Peter van Inwagen

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Peter van Inwagen


Born
September 21, 1942

Genre


Peter van Inwagen is an American analytic philosopher and the John Cardinal O'Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. earned his PhD from the University of Rochester under the direction of Richard Taylor and Keith Lehrer.

Today, Van Inwagen is one of the leading figures in contemporary metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of action. He has taught previously at Syracuse University and was the president of the Society of Christian Philosophers from 2010 to 2013. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005 and was President of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association in 2008-2009. Van Inwagen has also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Saint An
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Average rating: 3.91 · 806 ratings · 67 reviews · 36 distinct worksSimilar authors
Metaphysics

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Metaphysics: The Big Questions

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An Essay on Free Will

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The Problem of Evil: The Gi...

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Ontology, Identity, and Mod...

4.30 avg rating — 23 ratings — published 2001 — 2 editions
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PERSONS:HUMAN AND DIVINE PA...

4.05 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 2007 — 4 editions
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God, Knowledge, and Mystery...

4.07 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 1995 — 4 editions
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Christian Faith and the Pro...

3.25 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 2004 — 2 editions
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Existence: Essays in Ontology

4.27 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2014 — 10 editions
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More books by Peter van Inwagen…
Quotes by Peter van Inwagen  (?)
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“At some point, for all eternity, there will be no more unmerited suffering: this present darkness, "the age of evil", will eventually be remembered as a brief flicker at the beginning of human history. Every evil done by the wicked to the innocent will have been avenged, and every tear will have been wiped away”
Peter van Inwagen

“This much must be said, however: the plan has the following feature, and any plan with the object of restoring separated humanity to union with God would have to have this feature: its object is to bring it about that human beings once more love God. And, since love essentially involves free will, love is not something that can be imposed from the outside, by an act of sheer power.

Human beings must choose freely to be reunited with God and to love him, and this is something they are unable to do by their own efforts. They must therefore cooperate with God.

As is the case with many rescue operations, the rescuer and those whom he is rescuing must cooperate. For human beings to cooperate with God in this rescue operation, they must know that they need to be rescued. They must know what it means to be separated from him. And what it means to be separated from God is to live in a world of horrors. If God simply "canceled" all the horrors of this world by an endless series of miracles, he would thereby frustrate his own plan of reconciliation. If he did that, we should be content with our lot and should see no reason to cooperate with him.”
Peter van Inwagen, The Problem of Evil: The Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of St. Andrews in 2003

“To get the xs to compose something, one need only bring them into contact; if the xs are in contact, they compose something; and if they are not in contact, they do not compose anything.”
Peter van Inwagen, Material Beings



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