-meets-critics
session for Actuality, Possibility and
Worlds, Society for Catholic and Analytical Philosophy satellite session,
American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Conference,
“A new way to reconcile creation with
current evolutionary science”, American Catholic Philosophical Association
Annual Conference,
with Trent Dougherty, “Evil and the
problem of anomaly”,
with Trent Dougherty, “Evil and the
problem of anomaly”, Baylor-Georgetown-Notre Dame Philosophy of Religion
Conference,
with Robert Koons, “Must
functionalists be Aristotelians?” Putting Powers to Work Conference,
“Aristotelian forms and laws of nature”, Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference, April, 2011
“Moorean sentences, sincerity and
norms of assertion”, Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association,
“Lies and dishonest endorsements”,
American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Conference,
“The search for ultimate explanation:
Why is there something rather than nothing?”, Workshop on Scientific
Achievement in Honor of Nicholas Rescher,
“From love to union as one body”,
Fertility, Infertility and Gender Conference of the Linacre/Anscombe Centre,
“Substance and personal identity”,
Society for Catholicism and Analytic Philosophy Satellite Session, American
Catholic Philosophical Association Meeting,
“A-Theory and induction”, Issues in Metaphysics Satellite Session, American Catholic Philosophical Association Meeting, New Orleans, November, 2009
“Substance and
personal identity”, Faculty Colloquium,
Invited participant
and panelist at Philosophy of Cosmology conference,
“Care
and union”, presentation for workshop on the work of Nicholas Wolterstorff,
with Todd Buras, “Motivating the possibility premise”, Metaphysics and Philosophy of Religion Workshop, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, March, 2009
“One body: Reflections on Christian
sexual ethics”,
“Artificial intelligence and personal
identity”, Science and Human Nature: Russian and Western Perspectives
Conference,
“Cooperating with evildoers”, Keynote Address for the Society of Christian Philosophers Eastern Division and Albert the Great Lecture of the Department of Philosophy, Niagara University, Niagara NY, April, 2008
“A new way to reconcile creation with
evolutionary biology”, Baylor Philosophy of Religion Conference,
“Identity and the copying of minds”, UTSA Philosophy Symposium, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, February, 2008
“Altruism and normalcy”, symposium on
the evolution of cooperation,
“Love and obedience”, Society of
Christian Philosophers Eastern Division,
“From intention to accomplishment”,
“Double effect in recent philosophy” (working title), American Maritain Association, satellite meeting at the Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Washington, December, 2006
“A defense of the B-theory against the intranslatability and emotional attitude arguments”, Philosophy of Time Society satellite meeting at the Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Washington, December, 2006
“Materialism and Pelagianism”, Society
of Christian Philosophers, satellite meeting at the American
“Defending the cosmological argument”,
National Faculty Leadership Conference,
“Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit: Arguments
new and old for the Principle of Sufficient Reason”, invited symposium
presentation at the Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical
Association,
“Time,
tense and language: A defense of the B-theory”,
“How
not to reconcile evolution and creation”, University of Notre Dame, March, 2006
“Conjunctions,
disjunctions and Lewisian semantics for counterfactuals”, Logic and Linguistics
Group,
“Why isn’t altruism abnormal? Contemporary cosmological and teleological arguments for the existence of God, and the evolution of altruism”, Harvard Divinity School, December, 2005
“The Jesuit Ratio Studiorum of 1599”, Joy in the Truth conference, University of Notre Dame, September, 2005
“Western Theism and Evolution”, short
paper presented to start discussion at the Philosophers in Jesuit Education
satellite meeting at the Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical
Association,
“The cosmos as a work of art”, presented at the Epiphanies of Beauty conference, University of Notre Dame, November, 2004
“Cooperation
with past evil and use of cell-lines derived from aborted fetuses”,
presented at the Center for Clinical Bioethics,
“On three problems of divine simplicity”, presented at the Society of Christian Philosophers satellite session at the American Catholic Philosophical Association annual meeting, October, 2003
“Love, deontology, and double effect”, presented at the Formation and Renewal conference, University of Notre Dame, October, 2003
