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Robert C. Koons [89]Robert Charles Koons [4]
  1. The waning of materialism.Robert C. Koons & George Bealer (eds.) - 2010 - New York: Oxford University Press.
    This is a sustained critique of materialism. The contributors offer arguments from conscious experience, rational thought, the interaction of mind and body, and the unity and persisting identity of human persons, and develop a wide range of alternatives.
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  2.  51
    Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science.William M. R. Simpson, Robert Charles Koons & Nicholas Teh (eds.) - 2017 - New York: Routledge.
    The last two decades have seen two significant trends emerging within the philosophy of science: the rapid development and focus on the philosophy of the specialised sciences, and a resurgence of Aristotelian metaphysics, much of which is concerned with the possibility of emergence, as well as the ontological status and indispensability of dispositions and powers in science. Despite these recent trends, few Aristotelian metaphysicians have engaged directly with the philosophy of the specialised sciences. Additionally, the relationship between fundamental Aristotelian concepts—such (...)
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  3.  57
    Paradoxes of Belief and Strategic Rationality.Robert C. Koons - 1992 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
    This book develops a framework for analysing strategic rationality, a notion central to contemporary game theory, which is the formal study of the interaction of rational agents and which has proved extremely fruitful in economics, political theory and business management. The author argues that a logical paradox lies at the root of a number of persistent puzzles in game theory, in particular those concerning rational agents who seek to establish some kind of reputation. Building on the work of Parsons, Burge, (...)
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  4. A new look at the cosmological argument.Robert C. Koons - 1997 - American Philosophical Quarterly 34 (2):193 - 211.
    The cosmological argument for God’s existence has a long history, but perhaps the most influential version of it has been the argument from contingency. This is the version that Frederick Copleston pressed upon Bertrand Russell in their famous debate about God’s existence in 1948 (printed in Russell’s 1957 Why I am not a Christian). Russell’s lodges three objections to the Thomistic argument.
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  5.  33
    (1 other version)Metaphysics: The Fundamentals.Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance - 2014 - Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Edited by Timothy H. Pickavance.
    The book covers a broad range of key topics, including theories of properties and particulars, the notion of truth-makers, powers and possibilities, material composition, and a variety of issues related to time and causation.
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  6. Skepticism and the principle of sufficient reason.Robert C. Koons & Alexander R. Pruss - 2020 - Philosophical Studies 178 (4):1079-1099.
    The Principle of Sufficient Reason must be justified dialectically: by showing the disastrous consequences of denying it. We formulate a version of the Principle that is restricted to basic natural facts, which entails the obtaining of at least one supernatural fact. Denying this principle results in extreme empirical skepticism. We consider six current theories of empirical knowledge, showing that on each account we cannot know that we have empirical knowledge unless we all have a priori knowledge of the PSR. We (...)
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  7.  88
    Realism Regained: An Exact Theory of Causation, Teleology, and the Mind.Robert C. Koons - 2000 - Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
    In this wide-ranging philosophical work, Koons takes on two powerful dogmas--anti-realism and materialism.
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  8.  29
    The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics.Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance - 2017 - Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Edited by Timothy H. Pickavance.
    The Atlas of Reality: A Comprehensive Guide to Metaphysics presents an extensive examination of the key topics, concepts, and guiding principles of metaphysics. Represents the most comprehensive guide to metaphysics available today Offers authoritative coverage of the full range of topics that comprise the field of metaphysics in an accessible manner while considering competing views Explores key concepts such as space, time, powers, universals, and composition with clarity and depth Articulates coherent packages of metaphysical theses that include neo-Aristotelian, Quinean, Armstrongian, (...)
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  9. A New Kalam Argument: Revenge of the Grim Reaper.Robert C. Koons - 2014 - Noûs 48 (2):256-267.
  10. Defeasible reasoning.Robert C. Koons - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
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  11. Thermal substances: a Neo-Aristotelian ontology of the quantum world.Robert C. Koons - 2019 - Synthese 198 (Suppl 11):2751-2772.
    The paper addresses a problem for the unification of quantum physics with the new Aristotelianism: the identification of the members of the category of substance. I outline briefly the role that substance plays in Aristotelian metaphysics, leading to the postulating of the Tiling Constraint. I then turn to the question of which entities in quantum physics can qualify as Aristotelian substances. I offer an answer: the theory of thermal substances, and I construct a fivefold case for thermal substances, based on (...)
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  12. Forms as Simple and Individual Grounds of Things' Natures.Robert Charles Koons - 2018 - Metaphysics 1 (1):1-11.
