Biography

Vallicella has a Ph.D. (Boston College

Boston College

Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...

; 1978), taught for a number of years at University of Dayton

University of Dayton

The University of Dayton is a private Roman Catholic university operated by the Society of Mary located in Dayton, Ohio...

 (where he was a tenured Associate Professor of Philosophy; 1978–91) and Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...

 (Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy; 1989–91), and retired to Gold Canyon, Arizona

Gold Canyon, Arizona

Gold Canyon is a census-designated place in Pinal County, Arizona, United States. The population was 6,029 at the 2000 census. The community is sometimes incorrectly called Gold Camp....

 from where he now contributes to philosophy mainly online. He is the author of many published articles, primarily on the subjects of metaphysics

Metaphysics

Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...

 and philosophy of religion

Philosophy of religion

Philosophy of religion is a branch of philosophy concerned with questions regarding religion, including the nature and existence of God, the examination of religious experience, analysis of religious language and texts, and the relationship of religion and science...

.

In the short chapter on him in the book Falling in love with wisdom: American philosophers talk about their calling, Vallicella discusses the philosophical questions which he happened to think about in his youth, such as "What if God hadn't created anything?", "What if even God didn't exist", and "Why is good, good, and evil, evil?", and his thoughts on the inquiry of philosophy.

Books

• Kant, subjectivity and facticity, Boston College, 1978

• A Paradigm Theory of Existence: Onto-Theology Vindicated, Kluwer Academic Publishers 2002, ISBN 1402008872. Forbes
  Forbes
  Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
  
  summarizes this book as follows:

"What is it for any contingent thing to exist? Why does any contingent thing exist? For some time now, the preferred style in addressing such questions has been deflationary when it has not been eliminativist. In its critical half, this book thoroughly analyzes and demolishes the main deflationary and eliminativist accounts of existence

Existence

In common usage, existence is the world we are aware of through our senses, and that persists independently without them. In academic philosophy the word has a more specialized meaning, being contrasted with essence, which specifies different forms of existence as well as different identity...

, including those of Brentano

Franz Brentano

Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Brentano was an influential German philosopher and psychologist whose influence was felt by other such luminaries as Sigmund Freud, Edmund Husserl, Kazimierz Twardowski and Alexius Meinong, who followed and adapted his views.-Life:Brentano was born at Marienberg am...

, Frege, Russell

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...

, and Quine

Willard Van Orman Quine

Willard Van Orman Quine was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition...

, thereby restoring existence to its rightful place as one of the deep topics in philosophy, if not the deepest. In its constructive half, the book defends the thesis that the two questions admit of a unified answer, and that this answer takes the form of what the author calls a paradigm theory of existence. The central idea of the paradigm

Paradigm

The word paradigm has been used in science to describe distinct concepts. It comes from Greek "παράδειγμα" , "pattern, example, sample" from the verb "παραδείκνυμι" , "exhibit, represent, expose" and that from "παρά" , "beside, beyond" + "δείκνυμι" , "to show, to point out".The original Greek...

 theory is that existence itself is a paradigmatically existent concrete individual. In this way the author vindicates onto-theology and puts paid to the Heideggerian conceit that Being cannot itself be a being. This work will be of interest to all serious students and teachers of philosophy, especially those interested in metaphysics

Metaphysics

Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...

 and the philosophy of religion

Philosophy of religion

Philosophy of religion is a branch of philosophy concerned with questions regarding religion, including the nature and existence of God, the examination of religious experience, analysis of religious language and texts, and the relationship of religion and science...

."

Chapters

• The Problem of Existence, by Arthur Witherall, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing
  Ashgate Publishing
  Ashgate Publishing is an academic book and journal publisher based in Farnham, Surrey, United Kingdom. It was established in 1967 and specializes in the social sciences, arts, humanities, and professional practice...
  
  , 2002, Philo, 6 (1), 2003, 176–88.

• Philosophia Christi, Volume 6, Issue 1, Chapter: "The Moreland Willard Lotze Thesis on Being," p. 27, Evangelical Philosophical Society
  Evangelical Philosophical Society
  Evangelical Philosophical Society is an organization devoted to the study of ethics, theology, and religion from an evangelical perspective. The organization is open to professional scholars with associate membership available to laypersons and students...
  
  , 2004.
• The philosophy of Panayot Butchvarov: a collegial evaluation, Larry Lee Blackman, Chapter: "Does Existence Itself Exist?; Transcendental Nihilism Meets the Paradigm Theory", p. 57, Volume 62 of Problems in contemporary philosophy, E. Mellen Press, 2005, ISBN 0773461086, 9780773461086.