“Eight tempting big-picture errors in
ethics”, presented at the Life and Learning conference,
“Fine and coarse tuning, renormalizability and probabilistic reasoning”, workshop on fine-tuning, University of Notre Dame, April, 2003
Invited commentator, conference in
honor of Richard M. Gale,
“Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit: Arguments new and old for the Principle of Sufficient Reason”, presented at the satellite session on analytic philosophy at the American Catholic Philosophical Association annual meeting, Cincinnati, November, 2002, and in variant form at the Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference, University of Idaho and Washington State University, May 2-4, 2003
“Maternal love and abortion”, presented
at the “From Death to Life: Agendas for Reform” conference at
“I was once a fetus”, presented at the
Life and Learning conference,
“A new free will defense”, presented at the Central Division Meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers, March 8, 2002
“The counterfactual arrow of time”,
presented at the Center for Philosophy of Science,
“Faith, paradox, reason and the argumentum Spiritus Sancti in Climacus and Kierkegaard”, presented at the meeting of the Søren Kierkegaard Society at the Central APA Conference, 2001
“The meaning of sexual love”,
presented at the interdisciplinary “Conversations with the Other” graduate
student conference,
“A
world of mystery”, Faith and Science Colloquium,
“A
quick introduction to nonstandard analysis”, two-part presentation in Algebra
and Logic Seminar, Mathematics Department, Baylor University, March 2023
“IVF
and contraception”, St Peter’s pro-life student group,
“Infinity
and the existence of God”, Thomistic Institute presentation,
“Science,
beauty and God”, Thomistic Institute presentation, Southern Methodist
University, December 2023
“God
and the beauty of mathematics”, presentation for Ratio Christi student group,
Baylor, November 2023
“This
is my body: How can the Eucharist be God?” Thomistic Institute presentation,
Debate
with Brian Besong on animals in heaven, St. Francis University,
Pennsylvania, March 2023
“The
existence of God”, St. Francis University, Pennsylvania, March 2023
“Science,
reason... and beyond”, Thomistic Institute presentation,
“God’s
reasons for creating this world”,
Christ and Nature lunch,
“God,
beauty and mathematics”, Thomistic Institute presentation, Texas A&M, April
2022
“Can
Christ's body be present in many places at once?”, Thomistic Institute
intellectual retreat presentation,
“Eucharist:
Symbol and Reality”, Thomistic Institute intellectual retreat presentation,
“God
and the Paradoxes of Infinity”, Philosophy Club,
“Happiness
and the Meaning of Life”, Thomistic Institute presentation,
“God of
the Gaps: Are There Limits to Scientific Certainty?” Thomistic Institute,
“What
is love? Does anyone really love someone?”, Philosophy Club,
Two
presentations on Wippel’s The Metaphysical
Thought of Thomas Aquinas, Thomistic Institute,
“Happiness”,
Thomistic Institute presentation,
“Does
God exist?”, Thomistic Institute presentation,
“Eternalism
and theology”, Magi Project seminar,
“Causal
finitism and spacetime”, Magi Project seminar, University of Pennsylvania, June
2019
“Divine ineffability: A pragmatic approach”,
presentation, St. Benet’s Hall,
“The first cause”, Thomistic Institute
presentation,
“God, mathematics and beauty”,
Thomistic Institute presentation, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology,
“The cosmos as a work of art”,
presentation for students at
“Eating God? Can the Eucharist really be Jesus?” Thomistic Institute presentation, Baylor University, Waco, November 2018
“Causal finitism and the Kalam
Argument”, guest presentation to some mathematics students,
“Paradoxes
of infinity and the cosmological argument”, Thomistic Institute,
“From infinity to God: Paradoxes and the first cause argument”, Baylor Philosophy Club, February 2017
“Are persons interchangeable?”, Baylor Philosophy Club, March 2015
“One body: Love, sex and Christianity”, presentation for: student groups at the University of Pittsburgh, October 2014; Instituto Res Publica, Santiago, Chile, March 2014; student groups at Columbia University, February 2014; student groups at Princeton University, February 2014
“Love and sex: Philosophical reflections”, St. Peter’s Catholic Student Center at Baylor University, Spring 2012
Presentation on a new proof of Gödel’s theorem, Baylor Philosophy Club, Fall 2011
Lectures on the Principle of
Sufficient Reason, Summer Seminar in Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical
Theology for graduate students and young faculty, two days of
lecture/discussion plus a half-day of response/discussion with Peter van
