Gwen Nally successfully defended her dissertation, entitled " Good Beliefs, Bad Arguments: Pragmatic Reasons in Plato's Dialogues" . Gwen will be teaching at the University of Richmond beginning this fall.
Does God exist? Is it rational to believe in God? Does reason, experience, or science show that God does not exist. Or is it the opposite? Is there a compelling practical reason to believe in God? These are the questions that we will consider in this class. We will take a philosophical approach to questions concerning God and religion.We will mainly focus on various arguments for and against the existence of God, and arguments for and against the view that it can be rational to believe in God.
The central aim of this course is to give students the opportunity to examine philosophical issues surrounding the institution of punishment and in doing so to give them a more general introduction to moral, political and legal philosophy. In the first unit we will explore the two major moral theories: Consequentialism and Deontology. A basic knowledge of these theories will be necessary to understand the standard attempts to justify punishment.
Three newly hired Associate Professors of Philosophy, and one affiliated faculty member with a primary appointment in the Law School, will be joining the UVA Philosophy Department in August 2014:
Selected Publications
‘The Case Against Powers.’ In Causal Powers in Science: Blending Historical and Conceptual Perspectives. Ed. Benjamin Hill, Henrik Lagerlund, and Stathis Psillos. Oxford University Press. Forthcoming
‘Archetypes without Patterns: Locke on Relations and Mixed Modes.’ Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie. Forthcoming
Descartes, Malebranche, and the Crisis of Perception. Oxford University Press, UK, 2017