• Proceedings of the Heraclitean Society, Volume 19, Chapter: "Is Existence a Property of Individuals?," p. 19, William F. Vallicella, Western Michigan University
  Western Michigan University
  Western Michigan University is a public university located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1903 by Dwight B. Waldo, and as of the Fall 2010 semester, its enrollment is 25,045....
  
  , Heraclitean Society.

Articles

He has published over 40 scholarly articles, including:

• The article on Divine Simplicity in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a freely-accessible online encyclopedia of philosophy maintained by Stanford University. Each entry is written and maintained by an expert in the field, including professors from over 65 academic institutions worldwide...
  
  , 2006
• "Classical Theism and Global Supervenience Physicalism"
• "To the Tautological Interpretation: Review of Robert Sokolowski", WF Vallicella, Philosophy & Social Criticism, 1974
• "Sokolowski on Husserl: From the Metaphysical to the Tautological Interpretation," WF Vallicella, Cultural Hermeneutics, 1976
• "Kant, subjectivity and facticity", WF Vallicella, 1978, Boston College
• "The Problem of Being in the Early Heidegger", WF Vallicella, The Thomist, 1981
• "A Critique of the Quantificational Account of Existence", WF Vallicella, The Thomist, 1983
• http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=12289766"Kant, Heidegger, and the Problem of the Thing in Itself", WF Vallicella, International Philosophical Quarterly
  International Philosophical Quarterly
  The International Philosophical Quarterly is a peer-reviewed academic journal edited by a group of academics at Fordham University, with the collaboration of the Facultés universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix. It was established in 1961 to provide a publishing forum for the international exchange of...
  
  , 1983]
• "Relativism, Truth, and the Symmetry Thesis", WF Vallicella, Monist, 1984
• "Heidegger's Reduction of Being to Truth," WF Vallicella, The New Scholasticism, 1985
• "A Note on Hintikka's Refutation of the Ontological Argument," WF Vallicella, Faith Phil 6, 1989
• "Reply to Zimmerman: Heidegger and the problem of being", WF Vallicella, International Philosophical Quarterly, 1990
• http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=6130870"Two Faces of Theism, WF Vallicella, Idealistic Studies
  Idealistic Studies
  Idealistic Studies is a peer-reviewed academic journal founded in 1971 to discuss themes and topics related to philosophical idealism. While it initially focused on American Personalism and post-Kantian Idealism, the journal's mission has broadened to include other topics, including historically...
  
  , 1990]
• http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=6130421"Consciousness and Intentionality: Illusions?", W Vallicella, Idealistic Studies
  Idealistic Studies
  Idealistic Studies is a peer-reviewed academic journal founded in 1971 to discuss themes and topics related to philosophical idealism. While it initially focused on American Personalism and post-Kantian Idealism, the journal's mission has broadened to include other topics, including historically...
  
  , 1991]
• "Divine Simplicity: A New Defense", W Vallicella, Faith and Philosophy, 1992
• "Has the Ontological Argument Been Refuted?", WF Vallicella, Religious Studies, 1993
• "Existence and Indefinite Identifiability", WF Vallicella, Southwest Philosophy Review, 1995
• "No time for propositions", WF Vallicella, Philosophia, 1995; discussed by Le Poidevan here
• "Concurrentism or occasionalism?," Vallicella, The American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 1996
• "John Polkinghorne, The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections of a Bottom-Up Thinker," WF Vallicella, International Studies in Philosophy, 1996, State University of New York
• http://analysis.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/57/1/91"Bundles and indiscernibility: a reply to O'Leary-Hawthorne", WF Vallicella, Analysis
  Analysis (journal)
  Analysis is a peer-reviewed academic journal of philosophy established in 1933 that is published quarterly by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Analysis Trust. Prior to January 2009, the journal was published by Blackwell Publishing. Electronic access to this journal is available via JSTOR ,...
  
  , 1997]
• "The Hume-Edwards Objection to the Cosmological Argument", WF Vallicella, Journal of Philosophical Research, 1997
• http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119169120/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0"On an Insufficient Argument Against Sufficient Reason", WF Vallicella, Ratio
  Ratio (journal)
  Ratio is a peer-reviewed academic journal of analytic philosophy, edited by John Cottingham and published by Wiley-Blackwell. Although emphasising work predominantly from analytic philosophy, it does not exclusively publish in one tradition and includes a variety of philosophical topics...
  
