Kingsnorth and Quay on transhumanism (Updated)

My review of Grayson Quay’s The Transhumanist Temptation and Paul Kingsnorth’s Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity appears in the Fall 2026 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.

UPDATE: The article is no longer behind a paywall.

Craig on Thomism and divine simplicity, Part II

Let’s continue our critical look at William Lane Craig’s treatment of Thomism and the doctrine of divine simplicity in Volume IIa of his Systematic Philosophical Theology.  In the first part of this series, I showed that in several ways, Craig badly misunderstands the views of Aquinas and other Thomists.  In this second part, I’ll turn to Craig’s treatment of the more general metaphysical disputes underlying the debate over divine simplicity, and to specific criticisms he raises against the doctrine and the arguments of its defenders.

Craig on Thomism and divine simplicity, Part I

In an earlier article, I discussed William Lane Craig’s treatment of the kalām cosmological argument in Volume IIb of his Systematic Philosophical Theology.  Let’s now take a look at Volume IIa, which is devoted to the divine attributes.  Specifically, I’ll address what he has to say about Thomism and the doctrine of divine simplicity.  This is part of a larger discussion of the doctrine, but I’ll confine what I say in this two-part article to his treatment of the Thomistic position, for two reasons.  The first is the practical one of keeping these posts to a manageable length.  The second is that, as a Thomist, I think the Thomistic approach to the issue is the most plausible and important.  Craig might agree with that much.  He says that “Thomas Aquinas [is] the preeminent defender of divine simplicity” (p. 104), that “historically, the doctrine of divine simplicity comes to its fullest expression in the theology of Thomas Aquinas” (p. 136), and again that “with Aquinas we have reached the highwater mark in the history of the development of the doctrine” (p. 143).

Craig on finitism and presentism

The kalām cosmological argument for God’s existence holds that the universe must have had a beginning.  (Not all versions of the cosmological argument make this claim.  For example, the versions I defend in my book Five Proofs of the Existence of God do not make it.)  William Lane Craig’s influential presentation of the argument defends the claim in several ways, one of which is by arguing that a beginningless universe would amount to an actual infinite, and that an actual infinite is impossible.  That judgment, in turn, is supported by appeal to examples like the Hilbert’s Hotel thought experiment, in which the idea of a hotel with an actually infinite number of rooms and guests yields a variety of bizarre consequences.

Just war doctrine and Congress’s war powers

As I have argued since it began, President Trump’s war on Iran fails to meet several of the conditions of traditional just war doctrine.  Not the least of these is the “lawful authority” condition.  Under the U.S. constitution, the power to initiate war lies with Congress, not the president.  Trump’s brazen usurpation of this power is as serious an assault on the Constitution and the rule of law as can be imagined, and Congress’s failure to rein him in is a dereliction of duty that is no less grave.  There are many reasons to oppose the war, but the dangerously lawless way in which it was initiated and has been continued would alone suffice to render it unjust and indefensible.

Berkeley’s God

In my latest article at Postliberal Order, I discuss how the novel metaphysical assumptions that modern philosophy brought to the traditional project of establishing the existence and nature of God often either led to heterodoxy or greased the skids for atheism, using George Berkeley as a case study.

Abortion and partisan politics

This week, Massachusetts’ Democratic governor Maura Healey signed a law removing existing restrictions on late-term abortion, thereby legalizing it to the moment of birth.  The move has prompted widespread outrage, as has the ghoulish signing ceremony in which the governor was surrounded by jubilant women applauding this license to murder children.  Republican partisans have cited this episode as evidence of the depravity into which the Democratic Party has fallen.  And it is true that the Democrats remain worse on the issue of abortion than the GOP is. 

Anthony Kenny (1931-2026)

Sir Anthony Kenny died on August 3.  Of philosophers of his generation, Kenny was among those I most admired.  He made important contributions to the philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, and other areas of philosophy.  He was also a formidable historian of philosophy, and his work on various problems in the field was greatly deepened by this historical perspective.  He was especially influenced by Aristotle, Aquinas, and Wittgenstein, which made him one of the founding thinkers of “analytical Thomism” (though I don’t recall whether that was a label he ever used himself).

Summer web surfing

Several new articles from David Oderberg: “Hylemorphism as a Generalized Research Programme”; “In Defence of Panmoralism”; and “Turning the Tables on the Table Deniers: Metaphysical Mythmaking About Ordinary Objects.”

Celebrated writer-artist John Byrne delivers an old school comics last hurrah in X-Men: Elsewhen.  Byrne is interviewed by The New York Times and at The Hollywood Reporter.  Meanwhile, after 90 years in NYC, Marvel Comics is moving its headquarters to Los Angeles.

The Chronicle of Higher Education interviews philosopher Alex Byrne about academic freedom, cancellation, and recent debates about sex and gender.

The evil and incoherence of targeting civilian infrastructure

President Trump has renewed his threats to destroy Iranian civilian infrastructure such as power stations and bridges, which could result in a humanitarian disaster.  By longstanding principles of just war doctrine, this would be gravely immoral.  The innocent do not lose the right to their property and capacity to get on with ordinary everyday life by virtue of living under an unjust and oppressive regime.  Deliberately to inflict such suffering on them is to become a second oppressor, not a liberator.  As Pope Leo XIV has said:

[Among] certain non-negotiable requirements… [on] the decision to use lethal force… [is to] ensure robust protection for civilians and the infrastructures necessary for their survival… When we witness the bombing of civilians, attacks on hospitals, schools or vital infrastructure, and violence that affects children, we are confronted with scandals that wound humanity itself. (Magnifica Humanitas 200, 216)

Anscombe on human dignity

My essay “Misunderstanding “Human Dignity,’” which discusses some illuminating things Elizabeth Anscombe had to say about the subject, appears today at Postliberal Order.

