114 found
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  1. (1 other version)Finite and Infinite Goods: A Framework for Ethics.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1999 - New York: Oxford University Press.
    Renowned scholar Robert Adams explores the relation between religion and ethics through a comprehensive philosophical account of a theistically-based framework for ethics. Adams' framework begins with the good rather than the right, and with excellence rather than usefulness. He argues that loving the excellent, of which adoring God is a clear example, is the most fundamental aspect of a life well lived. Developing his original and detailed theory, Adams contends that devotion, the sacred, grace, martyrdom, worship, vocation, faith, and other (...)
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  2. A Theory of Virtue: Excellence in Being for the Good.Robert Merrihew Adams - 2006 - Oxford, GB: Clarendon Press.
    The distinguished philosopher Robert M. Adams presents a major work on virtue, which is once again a central topic in ethical thought. A Theory of Virtue is a systematic, comprehensive framework for thinking about the moral evaluation of character, proposing that virtue is chiefly a matter of being for what is good, and that virtues must be intrinsically excellent and not just beneficial or useful.
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  3. (1 other version)Primitive thisness and primitive identity.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1979 - Journal of Philosophy 76 (1):5-26.
  4. (1 other version)Theories of actuality.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1974 - Noûs 8 (3):211-231.
  5. Involuntary sins.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1985 - Philosophical Review 94 (1):3-31.
  6. Actualism and thisness.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1981 - Synthese 49 (1):3-41.
  7. Must God create the best?Robert Merrihew Adams - 1972 - Philosophical Review 81 (3):317-332.
  8. (1 other version)Motive utilitarianism.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1976 - Journal of Philosophy 73 (14):467-481.
  9. Middle Knowledge and the Problem of Evil.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1977 - American Philosophical Quarterly 14 (2):109-117.
  10. Time and Thisness.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1986 - Midwest Studies in Philosophy 11 (1):315-329.
    I have argued elsewhere that there are facts, and possibilities, that are not purely qualitative. In a second paper, however, I have argued that all possibilities are purely qualitative except insofar as they involve individuals that actually exist. In particular, I have argued that there are no thisnesses of nonactual individuals (where the thisness of x is the property of being x, or of being identical with x), and that there are no singular propositions about nonactual individuals (where a singular (...)
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  11. The virtue of faith and other essays in philosophical theology.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1987 - New York: Oxford University Press.
    Robert Merrihew Adams has been a leader in renewing philosophical respect for the idea that moral obligation may be founded on the commands of God. This collection of Adams' essays, two of which are previously unpublished, draws from his extensive writings on philosophical theology that discuss metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical issues surrounding the concept of God--whether God exists or not, what God is or would be like, and how we ought to relate ourselves to such a being. Adams studies the (...)
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  12. (1 other version)Divine Command Metaethics Modified Again.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1979 - Journal of Religious Ethics 7 (1):66 - 79.
    This essay presents a version of divine command metaethics inspired by recent work of Donnellan, Kripke, and Putnam on the relation between necessity and conceptual analysis. What we can discover a priori, by conceptual analysis, about the nature of ethical wrongness is that wrongness is the property of actions that best fills a certain role. What property that is cannot be discovered by conceptual analysis. But I suggest that theists should claim it is the property of being contrary to the (...)
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  13.  83
    A theory of virtue: response to critics.Robert Merrihew Adams - 2010 - Philosophical Studies 148 (1):159-165.
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  14.  52
    A theory of virtue: introductory remarks.Robert Merrihew Adams - 2010 - Philosophical Studies 148 (1):133-134.
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  15. Things in themselves.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1997 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 57 (4):801-825.
    The paper is an interpretation and defense of Kant's conception of things in themselves as noumena, along the following lines. Noumena are transempirical realities. As such they have several important roles in Kant's critical philosophy (Section 1). Our theoretical faculties cannot obtain enough content for a conception of noumena that would assure their real possibility as objects, but can establish their merely formal logical possibility (Sections 2-3). Our practical reason, however, grounds belief in the real possibility of some noumena, and (...)
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  16. Existence, self-interest, and the problem of evil.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1979 - Noûs 13 (1):53-65.
  17.  29
    (3 other versions)Leibniz.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1994 - The Leibniz Review 19:113-116.
  18. Divine necessity.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1983 - Journal of Philosophy 80 (11):741-752.
  19. Saints.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1984 - Journal of Philosophy 81 (7):392.
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  20. The Virtue of Faith.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1984 - Faith and Philosophy 1 (1):3-15.