  , 1997]
• "Could a Classical Theist Be a Physicalist?," WF Vallicella, Faith and Philosophy, 1998, The University of Notre Dame
• "Bradley's Regress Argument and Relation-Instances", WF Vallicella, The Modern Schoolman, 1999/2004
• "God, causation and occasionalism", WF Vallicella, Religious Studies, 1999, Cambridge Univ Press
• http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=EF49E053725623EEF37273674403C70B.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=61501"Could the Universe Cause itself to Exist?", 75: 604–612, WF Vallicella, 2000, Cambridge University Press
  Cambridge University Press
  Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
  
  ]
• "Does the Cosmological Argument Depend on the Ontological?", W Vallicella, Faith and Philosophy, 2000
• "From facts to God: An onto-cosmological argument", WF Vallicella, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 2000
• "Heidegger's Beiträge zur Philosophie," 139–56, William F. Vallicella, Religion, 2000
• "Meinong's Complexes", The Monist, LXXXIII, pp. 89–100, William Vallicella, 2000.
• http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=1543484"Three Conceptions of States of Affairs", WF Vallicella, Noûs
  Noûs
  Noûs is a philosophy journal published four times per year by Blackwell Publishing. It was founded by Hector-Neri Castañeda and is currently edited by Ernest Sosa...
  
  , 34 (2), 237–59, 2000]
• "Brentano on Existence", WF Vallicella, History of Philosophy Quarterly, 2001, Bowling Green State University
• "No self? A look at a Buddhist argument," WF Vallicella, International Philosophical Quarterly, 2002
• "The creation–conservation dilemma and presentist four-dimensionalism", WF Vallicella, Religious Studies, 2002, Cambridge University Press
• "Incarnation and Identity," WF Valicella, Philo, vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring-Summer 2002), pp. 84–93
• "Relations, Monism, and the Vindication of Bradley's Regress", Dialectica 56 (1), 3–35, 2002
• "A Paradigm Theory of Existence: Onto-Theology Vindicated," William F. Vallicella, L Armour – Philosophy in Review, 2003
• "Kant Chastened But Vindicated: Rejoinder to Forgie, WF Vallicella, Faith and Philosophy," 2004, The University of Notre Dame
• "Does Existence Itself Exist? Transcendental Nihilism Meets the Paradigm Theory", WF Vallicella, Problems in Contemporary Philosophy, 2005
• "Melville Y. Stewart. The Greater-Good Defence: An Essay on the Rationality of Faith," Pp. xi+, WF Vallicella, Religious Studies, 2008, Cambridge University Press

External links

• Vallicella's philosophical blog
• "On Vallicella's Critique of Heidegger," Michael E. Zimmerman, International Philosophical Quarterly, XXXIX, December, 1989
• http://books.google.com/books?id=42tKq6tnQN8C&pg=PT390&dq=Vallicella+-%22Maria%22&num=100&ei=IwAXS8T1EJ-SygTHvZDgAw#v=onepage&q=Vallicella%20-%22Maria%22&f=falseThe Unity of the Proposition, Richard Gaskin, Oxford University Press
  Oxford University Press
  Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
  
  , 2009, ISBN 0199239452, 9780199239450]; discusses Vallicella's writings at 221, 316, 355, 370–74
• "Does the ontological argument beg the question?", P.J. McGrath, Religious Studies, vol. 29, p. 97, 1994 (response to William F. Vallicella, Religious Studies, vol. 29, p. 97, 1993)
• Ontological arguments and belief in God, p. 331, Graham Robert Oppy, Cambridge University Press, 1995, ISBN 0521481201, 9780521481205; discusses Vallicella's treatment of Plantiga's ontological arguments
• http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=14583417"Kant on the Dependency of the Cosmological Argument on the Ontological Argument," DP Smith, European Journal of Philosophy
  European Journal of Philosophy
  The European Journal of Philosophy is an academic journal of philosophy published quarterly by Wiley-Blackwell. It was established by Mark Sacks in 1993 and is currently edited by Robert Stern. The journal's mission is to provide a medium for exchanges between researchers in different traditions,...
  
  , 2003]; argument is inspired by, and takes its lead from, Vallicella's 'Does the Cosmological Argument Depend on the Ontological?', 2000
• "The reason the universe exists is that it caused itself to exist", Q Smith, Philosophy, 1999, Cambridge University Press; discusses premise that Deltete shares with Vallicella and others.
• "Relata-Specific Relations: A Response to Vallicella", JW Wieland, A Betti, Dialectica, 2008
• "Conservation, discontinuous time, and causal continuity," ET Yang, Religious Studies, 2009, Cambridge University Press; responds to dilemma and analysis posed by Vallicella for continuous-creation accounts of conservation