    To understand Aristotle’s conception of form, we have to see clearly the relationship between his account and Plato’s Theory of Forms. I offer a novel interpretation of Aristotle’s Moderate Realism, in which forms are simple particulars that ground the character and mutual similarity of the entities they inform. Such an account has advantages in three areas: explaining (1) the similarity of particulars, (2) the synchronic unity of composite particulars, and (3) the diachronic unity or persistence of intrinsically changing particulars.
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  13.  24
    Dynamics of argumentation systems: A division-based method.Beishui Liao, Li Jin & Robert C. Koons - 2011 - Artificial Intelligence 175 (11):1790-1814.
  14. The ontological and epistemological superiority of hylomorphism.Robert C. Koons - 2017 - Synthese 198 (Suppl 3):885-903.
    Materialism—the view that all of reality is wholly determined by the very, very small—and extreme nominalism—the view that properties, kinds, and qualities do not really exist—have been the dominant view in analytic philosophy for the last 100 years or so. Both views, however, have failed to provide adequate accounts for the possibility of intentionality and of knowledge. We must therefore look to alternatives. One well-tested alternative, the hylomorphism of Aristotle and the medieval scholastics, was rejected without being refuted and so (...)
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  15.  63
    Some Puzzles about Molinist Conditionals.Robert C. Koons - 2022 - Roczniki Filozoficzne 70 (1):137-154.
    William Hasker has been one of the most trenchant and insightful critics of the revival of Molinism. He has focused on the “freedom problem”, a set of challenges designed to show that Molinism does not secure a place for genuinely free human action. These challenges focus on a key element in the Molinist story: the counterfactual conditionals of creaturely freedom. According to Molinism, these conditionals have contingent truth-values that are knowable to God prior to His decision of what world to (...)
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  16. Introduction.Robert C. Koons & George Bealer - 2010 - In Robert C. Koons & George Bealer (eds.), The waning of materialism. New York: Oxford University Press.
    In this introduction, before summarizing the contents of the volume, the authors characterize materialism as it is understood within the philosophy of mind, and they identify three respects in which materialism is on the wane.
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  17.  30
    Truth and the Absence of Fact.Robert C. Koons - 2003 - Mind 112 (445):119-126.
  18.  20
    The Non‐Existent and the Vaguely Existing.Timothy H. Pickavance & Robert C. Koons - 2017 - In Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance (eds.), The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 253–280.
    This chapter focuses on two clusters of questions concerning existence. The first cluster concerns the scope of existence, examining how wide the domain of existing things is and whether it encompass absolutely everything. The second cluster concerns vagueness and indeterminacy, explaining whether vague things and vague categories of things are there or all vagueness is a matter of referring indifferently to a large number of absolutely precise things and showing the ultimate source of vagueness. There are two theories of vagueness, (...)
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  19. Powers ontology and the quantum revolution.Robert C. Koons - 2020 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (1):1-28.
    An Aristotelian philosophy of nature rejects the modern prejudice in favor of the microscopic, a rejection that is crucial if we are to penetrate the mysteries of the quantum world. I defend an Aristotelian model by drawing on both quantum chemistry and recent work on the measurement problem. By building on the work of Hans Primas, using the distinction between quantum and classical properties that emerges in quantum chemistry at the thermodynamic or continuum limit, I develop a new version of (...)
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  20.  20
    Universals.Timothy H. Pickavance & Robert C. Koons - 2017 - In Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance (eds.), The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 123–146.
    There is substantial controversy about the nature of both particulars and properties. Some philosophers think that the categories of particular and property are fundamental, that at least some of the things in both are in no way derived from or dependent on things in another category. These philosophers are Realists about both particulars and properties. Nominalists think of particulars as fundamental and of properties as non‐fundamental, with the latter being derived from the former. This chapter explores why someone might go (...)
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  21.  49
    Prime Matter and the Quantum Wavefunction.Robert C. Koons - 2024 - Ancient Philosophy Today 6 (1):92-119.
    Prime matter plays an indispensable role in Aristotle’s philosophy, enabling him to avoid the pitfalls of both naïve Platonism and nominalism. Prime matter is best thought of as a kind of infinitely divisible and atomless bare particularity, grounding the distinctness of distinct members of the same species. Such bare particularity is needed in symmetrical situations, like a world consisting of indistinguishable Max Black spheres. Bare particularity is especially important in modern physics, given the homogeneity and isotropy of space. With the (...)
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  22. Dual Agency: A Thomistic Account of Providence and Human Freedom.Robert C. Koons - 2002 - Philosophia Christi 4 (2):397-411.