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  21. The Problem of evil.Marilyn McCord Adams & Robert Merrihew Adams (eds.) - 1990 - New York: Oxford University Press.
    The problem of evil is one of the most discussed topics in the philosophy of religion. For some time, however, there has been a need for a collection of readings that adequately represents recent and ongoing writing on the topic. This volume fills that need, offering the most up-to-date collection of recent scholarship on the problem of evil. The distinguished contributors include J.L. Mackie, Nelson Pike, Roderick M. Chisholm, Terence Penelhum, Alvin Plantinga, William L. Rowe, Stephen J. Wykstra, John Hick, (...)
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  22. Moral arguments for theistic belief.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1979 - In Cornelius F. Delaney (ed.), Rationality and Religious Belief. University of Notre Dame Press.
    Moral arguments were the type of theistic argument most characteristic of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. More recently they have become one of philosophy’s abandoned farms. The fields are still fertile, but they have not been cultivated systematically since the latest methods came in. The rambling Victorian farmhouse has not been kept up as well as similar structures, and people have not been stripping the sentimental gingerbread off the porches to reveal the clean lines of argument. This paper is (...)
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  23. A Modified Divine Command Theory of Ethical Wrongness.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1997 - In Thomas L. Carson & Paul K. Moser (eds.), Morality and the good life. New York: Oxford University Press.
     
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  24.  59
    Divine Motivation Theory. LINDA ZAGZEBSKI. Cambridge.Robert Merrihew Adams - 2007 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 73 (2):493-497.
    Divine Motivation theory is a major contribution both to the philosophy of religion, particularly the philosophy of religious ethics, and to general ethical theory. It is demanding reading, because it is long and complex and about difficult issues. It is also rewarding, because it is suggestive and highly original, written and argued with philosophical intelligence and disciplined care, and rich in systematic connections and explanations of them.
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  25. God, Possibility, and Kant.Robert Merrihew Adams - 2000 - Faith and Philosophy 17 (4):425-440.
    In one of his precritical works, Kant defends, as “the only possible” way of demonstrating the existence of God, an argument from the nature of possibility. Whereas Leibniz had argued that possibilities must be thought by God in order to obtain the ontological standing that they need, Kant argued that at least the most fundamental possibilities must be exemplified in God. Here Kant’s argument is critically examined in comparison with its Leibnizian predecessor, and it is suggested that an argument combining (...)
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  26. The logical structure of Anselm's arguments.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1971 - Philosophical Review 80 (1):28-54.
  27. An anti-molinist argument.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1991 - Philosophical Perspectives 5:343-353.
  28.  51
    Moral Faith.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1995 - Journal of Philosophy 92 (2):75-95.
  29.  19
    What is, and What is in Itself: A Systematic Ontology.Robert Merrihew Adams - 2022 - Oxford University Press.
    This long-awaited book by one of the world's leading philosophers offers a systematic account of kinds of being, ways in which things can be or can fail to be.
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  30. Kierkegaard’s Arguments Against Objective Reasoning In Religion.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1977 - The Monist 60 (2):228-243.
    Versions of this paper have been read to philosophical colloquia at Occidental College and California State University, Fullerton. I am indebted to participants in those discussions, to students in many of my classes, and particularly to Marilyn McCord Adams, Van Harvey, Thomas Kselman, William Laserow, and James Muyskens, for helpful comment on the ideas which are contained in this paper (or which would have been, had it not been for their criticisms).
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  31. Where do our ideas come from.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1975 - In Stephen P. Stich (ed.), Innate Ideas. Berkeley, CA, USA: University of California Press. pp. 71--87.
     
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  32. Phenomenalism and Corporeal Substance in Leibniz.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1983 - Midwest Studies in Philosophy 8 (1):217-257.
  33. Pure Love.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1980 - Journal of Religious Ethics 8 (1):83 - 99.
    The place of self-concern in Christian love is studied, beginning with Fénelon's extreme claim that in perfect love for God one would desire nothing for its own sake except that God's will be done. This view is criticized. A distinction is made between self-interest (desire for one's own good for its own sake) and other sorts of self-concern; and it is argued that self-concern has an important role in the Christian virtues, but that self-interest has a less important role than (...)
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  34. Should ethics be more impersonal? A critical notice of Derek Parfit, reasons and persons.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1989 - Philosophical Review 98 (4):439-484.