Inwagen,
“God, evil and art”, talk to Baylor Philosophy Club, September 2008
“Love and sex: Philosophical
reflections”, Christians and Culture Lecture,
On faculty and curriculum committee
for “Ethics, Mind and Nature in the Analytic and Thomistic Traditions”
week-long summer graduate seminar, Witherspoon Institute,
Guest lecture on Principle of
Sufficient Reason, graduate philosophy of religion course,
Presentation on free will to
Philosophy and Faith lecture series,
“Ethics mis-understood”, presented to DFE foreign service fraternity, September, 2004
apologetics workshop for
“Eight tempting big-picture errors in
ethics”, presented at the Cardinal O’Connor Conference,
presentation on relativism and ethics
at high school,
“Religion and the Limits of Science”,
presentation at high school,
apologetics workshop for Georgetown University Right to Life student group, April, 2002
with Robert Clifton, Kevin Davey and
Richard M. Gale, debate on “A new cosmological argument” (Gale and Pruss,
1999), in front of Philosophy Honor Society,
“Linear extensions of orders invariant under abelian group actions”, Colloquium Mathematicum 137 (2014) 117-125
“Two kinds of invariance of full conditional probabilities”, Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences – Mathematics 61 (2013) 277-283
“On the Law of Large Numbers for nonmeasurable identically distributed random variables”, Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences - Mathematics 61 (2013) 161–168
with Richard C. Bradley, “A strictly stationary, N-tuplewise independent counterexample to the central limit theorem”, Stochastic Processes and Their Applications 119 (2009) 3300–3318
“A general Hsu-Robbins-Erdős type estimate of tail probabilities of sums of independent identically distributed random variables”, Periodica Mathematica Hungarica 46 (2003) 181–201
“Discrete harmonic measure, Green’s functions and symmetrization: A unified probabilistic approach”, Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska (Sectio A) 55 (2001) 139–174
with Stephen J. Montgomery-Smith, “A comparison inequality for sums of independent random variables”, Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications 254 (2001) 35–42
with Dominik Szynal, “On the central limit theorem for negatively correlated random variables with negatively correlated squares”, Stochastic Processes and Their Applications 87 (2000) 299–309
“Symmetrization inequalities for difference equations on graphs”, Advances in Applied Mathematics 22 (1999) 338–370
“A remark on the Moser-Aubin inequality for radially symmetric functions on the sphere”, Canadian Mathematical Bulletin 42 (1999) 478–485
“Radial rearrangement, harmonic measures and extensions of Beurling's shove theorem”, Arkiv för Matematik 37 (1999) 183–210
“A bounded N-tuplewise independent and identically distributed counterexample to the CLT”, Probability Theory and Related Fields 111 (1998) 323–332
“Discrete convolution-rearrangement inequalities and the Faber-Krahn inequality on regular trees”, Duke Mathematical Journal 91 (1998) 463–514
“A maximal inequality for sums of exchangeable random variables”, Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society 126 (1998) 1811–1819
“Steiner symmetry, horizontal
convexity and some Dirichlet problems”,
“A two-sided estimate in the Hsu-Robbins-Erdős law of large numbers”, Stochastic Processes and their Applications 70 (1997) 173–180
“Comparisons between tail probabilities of sums of independent symmetric random variables”, Annales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré – Probabilités & Statistiques 33 (1997) 651–671
“One-dimensional random walks, decreasing rearrangements and discrete Steiner symmetrization”, Annales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré – Probabilités & Statistiques 33 (1997) 83–112
“On Spataru’s extension of the Hsu-Robbins-Erdös law of large numbers”, Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications 199 (1996) 558–576
“Remarks on summability of series formed from deviation probabilities of sums of independent identically distributed random variables”, Ukraïns´kii Matematichnii Zhurnal 48 (1996) 569–572; reprinted in: Ukrainian Mathematical Journal 48 (1996) 631–635
“Three counterexamples for a question concerning Green’s functions and circular symmetrization”, Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society 124 (1996) 1755–1761
“Randomly sampled Riemann sums and complete convergence in the law of large numbers for a case without identical distribution”, Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society 124 (1996) 919–929
with Alec Matheson, “Properties of extremal functions for some nonlinear functionals on Dirichlet spaces”, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society 348 (1996) 2901–2930
