Papers by Peter van Inwagen
This is a collection of philosophical papers by Peter van Inwagen, categorized somewhat arbitrarily. Eventually, I hope to make it complete.
General Metaphysics
- (draft) "Dispensing with Ontological Levels: An Illustration".
- (2023) "Paraphrase Techniques for Nihilists", Oxford Studies in Metaphysics 13: 3-19.
- (2021) "What is an Ontological Category?", Disputatio 10(16): 241-261.
- (2020) "The neo-Carnapians", Synthese 197: 7-32.
- (2019) "Against Analytic Existence Entailments", The Nature of Ordinary Objects (Cumpa and Brewer, eds.).
- (2015) "Nothing is Impossible", God, Truth, and Other Enigmas (Miroslaw Szatkowski, ed.): 33-58.
- (2014) "In Defense of Transcendental Universals", Metaphysics and Scientific Realism: Essays in Honor of David Malet Armstrong (Francesco Federico Calemi, ed.): 51-70.
- (2014) "Fictional Nominalism and Applied Mathematics", The Monist 97: 479-502.
- (2014) "Inside and Outside the Ontology Room", Introduction to Existence: Essays in Ontology.
- (2014) "Alston on Ontological Commitment", in Existence: Essays in Ontology.
- (2014) "Modes of Being and Quantification", Disputatio 5, 38: 1-24.
- (2012) ""Who Sees Not that All the Dispute
is About a Word?": Some Thoughts on Bennett's "Proxy 'Actualism'"", Hungarian Philosophical Review 3: 69-81.
- (2011) "Relational vs. Constituent Ontologies", Philosophical Perspectives 25: 389-405. Revised and reprinted as "Against Ontological Structure" in The Problem of Universals in Contemporary Thought (Galluzzo and Loux, eds)
- (2011) "Causation and the Mental", Reason, Metaphysics, and Mind
New Essays on the Philosophy of Alvin Plantinga (Rea, Clark, eds.).
- (2010) "Changing the Past", Oxford Studies in Metaphysics 5: 3-28.
- (2009) "The New Anti-Metaphysicians", Proceeding and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 83, 2: 45-61.
- (2009) "Being, Existence, and Ontological Commitment", Metametaphysics (Chalmers, Manley, Wasserman, eds.): 472-506.
- (2008) "McGinn on Existence", The Philosophical Quarterly 58: 36-58.
- (2008) "Quine's 1946 Lecture on Nominalism", Oxford Studies in Metaphysics 4: 125-142.
- (2007) "Impotence and Collateral Damage: One Charge in Van Fraassen's Indictment of Analytical Metaphysics", Philosophical Topics 35: 67-82. (appeared in 2010)
- (2006) "Names for Relations", Philosophical Perspectives 20: 535-477.
- (2004) "Properties", Knowledge and Reality (Crisp, Davidson, Vander Laan, eds.): 15-34. (this is a shorter version of "A Theory of Properties")
- (2004) "A Theory of Properties", Oxford Studies in Metaphysics 1: 107-138.
- (2002) "The Number of Things", Philosophical Issues 12: 176-196.
- (2001) "``It is Nonsensical to Speak of the Total Number of Objects''", Metaphysik im postmetaphysichen Zeitaler (Meixner, ed.) 61-71.
- (2001) "Existence, Ontological Commitment, and Fictional Entities", The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics (Loux, Zimmerman, eds.).
- (2000) "Quantification and Fictional Discourse", Empty Names, Fiction and the Puzzles of Non-existence (Everett, Hofweber, eds.).
- (1998) "Meta-ontology", Erkenntnis 48: 233-250.
- (1998) "Modal Epistemology", Philosophical Studies 92: 67-84.
- (1998) "The Nature of Metaphysics", Contemporary Readings in the Foundations of Metaphysics (Laurence, Macdonald, eds.): 11-21.
- (1996) "Why Is There Anything at All?", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 70: 95-110.
- (1991) "Searle on Ontological Commitment", John Searle and His Critics (Lepore, ed.).
- (1986) "Two Concepts of Possible Worlds", Midwest Studies in Philosophy 11: 185-213.
- (1985) "Plantinga on Trans-World Identity", Alvin Plantinga (Tomberlin, van Inwagen, eds.).
- (1985) "Pretense and Paraphrase", The Reasons of Art (McCormick, ed.): 414-422.
- (1983) "Fiction and Metaphysics", Philosophy and Literature 7: 67-77.
- (1980) "Indexicality and Actuality", Philosophical Review 89: 403-426.