Review of Smith

My review of James K. A. Smith’s book Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark: Mysticism, Art, and the Path of Unknowing appears in the August/September issue of First Things.

I'm a grandfather!

Nguyen on Immortal Souls

In New Blackfriars, Br. Francis Dominic Nguyen kindly reviews my book Immortal Souls: A Treatise on Human Nature.  From the review: “Feser engages in a fresh dialogue between ancient and modern philosophy.  The result is spectacular… Many of [his] arguments appear to be original as well as invitingly readable… Feser has undertaken a laudable and courageous task making some first important steps in breaking down the walls between the current schools of philosophical anthropology, while remaining himself a good disciple of the scholastic method by engaging in dialectic.  Like Aristotle and Aquinas, Feser extracts the truth from his interlocutors, without prejudice as to who they are.”

Chesterton on patriotism

In his classic book Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton famously said that the doctrine of original sin is the part of Christian theology that can really be proved.  What he had in mind, I think, is the part of that doctrine that holds that as a result of the Fall, our capacity to obey even the most obvious precepts of natural law has been gravely impaired.  I think this impairment is indeed obviously real.  One illustration would be the way people find it so difficult, in one area of human life after another, to adhere to the virtuous middle ground between opposite extreme vices.  When we aren’t gluttonous, we tend to become overly fixated on dieting and healthful eating.  When we aren’t drunkards, we often become prigs who scold even those who drink in moderation.  And so on.  Worse, those in thrall to one vice often suppose that the only alternative is the opposite extreme vice.  Sober moderation eludes us.

The Journal of Natural Law

The second issue of the new Journal of Natural Law is out soon.  It includes, among other things, a debate between Melissa Moschella and Robert Koons on the New Natural Law Theory, and articles on Protestantism and natural law.  The first issue included a symposium on Kevin Vallier’s All the Kingdoms of the World and several articles on natural law and the concept of intention (as well as my review of Stephen Boulter’s Natural Law Liberalism and the Malaise of Modernity).  Congratulations to editor Brian Besong and associate editors James Jacobs and Matthew Minerd on an excellent and much-needed publication!

What is the mechanical world picture?

Early modern philosophy and science are often said to have put a “mechanical” or “mechanistic” conception of nature at the center of Western thought.  Robert Boyle referred to it as “the mechanical philosophy.”  Historian of science E. J. Dijksterhuis characterized it as a “mechanization of the world picture.”  Tim Crane calls it “the mechanical world picture.”  But what does a mechanical or mechanistic conception of the world amount to? 

Dijksterhuis’s book The Mechanization of the World Picture surveys the history of the period during which this conception rose to hegemony, and in the Epilogue he considers several possible interpretations that the survey suggests.  First, it is commonly said that a mechanistic conception of the natural world is one which sees it as a kind of machine, analogous to a clock.  And such metaphors are, he says, indeed frequent in writers of the period.

Leo XIV contra the new Babel: Reflections on the pope’s landmark encyclical

Last week, Pope Leo XIV issued Magnifica Humanitas, the first encyclical of his pontificate.  It has received much attention, both positive and negative and in both Catholic and secular media.  Much of the commentary so far strikes me as superficial.  To judge from social media, you’d think the document is primarily devoted to artificial intelligence, with some irrelevant comments about slavery and just war theory arbitrarily tacked on.  You’d also think those comments mark a rupture with traditional Catholic teaching.  None of this is true.  There is no break with traditional teaching.  While artificial intelligence (or AI) gets significant attention, the encyclical is actually devoted to a much larger theme, of which AI is only a part.  And the remarks on slavery and just war theory are not arbitrary, but fit in naturally with this larger theme.  Magnifica Humanitas is in fact a major contribution to the tradition of Catholic social teaching inaugurated by the pope’s namesake Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum.  It is rich in insights, and gives Catholics a sound framework for dealing with the “new things” of our times, just as Rerum Novarum did for Catholics of the late nineteenth century and beyond.

Nagel on Stroud on the possibility of metaphysics

Much of modern philosophy has been hypnotized by the idea that causality, necessity, and value are not features of objective reality but merely features the human mind projects onto reality.  David Hume is, of course, the main hypnotist in this connection.  In his important book Engagement and Metaphysical Dissatisfaction, Barry Stroud holds that the arguments for this skeptical attitude do not succeed, and that causality, necessity, and value in fact cannot coherently be eliminated from our conception of the objective world.  At the same time, he does not think that this yields a proof that they really are features of the objective world.  It may be that they are illusions after all, even if we can’t help but believe in them.  Hence, if metaphysics is concerned with establishing one way or another whether such features really are part of objective reality, it is, in Stroud’s view, an impossible project.

No, the U.S. has not been at war with Iran for 47 years

After the United States and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February of this year, the war’s defenders suddenly began to claim (and incessantly to repeat) that the U.S. has already been at war with Iran for 47 years.  Evidently, the motivation for this newly minted talking point is to try to defuse two obvious objections to the war: that it is a war of aggression and therefore unjust, and that it did not receive constitutionally required congressional authorization and is therefore illegal.  The idea is that, if the current operation is part of a wider war that is already longstanding, then it does not constitute aggression and does not need special authorization.