Reviving the Blog

It has been a long time since I've posted, in large part because of the transitions of life. But now that I'm settled into a tenure-track position at the University of North Carolina, Asheville, I will be posting more.

NEWS: Prof. Gordon Wilson was awarded an NEH grant to continue his work editing the Henry of Ghent Opera Omnia. http://news.unca.edu/articles/unc-asheville-emeritus-professor-gordon-wilson-awarded-neh-grant   I will be working on a new online Bibliography on all things Henry of Ghent. It'll be posted here, once it is done: https://philosophy.unca.edu/henry-ghent-series

This summer I'll be back to revising my book on Henry of Ghent's trinitarian theology. More to come...

New Job and the Fall

The adventure continues at Centre College. It's a two year Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy position. One hope is that during my time there that I'll (finally) begin revising my dissertation. The good news is that I've had such a long time away from it, and have published some since finishing, that I feel the book will be much better than if I had worked on it directly after finishing my D.Phil.. Working out in more detail Henry's theory of real relations was essential (in "Henry of Ghent on Real Relations and the Trinity: The Case for Numerical Sameness Without Identity").

This summer I'll be finishing up some book reviews, a chapter on Duns Scotus' religious epistemology for a collection of essays, and prepare for the Fall semester.

"Indexicals and the Trinity: Two Non-Social Models"

Next month I've got a new article coming out in the inaugural issue of the Journal of Analytic Theology. It's called "Indexicals and the Trinity: Two Non-Social Models."

In this article I give a historical argument and a constructive argument.

The former is this: Brian Leftow's often used name "Latin Trinitarianism" for non-social Trinitarianism in the latin west is insufficiently informative. I cite several counter-examples.

The latter is this: if you join together some insights from David Kaplan and John Perry about indexicals (expressions like, "I love you," in which the referent of the pronoun is context dependent), Richard of St. Victor's definition of personhood, and the claim that the divine persons share numerically the same tokens of thought (including indexical and ambiguous tokens), then you get a new non-social model of the Trinity. I call Leftow's non-social model "hard LT" and mine "soft LT." Soft LT is nearer to Social models, but fails to be a social model. One consequence is that Leftow's "LT" not only doesn't have a monopoly on "Latin" models of the Trinity, but it isn't the only available non-social model on offer. There's at least two (and very likely others too).

What's Next: Duns Scotus

I have recently begun working on my chapter contribution, about John Duns Scotus, for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of the Epistemology of Theology (2015). In a way this will be a culmination of my thoughts on Duns Scotus and some recent theologians' negative views of Scotus's theory of the univocity of the concept of being for God and creatures.

Henry of Ghent on Real Relations and the Trinity: The Case for Numerical Sameness Without Identity

Later this year my article, 'Henry of Ghent on Real Relations and the Trinity: The Case for Numerical Sameness Without Identity', in: Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales 79.1 (2012), will be published. Here is the abstract.

Abstract

I argue that there is a hitherto unrecognized connection between Henry of Ghent’s general theory of real relations and his Trinitarian theology, namely the notion of numerical sameness without identity.

Ph.D.

Last week I returned to All Souls College in Oxford for my viva voce, and passed! However, I've not got much time to waste these days in celebrating because I've got a (accepted) journal article to revise (titled: "Henry of Ghent on Real Relations and the Trinity: The Case For Numerical Sameness Without Identity"), and an old article on Thomas Aquinas to review in preparation for being published again elsewhere.

It feels great when things are going forward!

Henry of Ghent's Works ONLINE: Update

Awhile back I reported that the web-page with Henry of Ghent's works had been down. I am happy to report that it is back online. Click "Henry of Ghent's Works ONLINE" on the sidebar. However, only most, not all, of the editions are downloadable in PDF format. I hope the others will return soon.

I'll get back to the series on intellectual habits soon; I've been crazy busy.