- (1979) "Creatures of Fiction", American Philosophical Quarterly 14: 299-308.
- (1979) "Laws and Counterfactuals", Nous 13: 439-453.
- (1978) "A Definition of Chisholm's Notion of Immanent Causation", Philosophia 7: 567-581.
- (1977) "Counterfactuals With Disjunctive Antecedents" (with Thomas McKay), Philosophical Studies 31: 353-356.
Free Will
- (2018) "The Problem of Free Will Revisited", in Peter van Inwagen: Materialism, Free Will, and God (Jansen, Näger, eds.): 1-15.
- (2017) "Ability", Thinking About Free Will.
- (2017) "The Problem of Fr** W*ll", Thinking About Free Will.
- (2015) "Some Thoughts on An Essay on Free Will", The Harvard Review of Philosophy 22: 16-30.
- (2013) "A Dialogue on Free Will", Methode 3: 212-221.
- (2011) "A Promising Argument (.doc)", The Oxford Handbook of Free Will, 2nd ed. (Kane, ed.).
- (2008) "The Consequence Argument (.doc)", Metaphysics: The Big Questions 2nd Ed. (van Inwagen, Zimmerman, eds.).
- (2008) "How to Think About the Problem of Free Will", Journal of Ethics 12: 327-341.
- (2004) "Freedom to Break the Laws", Midwest Studies in Philosophy 28: 334-350.
- (2004) "van Inwagen on Free Will", Freedom and Determinism (Campbell, O'Rourke, Shier, eds.): 213-230.
- (2001) "Genes, Statistics, and Desert", Genetics and Criminal Behavior (Wasserman, Wachbroit, eds.): 225-242.
- (2000) "Free Will Remains a Mystery", Philosophical Perspectives 14: 1-19.
- (1999) "Moral Responsibility, Determinism, and the Ability to Do Otherwise", Journal of Ethics 3: 341-350.
- (1998) "The Mystery of Metaphysical Freedom", Metaphysics: The Big Questions (van Inwagen, Zimmerman, eds.): 365-374.
- (1997) "Fischer on Moral Responsibility", The Philosophical Quarterly 47: 373-381.
- (1994) "When the Will is Not Free", Philosophical Studies 75: 95-113.
- (1992) "Reply to Christopher Hill", Analysis 52: 56-61.
- (1991) "Modal Inference and the Free Will Problem", Daimon: Revista De Filosophia 3: 57-63.
- (1990) "Logic and the Free Will Problem", Social Theory and Practice 16: 279-290.
- (1990) "Response to Slote", Social Theory and Practice 16: 385-395.
- (1989) "When is the Will Free?", Philosophical Perspectives 3: 399-422.
- (1985) "On Two Arguments for Compatibilism", Analysis 45: 161-163.
- (1985) "Compatibilistic Reflections", Australasian Journal of Philosophy 63: 349-353.
- (1984) "Dennett on 'Could Have Done Otherwise'", Journal of Philosophy 81: 565-567.
- (1980) "The Incompatibility of Responsibility and Determinism", Action and Responsibility (Brand, Bradie, eds.): 30-37.
- (1978) "Compatibilism and the Burden of Proof", Analysis 40: 98-100.
- (1978) "Ability and Responsibility", Philosophical Review 87: 201-224.
- (1977) "Reply to Gallois", Philosophical Studies 32: 107-111.
- (1977) "Reply to Narveson", Philosophical Studies 32: 89-98.
- (1975) "The Incompatibility of Free Will and Determinism", Philosophical Studies 27: 185-199.
- (1974) "A Formal Approach to the Problem of Free Will and Determinism", Theoria 40: 9-22.
- (1972) "Lehrer on Determinism, Free Will, and Evidence", Philosophical Studies 23: 351-357.
Material Objects and Human Persons
- (2007) "A Materialist Ontology of the Human Person", Persons: Human and Divine (van Inwagen, Zimmerman, eds.): 199-215.
- (2007) "Plantinga's Replacement Argument", Alvin Plantinga (Baker, ed.): 188-227.
- (2006) "Can Mereological Sums Change Their Parts?", Journal of Philosophy 103: 614-630.
- (2004) "The Self: The Incredulous Stare Articulated", Ratio 57: 478-491.
- (2002) "What Do We Refer to When We Say 'I'?", The Blackwell Guide to Metaphysics (Gale, ed.): 175-189.
- (2002) "Why Vagueness Is A Mystery", Acta Analytica 17: 11-17.
- (2000) "Temporal Parts and Identity Across Time", The Monist 83: 437-459.