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  35. Divine Commands and the Social Nature of Obligation.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1987 - Faith and Philosophy 4 (3):262-275.
    Divine command metaethics is one of those theories according to which the nature of obligation is grounded in personal or social relationships. In this paper I first try to show how facts about human relationships can fill some of the role that facts of obligation aresupposed to play, specifically with regard to moral motivation and guilt. Then I note certain problems that arise for social theories of obligation, and argue that they can be dealt with more adequately by an expansion (...)
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  36.  45
    Substance and Individuation in Leibniz.Robert Merrihew Adams - 2002 - Mind 111 (444):851-855.
  37. (1 other version)Love and the problem of evil.Robert Merrihew Adams - 2006 - Philosophia 34 (3):243-251.
    The focus of this paper is the virtual certainty that much of what we must prize in loving any human person would not have existed in a world that did not contain much of the evil that has occurred in the history of the actual world. It is argued that the appropriate response to this fact must be some form of ambivalence, but that lovers have reason to prefer an ambivalence that contextualizes regretted evils in the framework of what we (...)
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  38.  32
    (1 other version)The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz.Robert Merrihew Adams & Nicholas Jolley - 1996 - Philosophical Review 105 (2):245.
    Because of their vastness and rather fragmentary character, the writings of Leibniz leave the student unusually dependent on secondary literature for guidance. That the literature on Leibniz is exceptionally good is all the more reason to welcome the kind of orientation to the riches of both primary and secondary sources that this Companion aims to provide. Announcing itself as “the most accessible and comprehensive guide to Leibniz currently available” for nonspecialists and “a conspectus of recent developments in the interpretation of (...)
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  39. Berkeley’s “Notion” of Spiritual Substance.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1973 - Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 55 (1):47-69.
  40. Has It Been Proved That All Real Existence Is Contingent?Robert Merrihew Adams - 1971 - American Philosophical Quarterly 8 (3):284 - 291.
  41.  81
    Vocation.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1987 - Faith and Philosophy 4 (4):448-462.
    Is there a way in which we can have obligations that do not follow from general ethical principles in conjunction with non-normative facts about our situation in the world? I argue for an affirmative answer to this question, based on a divine command theory of vocation. I explore the structure of such a theory, deriving from Kierkegaard the idea that a vocation will normally be closely connected with one’s selfhood, and that it may override other prima facie obligations. Epistemological issues (...)
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  42.  18
    Nestorius and Nestorianism.Robert Merrihew Adams - 2021 - The Monist 104 (3):366-375.
    This paper has three parts. The first outlines the history of Nestorianism. From the end of the fifth century all the way into the thirteenth century, quite a large population—in fact most Christians in Asia—belonged to branches of the Nestorian church. The second part provides a brief biography of Nestorius, after whom this church was named. The third part explores two elements of Nestorius’s christology, as they are found in his posthumously discovered theological writings. Does Christ have one nature or (...)
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  43. (1 other version)Presumption and the necessary existence of God.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1988 - Noûs 22 (1):19-32.
  44. The problem of total devotion.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1993 - In Neera Kapur Badhwar (ed.), Friendship: a philosophical reader. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. pp. 108--132.
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  45.  66
    Responses.Robert Merrihew Adams - 2002 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 64 (2):475–490.
    In responding here to four respected colleagues I am grateful for their perceptive, and sympathetic but not uncritical, attention to my book. I discuss their comments in an order that permits me to focus first on the good and then on the right. I begin with some remarks addressed to two of my critics at once; there follow sections addressed to each of the four individually.
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  46. The concept of a divine command.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1996 - In Dewi Zephaniah Phillips (ed.), Religion and morality. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 59--80.
  47. Middle knowledge.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1973 - Journal of Philosophy 70 (17):552-554.
  48.  46
    Common Projects and Moral Virtue.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1988 - Midwest Studies in Philosophy 13 (1):297-307.
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  49.  24
    Liebniz's Examination of the Christian Religion.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1994 - Faith and Philosophy 11 (4):517-546.
  50. Anti-consequentialism and the transcendence of the good.Robert Merrihew Adams - 2003 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 67 (1):114–132.
    Richard Boyd’s “Finite Beings, Finite Goods” is exactly the sort of response a philosopher hopes to evoke. It is perceptive and fair-minded in its reading and criticism of my work, illuminating the agreements and disagreements and the motivations on both sides, and showing points at which my position stands in need of more adequate development. At the same time it is much more than a response, offering a fuller and richer development, on several points, of what was already, in my (...)
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