“Nonexistence of maxima for perturbations of some inequalities with critical growth”, Canadian Mathematical Bulletin 39 (1996) 227–237
“A remark on non-existence of an algebra norm for the algebra of continuous functions on a topological space admitting an unbounded continuous function”, Studia Mathematica 116 (1995) 295–297
“Symmetrization, Green's Functions, harmonic measures and difference equations”, Dissertation Summaries in Mathematics 1 (1996) 67–74
with Zvi Margaliot and Patrick D. Surry, “Finding Optimal Steiner Trees”, Journal of Undergraduate Mathematics and Its Applications 12 (3), Fall 1991, 265–278
“A star goes down the cosmic drain or
what happens when a star falls down a black hole”, Astronomy London (
“Shanks’ transform and series improvement”, Mathematical Mayhem 2 (4), June 1990
“Spherical trigonometry”, Mathematical Mayhem 1 (4), June 1989
“Artificial Intelligence in politics”, Youth Science News 8 (3), May–June 1988, 19–20
“Artificial Intelligence in politics”,
Physics in
“Some new results on tail
probabilities of sums of independent identically distributed random variables”,
seminar,
“Symmetrization, Green’s functions,
harmonic measures and difference equations”, doctoral thesis defense,
“Inequalities for tail probabilities
of sums of independent random variables”, Probability Seminar, Department of
Mathematics,
“Radial rearrangement, Beurling's
shove theorem and the Chang-Marshall inequality”, invited Complex Analysis
Seminar, Mathematics Department,
“Discrete symmetrization, harmonic
measure and the Faber-Krahn inequality on trees”, informal seminar, Mathematics
Department,
“From the Pólya-Szegö symmetrization
inequality for Dirichlet integrals to comparison theorems for p.d.e.'s on
manifolds”, 8th International Symposium on Classical Analysis,
“Extremals of nonlinear functionals on
the unit ball of Dirichlet space, symmetrization theory and drunkards in
dangerous blind alleys”, invited seminar,
“Rates of convergence in the law of
large numbers and randomly sampled Riemann sums”, invited seminar,
“Nonexistence of maxima for perturbations of some inequalities with critical growth”, Fourth International Conference on Function Spaces, Zielona Góra, Poland, August 28–September 1, 1995
“Extremals for some non-linear
functionals on unit balls of Dirichlet spaces”, International Conference on
Approximation Theory and Function Series,
“Extremals of nonlinear functionals on
the ball of the Dirichlet space, some conjectures concerning least harmonic
majorants, and symmetrization”, invited Complex Analysis Seminar, Department of
Mathematics,
with Alec Matheson, “Extremal functions
for some nonlinear functionals on the Dirichlet space”, Analysis Seminar,
Department of Mathematics,
with Alec Matheson, “Some questions on a nonlinear functional on the Dirichlet space”, Conference on the Interaction Between Functional Analysis, Harmonic Analysis, and Probability, Columbia, Missouri, May 30–June 3, 1994
“Convergence of randomly sampled
Riemann sums to the Lebesgue integral”, Function Spaces Conference,
“Randomly sampled Riemann sums and
complete convergence”, Probability Seminar, Department of Mathematics,
with Zvi Margaliot and Patrick D. Surry, “Network optimization”, Mathematical Contest in Modeling Minisymposium, Second International Conference on Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Washington, D.C., July 12, 1991
with Patrick J. Mann, “Relativistic
smoothed particle hydrodynamics,” Applied Mathematics Lecture Series,
Department of Applied Mathematics,
Executive Council of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, 2021-2024
Editorial boards: American Philosophical Quarterly, Analysis and Existence and Continuum Studies in Philosophy of Religion
Executive Council of the Society of Christian Philosophers, 2011-2013
Faculty in Residence connected to the Culture and Performance Living and Learning Community (2003–07)
On selection panel for 2003 and 2004 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend Programs
Wrote about a dozen reviews for Mathematical Reviews
Guest researcher at the
Research in the interaction of stars
and black holes, supervised by Professor Patrick J. Mann, Departments of
Astronomy and Applied Mathematics,
Research in solid state quantum
physics, supervised by Professors M. G. Cottam and M. R. Singh, Department of
Physics,
English (dominant and fluent), Polish (fluent), French (reading; passed language requirement exams in philosophy and mathematics), Russian (reading), Classical Hebrew (rusty reading with dictionary), Greek (Koinê and Attic, reading with dictionary), Classical Syriac/Aramaic (very rusty rudimentary reading with dictionary and reference works)