- (1997) "Materialism and the Psychological-Continuity Account of Personal Identity", Philosophical Perspectives 11: 305-319.
- (1996) "Foreword", Material Constitution (Rea, ed.): ix-xii.
- (1994) "Composition as Identity", Philosophical Perspectives 8: 207-220.
- (1993) "Naive Mereology, Admissible Valuations, and Other Matters", Nous 27: 229-234.
- (1993) "Precis of Material Beings", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 53: 683-686.
- (1993) "Reply to Reviewers", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 53: 709-719.
- (1990) "Four-Dimensional Objects", Nous 24: 245-255.
- (1988) "How to Reason About Vague Objects", Philosophical Topics 16: 255-284.
- (1987) "When Are Objects Parts?", Philosophical Perspectives 1: 21-47.
- (1986) "How to Reason About Vague Objects (Abstract)", Nous 20: 72-73.
- (1984) "On Computer Simulation of the Presence of a Thinking Being", The Syracuse Scholar Fall: 15-21.
- (1981) "The Doctrine of Arbitrary Undetached Parts", Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 62: 123-137.
- (1980) "Philosophers and the Words 'Human Body'", Time and Cause: Essays Presented to Ricahrd Taylor (van Inwagen, ed.): 283-300.
Philosophy of Religion
- "I Look for the Resurrection of the Dead and the Life of the World to Come (.doc)"
- (forthcoming) "Falsity and Untruth", Religious Studies
- (2023) "Improvable Creations", TheoLogica 8 (2)
- (2023) "The 'Range' Argument from Evil", Freedom, Responsibility, and Value: Essays in Honor of John Martin Fischer (Taylor W. Cyr, Andrew Law & Neal A. Tognazzini, eds.): 213-226.
- (2018) "Lowe's Ontological Argument", Ontology, Modality, and Mind: Themes from the Metaphysics of E. J. Lowe (Carruth, Gibb, Heil, eds.).
- (2018) "Begging the Question", in Ontological Arguments, Oppy, ed.
- (2016) "The Rev’d Mr Bayes and the Life Everlasting", in Reason and Faith: Themes from Richard Swinburne, Bergmann and Brower, eds. (video here).
- (2015) "Did God Create Shapes?", Philosophia Christi 17: 285-290 (full exchange here).
- (2015) "A Reply to Craig", Philosophia Christi 17: 299-305 (full exchange here).
- (2012) "CS Lewis' Argument Against Naturalism", Res Philosophica 90: 113-124.
- (2012) "Three Versions of the Ontological Argument", Ontological Proofs Today (?Szatkowski, ed.).
- (2012) "Russell's China Teapot", The Right to Believe: Perspectives in Religious Epistemology (?ukasiewicz, Pouivet, eds.) Also delivered as the 1st Alston Memorial Lecture at Syracuse University; September, 2012.
- (2011) "Comments on Professor Curley's 'The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob'", Divine Evil? The Moral Character of the God of Abraham (Murray, Rea, eds.).
- (2010) "A Kind of Darwinism", "Darwinism and Design", "Science and Scripture", Science and Religion in Dialogue, Vol. 2 (Stewart, ed.).
- (2010) "The Inspiration of the Hebrew Bible and the Morality of God's Commands", The Harvard Ichthus.
- (2009) "Explaining Belief in the Supernatural: Some Thoughts on Paul Bloom's 'Religious Belief as an Evolutionary Accident'", The Believing Primate: Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Reflections on the Origin of Religion (Schloss, Murray, eds.): 128-138.
- (2009) "God and Other Uncreated Things", Metaphysics and God: Essays in Honor of Eleonore Stump (Timpe, ed.): 3-20.
- (2009) "Indeterminacy and Vagueness: Logic and Metaphysics", European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 1: 1-19.
- (2009) "Weak Darwinism", Darwin and Catholicism (Caruana, ed.): 107-120.
- (2009) "Some Remarks on the Modal Ontological Argument", Philo 12: 217-227.
- (2008) "What Does an Omniscient Being Know About the Future?" Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion 1: 216-230.
- (2005) "Reply to Sean Carroll", Faith and Philosophy 22: 636-640.
- (2005) "The Problem of Evil", The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Religion (Wainwright, ed.): 188-219.
- (2005) "Is God an Unnecessary Hypothesis?", God and the Ethics of Belief (Dole, Chignell, eds.): 131-149.
- (2005) "Human Destiny", The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Religion (Mann, ed.): 245-265.
- (2004) "Can Science Disprove the Existence of God?", Philosophic Exchange: Annual Proceedings 34: 38-53.
