Friday, May 10, 2013

My Proposed Dissertation Topic

As some of you may know, I'm now pursuing a PhD in Philosophy.  Before I begin my work, I have to propose a topic for my dissertation.  I've had plenty of ideas, many of which involve Thomism (no surprise there).  However, I may be surprising some, since I keep coming back to the works of William Alston and my favorite internet blogger, Victor Reppert.  The connection will become clearer as I develop an outline, assuming the committee accepts my proposal: "Theistic Implications of Alethic Realism."

The advantage of focusing on alethic realism is that it makes no metaphysical assumptions about the existence of abstract objects, propositions in particular.  Just one of the theistic implications would involve Reppert's argument from reason, where our cognitive faculties must have been the result of rational processes in order to be generally reliable.  This is similar, but not identical to, Alvin Plantinga's evolutionary argument against naturalism (EAAN).

In any case, I have my work cut out for me. :)

2 comments:

  1. Where will you be doing your dissertation?

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  2. Tentatively, at the University of Birmingham (England).

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