DAVID VANDER LAAN Curriculum Vitae

Transcription

1 DAVID VANDER LAAN Curriculum Vitae OfficeDepartment of Philosophy Home 953 Westmont Rd. Santa Barbara, CA La Paz Road Phone (805) Santa Barbara, CA (805) Education University of Ph.D. in Philosophy, Jan Calvin College B.A. in Philosophy and Mathematics, May 1993 Areas of Specialization Metaphysics Logic Philosophy of Religion Areas of Competence Ancient & Medieval Philosophy Philosophy of Mind Epistemology Dissertation Title: Impossible Worlds Committee: Alvin Plantinga (director) Michael Kremer Peter van Inwagen Dean Zimmerman Defense Date: 18 Oct. 1999

2 Publications Counterpossibles and Similarity, in Frank Jackson and Graham Priest, eds., essays in memory of David Lewis (title to be determined), Oxford Univeristy Press (forthcoming). Matthew Davidson, Thomas Crisp, David Vander Laan, eds., Knowledge and Reality: Essays in Honor of Alvin Plantinga, Kluwer Academic Press (forthcoming). A Regress Argument for Restrictivism, Philosophical Studies 103:2 (March (II) 2001), The Ontology of Impossible Worlds, Journal of Formal Logic 38:4 (Fall 1997), Papers Presented Divine Conservation and Persistence through Time, Paul C. Wilt Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Lecture,, 21 Oct Persistence and Divine Conservation, Midwest Regional Meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers, Indiana University, 13 Sept Persistence and Divine Conservation, Pacific Regional Meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers, Whitworth College, 4 Apr Materialism and Persistence, panel discussion, Dust of the Ground or Souls in Earthly Tents?, 16 Feb Counterpossibles and Impossible Worlds, Philosophy Symposium, California State University at San Bernadino, 16 Nov Reply to Yandell (response to Being Immortal and Being a Person ), Wheaton Philosophy Conference, 27 Oct Impossible Worlds and Counterfactuals, Philosophy Department Colloquium, University of California at Santa Barbara, 23 Feb Impossible Worlds, Philosophy Department Colloquium,, 19 Oct A Regress Argument for Restrictive Incompatibilism, Pittsburgh Graduate Philosophy Conference, March 2000 A Regress Argument for Restrictive Incompatibilism, Brown Graduate Philosophy Conference, 19 Feb The Frequency of Freedom, Graduate Student Colloquium, University of Notre Dame, 15 Sept Impossible Worlds and Counterfactual Semantics, Philosophy Department Colloquium, University of, 4 Dec Impossible Worlds and the Dependence of Abstracta on God, Pacific Regional Meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers, 31 Jan. 1998

3 Research Interests I have broad interests in metaphysics, but my chief research interests lie in these three areas: Ontology. I am interested in a collection of interrelated questions about identity, material (and other) composition, time and persistence through it, causation, and vagueness, among other things. I am also interested in the ontology of abstract objects like propositions, properties, and (I d say) possible and impossible worlds. Metaphysical issues in philosophical theology, especially issues about divine agency, as in theories of providence (e.g., Molinism and its ongoing debate with open theism ), conservation (see below), and creation (e.g., whether abstracta are created, so that one necessary existent may depend on another). The borderland of metaphysics and logic, especially where it overlaps the areas mentioned above. This includes modal and counterfactual logic (and the metaphysical questions they raise, such as those about the nature of possible worlds and the grounding of counterfactuals of freedom), many-valued logic, relative identity, and the like. My current projects are articles in the above areas. My plans for the future include a systematic book on the ontology of concrete objects. In Progress Persistence and Divine Conservation, versions of which have been presented at meetings of the Society of Christian Philosophers and at as the Fall 2002 Paul C. Wilt Phi Kappa Phi faculty lecture. The paper explores solutions to this puzzle: Plausibly, if an object persists through time, then its later states must be caused by its earlier states. Many (perhaps most) theists endorse a theory of continuous creation, according to which God is the sole cause of a creature's existence at a given time. The conjunction of these two theses implies that no object distinct from God persists at all--an unpalatable result. Can One Thing Be Many? which has been discussed by the UC Santa Barbara philosophy discussion group and is under revision. The title question is equivalent to the question whether, strictly speaking, there can be a plurality. The article answers in the negative, but aims to shed light on the issue by asking what an ontology of pluralities would have to look like. Knowledge and Reality: Essays in Honor of Alvin Plantinga, an anthology co-edited with Matthew Davidson and Thomas Crisp, forthcoming from Kluwer Academic Press. (A list of contributors is attached.) Classes Taught Critical Reasoning and Logic History of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy Introduction to Philosophy Introduction to Philosophy (Honors) Logic and Metaphysics of Modality Mathematics and Philosophy in Western Culture Metaphysics Philosophical Theology

4 Philosophy of Religion Death and the Meaning of Life First-Year Composition University Seminar in Philosophy Other Professional and Service Activities served as faculty advisor for the California Iota () chapter of the Phi Sigma Tau honor society, 2001-present participated in the Santa Barbarians (UCSB philosophy discussion group), present co-organized an interdisciplinary colloquium on the mind/body problem, Dust of the Ground or Souls in Earthly Tents? with Thomas Fikes, Feb , 2002 served on the Society of Christian Philosophers Pacific Regional Committee, June 2000-present helped plan and host 2001 Society of Christian Philosophers Pacific Regional meeting at, coordinated transportation co-founded and participated in The Metaphysics Workshop, participated in the Graduate Student Colloquium, participated in the Epistemology Discussion Group, A more detailed list of activities is available upon request. References Alvin Plantinga Plantinga.1@nd.edu (219) Peter van Inwagen vaninwagen.1@nd.edu (219) Thomas Flint Flint.1@nd.edu (219) Dean Zimmerman Zimmerman.4@nd.edu (219)

5 Contributors to Knowledge and Reality: Essays in Honor of Alvin Plantinga Richard Otte, University of California, Santa Cruz "Plantinga, Naturalism, and Self-Defeat" Eleonore Stump, Saint Louis University "Aquinas on Constitution and Identity" Peter van Inwagen, University of "Properties" Keith Yandell, University of Wisconsin-Madison "Is Christian Materialism Viable" Trenton Merricks, University of Virginia "Split Brains and the Godhead" Michael Rea, University of "Naturalism and Value" Nicholas Wolterstorff, Yale University "The Nature of Natures" Jonathan Kvanvig, Texas A & M University "Naturalism and the Value of Knowledge" Michael Bergmann, Purdue University "A Dilemma for Internalism" Richard Fumerton, University of Iowa "Epistemic Internalism, Philosophical Assurance and the Skeptical Predicament" James Tomberlin, California State University, Northridge "Actualism and Presentism" William Alston, Syracuse University "Epistemology and Metaphysics" Keith Lehrer, University of Arizona "God, Art, and Metaphysics" John Pollock, University of Arizona "So You Think You Exist: In Defense of Nolipsism"