- (2003) "Three Persons in One Being: On Attempts to Show that the Doctrine of the Trinity is Self-Contradictory", The Holy Trinity (Stewart, ed.): 83-89.
- (2003) "The Compatibility of Darwinism and Design", God and Design: The Teleological Argument and Modern Science (Manson, ed.).
- (2002) "What is the Problem of the Hiddenness of God?", in Divine Hiddenness: New Essays (Howard-Snyder and Moser, eds.).
- (2001) "The Argument from Particular Horrendous Evils", Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 74: 65-80.
- (1999) "Some Remarks on Plantinga's Advice", Faith and Philosophy 16: 164-172.
- (1999) "Christian Belief and the Platonic Conception of Rationality", The Rationality of Theism (Bruntrup, Tacelli, eds.): 145-159.
- (1997) "Of "Of Miracles"", The Possibility of Resurrection and Other Essays in Christian Apologetics.
- (1997) "Probability and Evil", The Possibility of Resurrection and Other Essays in Christian Apologetics.
- (1997) "Against Middle Knowledge", Midwest Studies in Philosophy 21: 225-236.
- (1997) "A Reply to Professor Hick", Faith and Philosophy 14: 299-302.
- (1996) "Reflections on the Essays of Draper, Gale, and Russell", The Evidential Argument from Evil (Howard-Snyder, ed.): 219-243.
- (1995) "Dualism and Materialism: Athens and Jerusalem?", Faith and Philosophy 12: 475-488.
- (1995) "Non Est Hick", The Rationality of Belief and the Plurality of Faith (Senor, ed.).
- (1994) "Not by Confusion of Substance But by Unity of Person", Reason and the Christian Religion (Padgett, ed.): 201-226.
- (1994) "Doubts About Darwinism", Darwinism: Science or Philosophy? (Buell, Hearne, eds.): 177-191.
- (1994) "Response to Frederick Grinnell", Darwinism: Science or Philosophy?.
- (1993) "Critical Studies of the New Testament and the User of the New Testament", Hermes and Athena: Biblical Exegesis and Philosophical Theology (Stump, Flint, eds.): 159-190. Reprinted as "Do You Want Us to Listen to You?" in 'Behind' the Text: History and Biblical Interpretation (Bartholomew, Evans, Healy, Rae, eds.)
- (1993) "Genesis and Evolution", Reasoned Faith (Stump, ed.): 93-127.
- (1991) "The Problem of Evil, the Problem of Air, and the Problem of Silence", Philosophical Perspectives 5: 135-165.
- (1988) "The Magnitude, Duration, and Distribution of Evil: A Theodicy", Philosophical Topics 16: 161-187.
- (1988) "And Yet They Are Not Three Gods But One God", Philosophy and the Christian Faith (Morris, ed.): 241-278.
- (1988) "The Place of Chance in a World Sustained by God", Divine and Human Action (Morris, ed.): 211-235.
- (1978) "The Possibility of Resurrection", International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 9: 114-121.
- (1977) "Ontological Arguments", Nous 11: 375-395.
Logic and Language
Misc.
- (2019) "Interview with Szatkowski", Quo Vadis, Metaphysics? Essays in Honor of Peter van Inwagen (Szatkowski, ed.): 11-32.
- (2019) "Jonathan and Peter (by Elisabeth M. Bolduc)", Quo Vadis, Metaphysics? Essays in Honor of Peter van Inwagen (Szatkowski, ed.): 33-34.
- (2018) "Replies", in Peter van Inwagen: Materialism, Free Will, and God (Jansen, Näger, eds.): 199-268.
- (2017) "Concluding Meditation", Being, Freedom, and Method (Keller, ed.): 343-394.
- (2015) "Opening Statement: What Difference Would (or Does) God's Existence Make?" (from debate at University of Toronto)
- (2010) "Peter van Inwagen", Metaphysics: Five Questions (Steglich-Peterson, ed.) 179-195.
- (2010) "We're Right, They're Wrong", Disagreement (Feldman, Warfield, ed.): 10-28.
- (2009) "Listening to Clifford's Ghost", Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 65: 15-35.
- (2008) "Was George Orwell a Metaphysical Realist?", Philosophia Scientiae 1: 161-185 (Pouivet, Rebuschi, eds.).
- (2006) "What is Analytic Philosophy? What is Naturalism?", Analytic Philosophy without Naturalism (Corradini, Galvan, Lowe, eds.): 74-88.
- (2000) "Double Dactyls", Mind 109: 23-24.