  23. Teleology as higher-order causation: A situation-theoretic account.Robert C. Koons - 1998 - Minds and Machines 8 (4):559-585.
    Situation theory, as developed by Barwise and his collaborators, is used to demonstrate the possibility of defining teleology (and related notions, like that of proper or biological function) in terms of higher order causation, along the lines suggested by Taylor and Wright. This definition avoids the excessive narrowness that results from trying to define teleology in terms of evolutionary history or the effects of natural selection. By legitimating the concept of teleology, this definition also provides promising new avenues for solving (...)
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  24.  87
    Sobel on Gödel’s Ontological Proof.Robert C. Koons - 2006 - Philosophia Christi 8 (2):235-247.
  25. (1 other version)Objects of Intention: A Hylomorphic Critique of the New Natural Law Theory.Matthew B. O’Brien & Robert C. Koons - 2012 - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 86 (4):655-703.
    The “New Natural Law” Theory (NNL) of Germain Grisez, John Finnis, Joseph Boyle, and their collaborators offers a distinctive account of intentional action, which underlies a moral theory that aims to justify many aspects of traditional morality and Catholic doctrine. -/- In fact, we show that the NNL is committed to premises that entail the permissibility of many actions that are irreconcilable with traditional morality and Catholic doctrine, such as elective abortions. These consequences follow principally from two aspects of the (...)
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  26.  40
    Remnants of Substances: A Neo-Aristotelian Resolution of the Puzzles.Robert C. Koons - 2020 - Quaestiones Disputatae 10 (2):53-68.
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  27. Defeasible reasoning, special pleading and the cosmological argument: A reply to Oppy.Robert C. Koons - 2001 - Faith and Philosophy 18 (2):192-203.
    This is a reply to a paper by Graham Oppy in the July, 1999 issue of this journal, “Koons’ Cosmological Argument.” Recent work in defeasible or nonmonotonic logic means that the cosmological argument can be cast in such a way that it does not presuppose that every contingent situation, without exception, has a cause. Instead, the burden of proof is shifted to the skeptic, who must produce positive reasons for thinking that the cosmos is an exception to the defeasible law (...)
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  28.  58
    Doxastic paradoxes without self-reference.Robert C. Koons - 1990 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 68 (2):168 – 177.
  29. Science and Theism: Concord, not conflict.Robert C. Koons - 2003 - In Paul Copan & Paul Moser (eds.), The Rationality of Theism. Routledge.
  30. Situation mereology and the logic of causation.Robert C. Koons - 1999 - Topoi 18 (2):167-174.
  31.  38
    Faith, Probability and Infinite Passion.Robert C. Koons - 1993 - Faith and Philosophy 10 (2):145-160.
    The logical treatment of the nature of religious belief (here I will concentrate on belief in Christianity) has been distorted by the acceptance of a false dilemma. On the one hand, many (e.g., Braithwaite, Hare) have placed the significance of religious belief entirely outside the realm of intellectual cognition. According to this view, religious statements do not express factual propositions: they are not made true or false by the ways things are. Religious belief consists in a certain attitude toward the (...)
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  32.  40
    Epistemological objections to materialism.Robert C. Koons - 2010 - In Robert C. Koons & George Bealer (eds.), The waning of materialism. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 281--306.
    This chapter argues that materialism is vulnerable to two kinds of epistemological objections: transcendental arguments, that show that materialism is incompatible with the very possibility of knowledge; and defeater arguments, that show that belief in materialism provides an effective defeaters to claims to knowledge. It constructs objections of these two kinds in three areas of epistemology: our knowledge of the laws of nature (and of scientific essences), our knowledge of the ontology of material objects, mathematical and logical knowledge. The chapter (...)
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  33. A Lutheran's case for Roman catholicism.Robert C. Koons - manuscript
    I wrote the following essay in early 2006 while still a member of the Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod. On the Vigil of Pentecost in A.D. 2007 (May 25th) I was formally received into the fellowship of the Roman Catholic Church at the parish of St. Louis the King of France in Austin, Texas.
     
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  34. Analogues of the Liar Paradox in Systems of Epistemic Logic Representing Meta-Mathematical Reasoning and Strategic Rationality in Non-Cooperative Games.Robert Charles Koons - 1987 - Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles
    The ancient puzzle of the Liar was shown by Tarski to be a genuine paradox or antinomy. I show, analogously, that certain puzzles of contemporary game theory are genuinely paradoxical, i.e., certain very plausible principles of rationality, which are in fact presupposed by game theorists, are inconsistent as naively formulated. ;I use Godel theory to construct three versions of this new paradox, in which the role of 'true' in the Liar paradox is played, respectively, by 'provable', 'self-evident', and 'justifiable'. I (...)
