Philosophy Professor | thomasmward

T H O M A S M. W A R D

Jul 29, 2019
4 min

Why Some People Think God is Beyond Being and Why They are Wrong

In an effort to get God out of the Laplacean problem of being merely a quasi-scientific hypothesis which may be accepted or rejected on...

Jul 12, 2019
4 min

What Metaphysics Is and Why It Matters

What is Metaphysics? Metaphysics is not what is represented by the esoterica on display in some bookstores. It is not the subject you...

Jun 21, 2019
5 min

Why Care about the Theory of Divine Ideas? Part 2 of 2

Yesterday I shared some notes about why I think a theory of divine ideas is important for theology. Today I’m sharing some notes about...

Jun 20, 2019
3 min

Why Care about the Theory of Divine Ideas? Part 1 of 2

Here is a sketch of some of the theological motivation for a theory of Divine Ideas. I also say something about what I take such a theory...

May 31, 2019
2 min

Divine Ideas and Egyptian Theology

I just "discovered" a text which is very well-known to Egyptologists and students of Ancient Egypt. Miriam Lichtheim published it as "The...

May 15, 2019
1 min

Religious Experience in Ancient Egypt

This week I'm reading a book about the development of monotheism in Ancient Egypt, James K. Hoffmeier's Akhenaten and the Origins of...

May 15, 2019
1 min

Duns Scotus on Natural Law and Divine Freedom

I have a new paper out today, "A Most Mitigated Friar: Scotus on Natural Law and Divine Freedom." It shows how Scotus reconciles the...

Mar 21, 2019
1 min

Scotism about Possible Natures

My latest journal article is now published by The Philosophical Quarterly. The title is "Scotism about Possible Natures," and it develops...

Feb 25, 2019
2 min

(I'm) Down with Immortality

Bernard Williams has a famous paper, "The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality." I've been studying the paper and...

Feb 12, 2019
3 min

The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher in Defense of Civilization

Mr. Jeremy Fisher is a toad with a diverse set of friends which includes Mr. Alderman Ptolemy Tortoise and Sir Isaac Newton, who is a...

Feb 7, 2019
3 min

Divine Simplicity and the Division of Being

On a more or less standard Christian understanding of the world, God is the creator of everything that exists, other than himself. This...

Feb 4, 2019
2 min

Worship-Worthiness

This semester's reading list has me thinking about Anselm's Proslogion back to back with Augustine's On Free Choice of the Will. Each...

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