- (1997) "Skeptical of the Skeptics" (review of The Historical Christ and the Jesus of Faith: The Incarnational Narrative as History by C. Stephen Evans), Books and Culture May/June 1997.
- (1996) ""It is Wrong, Everywhere, Always, and for Anyone, to Believe Anything Upon Insufficient Evidence"", Faith, Freedom, and Rationality (Jordan, Howard-Snyder, eds.): 137-153. Reprinted in Stump and Murray, eds., Philosophy of Religion: The Big Questions (Blackwell, 1999).
- (1994) "Quam Dilecta", God and the Philosophers (Morris, ed.).
- (1988) "On Always Being Wrong", Midwest Studies in Philosophy 12: 95-111.
- (1982) "Abstract of Comments: Abnormal Experience and Abnormal Belief", Nous 16: 13-14.
Encyclopedia Entries.
- (2007) "Metaphysics" Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- (1998) "Incarnation and Christology" "Lewis, David", "Trinity", "Resurrection", Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- (1998) "Ontological Arguments", Philosophy of Religion: A Guide to the Subject (Davies, ed.): 54-58.
- (1996) "Persistence", The Encyclopedia of Philosophy Supplement.
- (1995) "Subsistence", The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy.
- (1991) "Entia Successiva", "Determinism", Handbook of Metaphysics and Ontology (Burkhardt, Smith, eds.).
Reviews
- (2002) "Review of Persons and Bodies by Lynne Rudder Baker", The Philosophical Review 111:138-141.
- (1996) "Review of Problems in Philosophy by Colin McGinn", The Philosophical Review 105: 253-256.
- (1993) "Critical Study of Identity, Consciousness, and Value by Peter Unger", Nous 27: 373-379.
- (1993) "Universes by John Leslie", Faith and Philosophy 10: 439-443.
- (1988) "Critical Study of Elbow Room, by Daniel Dennett", Nous 22: 609-618.
- (1987) "Without Proof or Evidence, by O.K. Bouwsma", Faith and Philosophy 4: 103-108.
- (1986) "Review of Philosophical Papers, Vol. I by David Lewis", Mind 95: 246-257.
- (1985) "Review of The First Person by Roderick M. Chisholm", Nous 19: 122-129.
- (1984) "Review of Was Spinoza Fooled by the Ontological Argument? by Joel I. Friedman", The Journal of Symbolic Logic 49: 997-998.
- (1984) "Review of The Logical Structure of Spinoza's Ethics, Part I by Charles Jarrett" (with Jonathan Bennett), The Journal of Symbolic Logic 49: 996-997.
- (1980) "Critical Study of Worlds, Times and Selves by A.N. Prior and Kit Fine", Nous 14: 251-259.
- (1979) "Review of The Coherence of Theism by Richard Swinburne", The Philosophical Review 88: 668-672.
- (1978) "Review of Naming, Necessity, and Natural Kinds by Stephen P. Schwartz", International Studies in Philosophy 10: 197-199.
- (1978) "Review of Will, Freedom, and Power by Anthony Kenny", The Philosophical Review 87: 99-101.
- (1973) "Review of Determinism by Bernard Berofsky", The Philosophical Review 82: 399-404.
Books
- (2024) The Abstract and the Concrete: Further Essays in Ontology
- (2024) Do Numbers Exist? A Debate About Abstract Objects (with W.L. Craig)
- (2023) Being: A Study in Ontology; Preface and Introduction
- (2017) Thinking about Free Will
- (2014) Existence: Essays in Ontology
- (2014) Metaphysics (4th ed.)
- (2008) Metaphysics: The Big Questions (2nd ed., van Inwagen, Zimmerman, eds.)
- (2007) Persons: Human and Divine (van Inwagen, Zimmerman, eds.)
- (2006) The Problem of Evil
- (2004) Christian Faith and the Problm of Evil (van Inwagen, ed.)
- (2001) Ontology, Identity, and Modality: Essays in Metaphysics
- (1997) The Possibility of Resurrection and other Essays in Christian Apologetics
- (1995) God, Knowledge, and Mystery: Essays in Philosophical Theology
- (1990) Material Beings
- (1985) Alvin Plantinga (Tomberlin, van Inwagen, eds.)
- (1983) An Essay on Free Will
- (1980) Time and Cause: Essays Presented to Richard Taylor (van Inwagen, ed.)
Maintained by Andrew M. Bailey. I maintain similar collections of papers by John Martin Fischer, David Kaplan, David Lewis, and Alvin Plantinga.
(Last updated: 20 March 2025)