     
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  35.  29
    Solipsism, Idealism, and the Problem of Perception.Timothy H. Pickavance & Robert C. Koons - 2017 - In Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance (eds.), The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 281–313.
    One might think that the best metaphysical theory of the world includes the existence of other minds and of the physical world, while denying that we can know or be certain that this theory is true. This chapter considers Solipsism as a theory about reality. It examines the Veil of Perception, and then considers a series of direct arguments against the Solipsistic Veil, Phenomenalism, and Solipsism itself. The chapter looks at two obviously inadequate arguments for the Veil, namely, Berkeley's inconceivability (...)
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  36.  27
    Laws of Nature.Timothy H. Pickavance & Robert C. Koons - 2017 - In Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance (eds.), The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 94–105.
    Fred Dretske, David M. Armstrong, and Michael Tooley have all proposed that the truths about the laws of nature are metaphysically fundamental, consisting in a primitive, unanalyzable relation of 'necessitation' holding between two or more properties or universals. According to Strong Nomism, the laws of nature determine which counterfactual conditionals are true, and they also determine which powers and tendencies particular things have. This chapter treats Nomism as committed to the Dretske‐Armstrong‐Tooley (DAT) theory. Nomism provides a metaphysical explanation of the (...)
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  37.  96
    Aristotle's Formal Identity of Intellect and Object: A Solution to the Problem of Modal Epistemology.Robert C. Koons - 2019 - Ancient Philosophy Today 1 (1):84-107.
    In De Anima Book III, Aristotle subscribed to a theory of formal identity between the human mind and the extra-mental objects of our understanding. This has been one of the most controversial featu...
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  38.  21
    De Re Modality and Modal Knowledge.Timothy H. Pickavance & Robert C. Koons - 2017 - In Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance (eds.), The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 352–370.
    This chapter focuses mainly on how possible worlds relate to the truth and falsity of modal claims (or propositions), and therefore to whether claims are necessarily true, necessarily false, possibly true, possibly false, and so on. This issue is that of modality de dicto, modality concerning propositions. But there is another type of modality, namely modality de re. This has to do with the modal status of relations between things and their properties, with whether things possess properties necessarily, contingently or (...)
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  39.  21
    Particulars and the Problem of Individuation.Timothy H. Pickavance & Robert C. Koons - 2017 - In Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance (eds.), The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 171–200.
    This chapter focuses on question of the relation of properties to particulars. It considers three theories of facts: as tropes, as states of affairs, and as nexuses between particulars and universals, noting that in each case, facts turn out to be particulars of a kind. The chapter investigates the question of substances, considering two accounts about the relationship between substances and properties, namely, Relational and Constituent Ontology. Substances would have a surprising degree of metaphysical complexity. According to Constituent Ontology, properties (...)
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  40.  76
    Advancing the Aristotelian Project in Contemporary Metaphysics: A Review Essay.Robert C. Koons - 2019 - Philosophia Christi 21 (2):435-442.
    In a recent book, Substance and the Fundamentality of the Familiar, Ross Inman demonstrates the contemporary relevance of an Aristotelian approach to metaphysics and the philosophy of nature. Inman successfully applies the Aristotelian framework to a number of outstanding problems in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of physics. Inman tackles some intriguing questions about the ontological status of proper parts, questions which constitute a central focus of ongoing debate and investigation.
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  41.  20
    Composition: The General Question.Timothy H. Pickavance & Robert C. Koons - 2017 - In Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance (eds.), The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 514–530.
    This chapter takes up issues to do with Peter van Inwagen's (1990a) general composition question: what is it for one thing to be a part of another? The chapter begins with some background to do with formal mereology, the study of parts and wholes. In discussing the metaphysics of parts and wholes, it is helpful to have some specialized vocabulary, as well as a well thought‐out mathematical model of a very broad, inclusive theory. The theory of mereology, proposed by the (...)
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  42.  20
    Grounding, Ontological Dependence, and Fundamentality.Timothy H. Pickavance & Robert C. Koons - 2017 - In Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance (eds.), The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 47–73.
    An appeal to ontological parsimony or economy plays an important, perhaps indispensable, role in evaluating metaphysical theories. This chapter focuses primarily on the first conception of grounding, grounding as metaphysical explanation. It briefly discusses the relation of ontological dependency and its connections with grounding as explanation. Debates about grounding are a recurring theme in the history of Western philosophy. Much of Aristotle's metaphysical method also presupposes the existence of a grounding relation. The chapter investigates both conceptual and ontological grounding and (...)
