Daniel Speak
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Chair, Department of Philosophy (May 2011 -)
Ph.D., University of California Riverside,
Specialties: Metaphysics (esp. of the free will), Philosophy of Action, Moral Philosophy, Epistemology, Philosophy of Religion
Current Projects: I can't seem to get the problems of agency out of my head; and I continue to find the libertarian view of human freedom to be the most generally satifying -- despite numerous prominent objections. My efforts to defend libertarianism in distinctively axiological terms are still under way. Over the next year or two I will spend a good deal of time thinking and writing about the relationship between human freedom and divine goodness. In particular, I will be writing an essay on free will theodicies (think, especially, of John Hick and Richard Swinburne) for Blackwell's Companion to the Problem of Evil. It is an open question whether or not I have enough to say about the problem of evil to justify attempting a monograph on the subject.
Selected Publications:
"The Consequence of Argument Revisited," in The Oxford Handbook of Free Will (2nd Edition), edited by Robert Kane. Oxford University Press, July 2011.
"Leading the Way," The Journal of Ethics, 12: 123-128, May 2008 (Guest editorial introduction to a sp;ecial volume of the journal dedicated to the work of John Fischer).
“The Impertinence of Frankfurt-style Argument,” The Philosophical Quarterly, January, 2007.
“Salvation Without Belief,” Religious Studies, 2007.
“Semi-Compatibilism and Stalemate,” Philosophical Explorations 8, 2005: 95-102.
“PAPistry: Another Defense,” Midwest Studies in Philosophy, Vol. 29: Free Will and Moral Reponsibility [Oxford: Blackwell, 2005].
Contact Information:
Email: dspeak@lmu.edu