Alexander Pruss's Blog

Yesterday, I showed that an artifact’s function wasn’t defined by the maker’s intention that it be used for that function. For instance, a h...

Artifacts have defining functions. It is tempting to think of these functions as coming from their maker’s intention that they be used for t...

Some divine “command” theories do not ground obligations in commands as such, but in divine mental states, such as his willings, intentions ...

In my previous post , I argued against divine desire versions of divine command theory. Reflecting on that post, I saw that there is a simpl...

On the divine desire version of divine command theory, the right thing to do is what God wants us to do. But what if God’s desires conflict...

We acquired a cat around Christmas. Never having had a pet before in my life (except for a puppy for a few days decades ago), what have I le...

Alice and Bob are friends, but Carl is a friend of neither. Carl pays Bob to betray Alice in some nasty way, and Bob being greedy does so. W...

We owe our children at least a normal degree of effor for their welfare. For instance, we owe it to them to provide food, water, education a...

Here is a big picture story about Newtonian mechanics: The state of the system at all times t  >  t 0 is explained by the initial condit...

We have beliefs. A belief is a mental state with the proper function of reflecting reality. Our mental states are biological states. (Fol...

The Eucharist has the vertical dimension of our union with Christ and a horizontal dimension of our union with our fellow Christians. The do...

Start with this argument: Everything that exists is God or is created and sustained by God. God does not create and sustain anything esse...

If any complex artifacts really exist, instruments of torture really exist. Instruments of torture are essentially evil. Nothing that is ...

One of the big puzzles about divine simplicity which I have been exploring is that of God’s knowledge of contingent facts. A sloppy way to p...

One might think that being closer to the truth is guaranteed to get one to make better decisions. Not so. Say that a probability assignment ...