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  43.  20
    Powers and Properties.Timothy H. Pickavance & Robert C. Koons - 2017 - In Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance (eds.), The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 106–122.
    Laws of nature are merely expressions of the powers possessed by various kinds of things, and counterfactual conditionals are grounded in the powers and tendencies of the entities involved in the counterfactual supposition together with their counterfactual surroundings. There are two versions of Strong Powerism. One takes the truthmakers for causal laws to be universals (a 'Realist' version). The second takes the truthmakers for causal laws to be the particulars that fall under the laws (a 'Nominalist' version). This chapter focuses (...)
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  44.  67
    Aristotelians and the A/B Theory Debate about Time.Robert C. Koons - 2020 - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 94 (3):463-474.
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  45.  19
    Against Emergent Individualism.Robert C. Koons - 2018 - In Jonathan J. Loose, Angus John Louis Menuge & J. P. Moreland (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism. Oxford, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 377–393.
    There is much common ground between such a Thomistic version of hylomorphism and emergent individualism. Both theories include a rejection of physicalism, in both its reductive and nonreductive versions, based on physicalism's failure to account adequately for qualia, intentionality, normativity, and mental causation. The author argues for the superiority of hylomorphism over emergent individualism on each of three issues: the nature of the causes of the existence of persons, the possibility of disembodied personal survival, and the nature of the influence (...)
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  46.  19
    Conditionals.Timothy H. Pickavance & Robert C. Koons - 2017 - In Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance (eds.), The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 75–93.
    One popular approach to the metaphysics of dispositional properties takes them to involve ascribing a conditional property, a property corresponding to a conditional statement. This chapter looks at some recent work on the semantics and logic of conditionals, followed by a consideration of Hypotheticalism, Nomism, Neo‐Humeism, and Powerism. It examines directly the question whether Hypotheticalism or Anti‐Hypotheticalism (categoricalism) is correct, and shows how to evaluate counterfactual conditionals. The evaluation of conditionals seems to turn on two sorts of facts about the (...)
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  47.  19
    Nihilism and Monism.Timothy H. Pickavance & Robert C. Koons - 2017 - In Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance (eds.), The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 227–252.
    This chapter considers the possibility of Nihilism, that nothing exists, and its alternative, Aliquidism, that something exists. This will lead us into an investigation of the point of positing existing things. The chapter looks at the debate between Monists, who believe in only one thing, and Pluralists, who believe in many. It also considers both radical and more moderate forms of both Nihilism and Monism, including, for example, Priority Monism. The chapter examines four arguments for Monism: those of Parmenides, Spinoza, (...)
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  48.  18
    Abstractionism: Worlds as Representations.Timothy H. Pickavance & Robert C. Koons - 2017 - In Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance (eds.), The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 332–351.
    This chapter covers number of Abstractionist views of modality. It considers three ways that Abstractionists might account for how possible worlds represent possibilities, rather than in terms of the categorial nature of worlds. First, there is Magical Abstractionism, according to which that question has no informative answer. Second, there is Linguistic Abstractionism, according to which possible worlds represent in the way that languages do. And finally, there is Pictorial Abstractionism, according to which possible worlds represent in the way that pictures (...)
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  49.  18
    Reductive Nominalism and Trope Theory.Timothy H. Pickavance & Robert C. Koons - 2017 - In Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance (eds.), The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 147–170.
    There are a number of different versions of Reductive Nominalism, versions distinguished by the way in which each accounts for facts about having and sharing properties. This chapter discusses three broad varieties of Reductive Nominalism: Predicate Nominalism, Class Nominalism, and Resemblance Nominalism. Class Nominalism identifies properties with classes or sets. Resemblance Nominalists come in two sub‐varieties, depending on whether they take the resemblance relation to hold between particular properties (called 'tropes') or particular things that have properties (ordinary particulars). Trope Theory (...)
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  50.  18
    Truthmakers.Timothy H. Pickavance & Robert C. Koons - 2017 - In Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance (eds.), The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 13–46.
    The first way that a discussion of truth gets one going in metaphysics is via its connection to propositions. Philosophers have taken a number of views about the true nature of propositions. The early part of the twentieth century saw a strong reaction against holism, led prominently by Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein. This chapter considers why we should believe in Classical Truthmaker Theory in the first place, as well as a fundamental challenge to the very foundation of truthmaker theory: (...)
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