Debates about the metaphysical compatibility between miracles and natural laws often appear to prejudge the issue by either adopting or rejecting a strong physicalist thesis (the idea that the physical is all that exists). The operative component of physicalism is a causal closure principle: that every caused event is a physically caused event. If physicalism and this strong causal closure principle are accepted, then supernatural interventions are rules out ’tout court’, while rejecting physicalism gives miracles metaphysical carte blanche. This paper (...) argues for a more moderate version of physicalism that respects important physicalist intuitions about causal closure while allowing for miracles’ logical possibility. A recent proposal for a specific mechanism for the production of miracles (Larmer 1996d) is criticized and rejected. In its place, two separate mechanisms (suitable for deterministic and indeterministic worlds, respectively) are proposed that do conform to a more moderate. (shrink)

The metaphysics of miracles put forward in my article, "Miracles: Metaphysics, Physics and Physicalism," above (125-147) are, argues Robert Larmer, both unnecessary and unworkable. Here, I try more clearly to explain that my goal of saving important physicalist intuitions that are incompatible with both the ’open-systems’ and ’exemption’ approaches’ use of powerful ’ceteris paribus’ clauses. I also defend the two mechanisms proposed in the paper from Larmer’s criticisms.

I present an in-class exercise (one full class, then discussions in subsequent classes) designed to help establish a community experience useful in discussions of economic, social and political philosophy. Students engage in a “poker market,” trading playing cards to assemble particular “hands” that are valuable, as an analog to the libertarian free market. Various alterations to the basic rules can be instituted, or just discussed, as ways to explore different philosophies of socio-political organization in an accessible and relevant manner for (...) students. (shrink)