In Progress
Books and Edited Collections
Pluralistic Theism and Religious Syncretism in Southeast Asia
under contract with Cambridge Elements in Global Philosophy of Religion (CUP)
In this monograph, I propose the framework of Pluralistic Theism to understand the seeming contradictions implied by religious syncretism in Southeast Asia. Pluralistic Theism is the philosophical view that there are different and equally correct conceptions of the divine, and conjoining these conceptions need not imply a (logical) contradiction. I compare and contrast the theoretical merits of this view with those of Ninian Smart’s Philosophy of Worldviews and John Hick’s Religious Pluralism. Finally, and conclude that Pluralistic Theism better explains the religious data than the latter two views.
Philosophy and What Matters
a collection of interviews with some of the top philosophers in the world
under contract with Springer Singapore
Probability, Counterfactuals, and Decision Theory: Essays in Honour of Alan Hajek
a collection of essays on Alan Hajek's work
edited with Branden Fitelson and Weng Hong Tang
under contract with Springer Synthese Library
The Necessities Underlying Reality: Connecting Philosophy of Mathematics, Ethics and Probability
an edited collection of James Franklin's essays
under contract with Bloomsbury
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
A Gensler-style Proof System for Deontic Propositional Logic
under review - journal article
In Introduction to Logic (chapter 12), the late Jesuit philosopher Harry Gensler developed a rather curious natural deduction proof system for deontic logic. In this paper, I present a version of this and show its ramifications to some well-known deontic principles, particularly Hare's do's-from-ought principle, Kant's ought-implies-can principle, Hume's no-ought-from-is principle, and Poincare's no-do's-from-is principle. I also show how it addresses some familiar deontic paradoxes, particularly Ross's paradox of obligation, Prior's good Samaritan paradox, and Chisholm's contrary-to-duty puzzle.
Love and Personal Persistence
with Ben Blumson
under review - journal article
According to a traditional conception, romantic love is both constant – roughly, if someone loves another, they continue to love them – and exclusive – roughly, if someone loves another, they love only the other. We argue:
If fission or fusion is possible, then constancy and exclusivity are not both essential features of love.
If fission or fusion is possible, and exclusivity and constancy are both obligatory features of love, then moral dilemmas are possible.
One man’s modus ponens is another’s modus tollens, but we conclude exclusivity is neither essential nor obligatory.
Weak Kleene in a Multiple-Conclusions Entailment Setting
drafting stage
In this paper, I formulate Weak Kleene semantics in a multiple-conclusion entailment setting. I show some interesting facts that result from this formulation.
How to (weakly) Kleene the Frege-Geach
drafting stage
The Frege-Geach problem for expressivists is often cashed out as the challenge of explaining the logical behaviour of expressive, non-truth-evaluable sentences. In particular, it asks (i) how an expressive sentence and its negation can be logically inconsistent and (ii) how expressive sentences can figure in logically valid inferences. Both problems form the general embedding problem for expressivists. That is, the problem of explaining how expressive sentences could be subsentences of compound sentences. In this paper, I explore two versions of the Weak Kleene semantic framework that could address these challenges. These frameworks imply the non-truth-aptness of these expressive sentences and their logical infectiousness as well.
Jorgensen's Dilemma and Moral Arguments
drafting stage
Jorgensen's dilemma is the problem of explaining how arguments that contain imperative sentences could be deductively valid. In this paper, we extend this dilemma to moral arguments in general. We show that the current metaethical theories could be seen as possible answers to this generalised dilemma.
Of Sheep, Goats, and Eschatological Fatalism
drafting stage
In this paper, I argue that the parable of sheep and goats found in Matthew 25:31-46 implies a philosophical puzzle about eschatological fatalism. I show why this puzzle is a problem for theists who accept God’s traditional omni-attributes. Finally, I evaluate possible ways that theists may take to resist the puzzle.
A Note on Cook's Semantics for Tonk
drafting stage
In 'What's wrong with tonk(?)', Roy T. Cook proposes a semantics for Prior's binary connective tonk. In this note, we show that this semantics is not truth-functionally complete.
Encarnacion on Ushenko's Paradox
drafting stage
In Problems of Logic, Ushenko presents a version of the liar paradox, which he claims to be an exception to Russell’s theory of types or Ramsey’s theory of language levels. Encarnacion, however, shows that far from being an exception to these theories, Ushenko’s paradox only rests on a mere symbolic fallacy. In this paper, I aim to evaluate Encarnacion’s argument for his verdict by looking at the immediate responses to it.
On Completing a Supertask
drafting stage
A lot of ink has been spilt to elucidate the nature and existence of supertasks. Here we spill some more ink in order to further distinguish two types of supertasks: a type that has a definite final state and a type that has an indefinite final state.
Doctrinal Contradictions
with Abbas Ahsan
drafting stage
Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam embrace contradictions within their respective core doctrines. Using a certain type of non-classical logic, some dialetheists have offered a piecemeal approach to understanding the doctrinal contradictions of a particular religion. In this paper, we propose a more general dialetheic approach to classifying these contradictions. We then discuss the ramifications of this approach to analytic theology, in particular, and the global philosophy of religion, in general.
The Classical Collapse of Weaker Logics
with Jc Beall
drafting stage
The classical collapse thesis implies that in a multiple-conclusions setting, sub-classical logics like LP, K3, and FDE collapse into classical (propositional) logic. In this paper, we argue that the thesis also holds for other weaker logics such as Weak Kleene and Cooper's Ordinary Logic.
A Gappy Alternative to Nagasawa's Maximal God Thesis
with Michael DeVito
drafting stage
The OmniGod thesis – that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent – faces several familiar problems, e.g., the paradox of omnipotence, the puzzle of impeccability, and the problem of evil. Recently, Yujin Nagasawa argued for the Maximal God Thesis, which he thinks is a 'wholesale solution' to these problems. In this paper, we present a gappy alternative to Nagasawa's proposal. This alternative is based on Jc Beall and AJ Cotnoir's 'God-of-the-gaps' thesis. We show why this gappy solution is preferable to Nagasawa's.
Tertullian's Entailment Barrier Thesis
drafting stage
Entailment barrier theses abound in philosophy -- theses that tell us that some derivations are illicit or fallacious. For example, Hume's 'no-ought-from-is' thesis tells us that deriving normative, obligation conclusions from purely factual statements is fallacious, while Bertrand Russell's 'no-general-from-particular' thesis warns us against deriving general statements from purely particular statements. This paper explores yet another entailment barrier thesis, which stems from Tertullian's polemical work, De Carne Christi. As we shall argue in this paper, Tertullian's thesis implies that it is illicit to derive statements about what is eternal from statements about what is temporal. We show that if this thesis holds, then certain arguments for the existence of the Christian God fail.
Formalising an Epistemic Social Exchange Framework
drafting stage
In 'The Role of Trust in Argumentation', Catarina Dutilh Novaes offers the Attend-Trust-Engage (ATE) framework of how epistemic social exchanges ought to be. This paper formalises ATE in social choice theoretic terms and explores its conceptual ramifications to argumentation theory.
Of Religious Geniuses and Spiritual Exemplars
drafting stage