Plantinga’s nice mention of me

I just came across this interesting interview with Alvin Plantinga, where he nicely cites me:

Q: What atheists writing today do you think are the most even-handed or doing the best work for the areas you’re working on (e.g. religious epistemology and the science/religion conflict)?

Plantinga: I guess I would say Michael Tooley would be one. Another would be Paul Draper, although he’s not really an atheist but more of an agnostic. So if you include agnostics I would include Paul Draper. Another would be Bradley Monton. I think he is an atheist and he writes very well on fine tuning and that sort of thing.

 

David Albert on Lawrence Krauss

This is an absolutely brilliant book review. Krauss is a really smart guy in some ways, but horribly simple-minded in others. He represents a lot of what I don’t like about the contemporary atheist movement: treating theism as obviously wrong, and religious people as obviously misguided. While I agree with Krauss’s atheism, I recognize that Krauss and I might well be wrong; we should show the appropriate level of intellectual humility. 

 

Time Travel Conference

I’ll be speaking at this conference on time travel at North Carolina State on April 9; it should be enjoyable!

 

Boulder philosophy of science conference

Call For Papers: The 27th Boulder Conference on the History and Philosophy of Science

University of Colorado at Boulder

September 23rd – 25th, 2011

 

The Boulder Conference on the History and Philosophy of Science is an annual event focusing on a key topic in history and philosophy of science. Special invitations are extended to scholars in the Colorado area, but national and international participants are equally welcome.

 

This year’s topic is: History and Philosophy of Physics

 

Keynote speakers:

Daniel Kennefick (Department of Physics, University of Arkansas)

Laura Ruetsche (Department of Philosophy, University of Michigan)

 

 

Papers on any aspect of the history or philosophy of science are encouraged. Since the conference focus this year will be on history and philosophy of physics, some preference will be given to papers that focus on topics related to either of those areas.

 

To be considered for the program, either submit a completed paper with short abstract, or an extended (up to 1000 words) abstract. (Graduate students are asked to submit a completed paper.)

 

Any questions may be directed to one of the two conference organizers: Allan Franklin (Department of Physics, allan.franklin@colorado.edu) or Bradley Monton (Department of Philosophy, monton@colorado.edu). Submissions are due by 15 July 2011 and should be sent as an email attachment ( in .doc or .pdf format) to both Professors Franklin and Monton. Acceptances will be announced by 1 August 2011.

 

Graduate students are encouraged to submit for the program; those whose papers are accepted will receive a modest stipend of $100 to help offset expenses.

 

The Committee on the History and Philosophy of Science at University of Colorado at Boulder is cosponsored by the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, the Center for the Humanities and the Arts, and by the following University of Colorado Departments:  Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Geological Sciences; History; Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; Philosophy; Mathematics; and Physics.

 

 

 

How the Beverly Hills Times Magazine tried to scam me

I got this intriguing email a couple weeks ago:

Dear Professor,

The Beverly Hills Times Magazine has come across a book about which we are considering running an article. The book presents a theory about the emotional balance of people, with focus on homeostasis, evolution, conservation laws, society, and religion. We are seeking background information on the topics in the book to ensure that all of the information in the book is accurate. We are asking for your assistance because your extensive expertise has been brought to the attention of the Beverly Hills Times Magazine.

As background information on the Beverly Hills Times Magazine, my name is Stephen Takowsky, and I am the publisher of Beverly Hills Times Magazine. This is the only free magazine that goes to the residences and businesses in Beverly Hills, California. We have several prestigious monthly contributors including: Ralph Nader, Erin Brockovich, Ron Paul, and Dennis Kucinich. We maintain close contacts with other media, and our articles have been featured on several media platforms including CNN and TMZ. Our websites focus on gathering heavy traffic for our articles by bringing the key words in our articles to the top of search engines.

For more information on our magazine, you can check out our website at bhtmag.com, or you can Google us by searching for Beverly Hills Times.

Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. Our main goal at this point is to determine whether there is any established scientific evidence that tends either to support or invalidate the theory presented in the book. We want to find out if there is any scientific research that is relevant to the premise of the book. The Beverly Hills Times Magazine would give you full credit for any input you provide. We would also consider publishing one of your own articles as trade for your contribution.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at Publisher@bhtmag.com

Here is a link to the book: http://www.ofgrandeur.com

If you are interested, we would appreciate having your comments by September 19, 2010.

Thank you for your time.

Stephen Takowsky
Publisher, Beverly Hills Times Magazine
bhtmag.com
Publisher@bhtmag.com

It seemed legitimate, and I was inclined to help — it’s an honor to get asked by a journalist for input on a piece he or she is writing, and I want high-quality philosophical ideas to reach the general public. But there are some strange aspects to the email too — why is the Beverly Hills Times Magazine interested in writing an article about a philosophically oriented book? And I’m no expert in “the emotional balance of people”, whatever that means.

I did some google research and came across this. So this publisher has been sending out versions of this email for a while, at least since the beginning of 2010. This was looking less and less like a legitimate request for a journalist for information for a forthcoming article.

Finally, I clicked the link to the book, and read a couple pages. There are lots of good philosophy books out there that magazines intended for the general public would benefit from talking about, but this isn’t one of them.

