Michael C. Rea is an analytic philosopher, who is currently working as a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame

University of Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...

. He specializes 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 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...

 and has competence in epistemology and applied ethics

Applied ethics

Applied ethics is, in the words of Brenda Almond, co-founder of the Society for Applied Philosophy, "the philosophical examination, from a moral standpoint, of particular issues in private and public life that are matters of moral judgment"...

as well.

The argument against naturalism

Michael Rea argues that naturalists are not justified in accepting either realism about material objects, or realism about other minds, or materialism. This constitutes a pragmatic case against being a naturalist. These problems can be avoided by the adoption of a supernaturalist research program that "legitimates belief in some sort of supernatural being".

Rea's understanding of naturalism

According to Rea, naturalism is primarily a research program. By a research program he means a particular set of dispositions to "trust certain ways of acquiring information with respect to various topics and to distrust others". The core of naturalism is, therefore, something attitudinal. He argues that research programs "cannot be adopted on the basis of evidence". This claim suggests that the naturalist commitment to science is just a secular faith, no better epistemically than standard religion.

Works

• World Without Design: The Ontological Consequences of Naturalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Clarendon), 2002
• Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (with Michael Murray). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Metaphysics: The Basics, London: Routledge (under contract)

Edited works

• Material Constitution: A Reader. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997. ISBN 978-0847683840
• Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology, 5th edition (with Louis P. Pojman). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2007. ISBN 978-0495095040
• Critical Concepts in Philosophy: Metaphysics, 5 vols., London: Routledge, 2008. ISBN 978-0415397513
• Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Theology (with Thomas P. Flint). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0199289202
• Analytic Theology: New Essays in Theological Method (with Oliver Crisp). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0199203567
• Arguing About Metaphysics. New York: Routledge, 2009. ISBN 978-0415958257
• Philosophical and Theological Essays on the Trinity (with Thomas McCall), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0199216215
• Oxford Readings in Philosophical Theology, 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0199237463
• Divine Evil? The Moral Character of the God of Abraham (with Michael Bergmann and Michael Murray). Oxford University Press, under contract. ISBN 978-0199576739