I decided to just let it drop, and not respond to the email, but now I’m upset, and I want to publicize this scam. The reason I’m now upset is that, when I went a couple weeks ago to the link to the book, all that was there was the book, but when I went back just today (in the context of showing someone the strange emails I get), the link has changed. Now, the book is there, but also prominently listed under the heading “Contributors” are lots of university professors who provided comments. Specifically, the text says:

Professors from over 100 universities nationwide have responded to requests to review the first draft of these books. The following professors have provided comments:

and then follows what looks to me like a few hundred names of professors, with their university affiliation.

This is despicable, right? It appears that the publisher of Beverly Hills Times Magazine is soliciting feedback on a crackpot manuscript under the pretense of saying that he’s going to publish an article about it, and then listing as “Contributors” the hundreds of professors who have taken the time to kindly provide feedback, thinking that they were providing assistance to a legitimate journalist. I’m appalled, and that’s why I’ve gone public with this blog post.

 

New essay prize in philosophy of religion

I’m on the editorial board of Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion, and I’m pleased to announce this new essay prize. (For the record, Jon Kvanvig, not I, gets the credit for helping to put together this prize.)

$8000 Younger Scholars Prize in Philosophical Theology

The Younger Scholars Prize program, funded by The Ammonius Foundation and administered by the Editorial Board of Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion, is an annual essay competition open to scholars who are within ten (10) years of receiving a Ph.D. or students who are currently enrolled in a graduate program. Independent scholars may also be eligible, and should direct inquiries to the Editor of OSPR (see below). The award is $8,000, and winning essays will be published in Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion.

Submitted essays must report original research in philosophical theology. Essays should generally be between 7,500 and 15,000 words; longer essays may be considered, but authors must seek prior approval by providing the Editor with an abstract and a word count prior to submission. Since winning essays will appear in Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion, submissions must not be under review elsewhere. To be eligible for next year’s prize, submissions must be received, electronically, by 31 August 2010. Refereeing will be blind; authors should omit remarks and references that might disclose their identities. Receipt of submissions will be acknowledged by e-mail. The winner will be determined by a committee of members of the Editorial Board of Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion, and will be announced in late October or early November 2010. (The Editorial Board reserves the right to extend the deadline further, if no essay is chosen.) Each entry will be simultaneously considered for publication in Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion, independently of the prize.

Inquiries should be directed to the Editor, Jonathan Kvanvig, at jonathan_kvanvig at baylor.edu, or by post through regular mail at:

Professor Jonathan Kvanvig

OSPR Younger Scholars Prize

Philosophy Department

Baylor University

One Bear Place #97273

Waco, TX 76798-7273

 

Summary/review of my book

A nice summary/review of my book has been posted here. (Sheperd Project ran the Castle Rock ID conference I went to a few months ago.)

Here’s the most interesting part of the review:

Personally, my own conclusion is that Monton is coming across much like a judge presiding over a court case. He’s pointing out valid arguments, weeding out the unnecessary fluff, and willing to let the two sides present their cases. And he does so in a respectable manner, fairly summarizing both points of views. And while his conclusions lean towards an atheist worldview, the majority of the book is concerned with letting the court case unfold, and not so much about his personal final sentencing.

 

An electronic version of my book

As a pilot project, Broadview Press has made three of their books available electronically for purchase, and mine is one of the three. You can get the electronic edition of my book here.

 

William Lane Craig on my book

William Lane Craig has written up his thoughts on his debate with Ayala, and he also made a positive mention of my book. (If you register for free at his web site, you can get his thoughts here; otherwise the most important parts have been quoted here.)

Here’s what he had to say about my book:

Another interesting feature of this debate was the moderator, a young philosopher from the University of Colorado, Boulder, named Bradley Monton. Though a self-confessed atheist, Monton is convinced that the typical refutations of ID that pass muster today are in fact fallacious, and so he has written a book defending not only the scientific status of ID but even its being taught as an option in public schools! Having read his remarkable book in preparation for the debate, I was able to quote “our esteemed moderator” to good effect during the debate itself to counter Ayala’s assertion that ID was not science.

 

 

My NDPR review of Dawes’ book

My review of Gregory Dawes’ Theism and Explanation is out in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. You can read it here.

Here’s the last paragraph of the review:

One interesting aspect to this book is that Dawes never tells us whether he is a theist or an atheist. I take it that he is a theist, but I did wonder whether that was really the case when I saw how high he was setting the bar: theistic explanations must fulfill the optimality condition to even be in the running, and they don’t fare well when measured up against some of the six explanatory virtues under consideration. It’s unfair of me to think this way though — I shouldn’t just assume that a theistic philosopher will assess the virtues of theistic explanations in a different way than an atheistic philosopher would. Instead, my default presumption should be that a good philosopher like Dawes will make fair-minded, intelligent assessments of how theistic explanations fare, regardless of his personal beliefs about whether or not there is a God. The intellectual climate around theistic explanations, especially as relating to theistic explanations for scientific phenomena, has been somewhat poisoned by all the rhetoric regarding intelligent design. While Dawes talks about intelligent design here and there in his book, he never does so in an emotive, unfair way. It’s a virtue of this book that one comes away thinking that Dawes is fair-minded and intelligent — and that this assessment will hold regardless of whether one thinks that Dawes believes in God.