Professor David Oderberg
Responsibilities
Head of Department
Areas of Interest
My chief area of research is contemporary metaphysics. I have special interests in moral philosophy, philosophy of religion, and the philosophies of Aristotle and Aquinas.
I have published on a variety of topics, my most recent book being Real Essentialism (Routledge, 2007). My latest book, The Metaphysics of Good and Evil, will be published at the end of 2019.
I am the author of The Metaphysics of Identity over Time (Palgrave, 1993), Moral Theory (Blackwell, 2000), and Applied Ethics (Blackwell, 2000).
I am also: editor of Classifying Reality (Blackwell, 2012); editor of Form and Matter: Themes in Contemporary Metaphysics (Blackwell, 1999); The Old New Logic: Essays on the Philosophy of Fred Sommers (MIT Press, 2005); co-editor of Human Lives: Critical Essays on Consequentialist Bioethics (Palgrave, 1997); and co-editor of Human Values: New Essays on Ethics and Natural Law (Palgrave, 2004).
PhD supervision:
I usually supervise around five PhD students, mainly in my areas of expertise. I am happy to supervise doctoral research students in the following areas: metaphysics, Aristotle, Aquinas, ethics, philosophy of religion.
Undergraduate Teaching:
I currently lecture the Part 1 module Reality: The Big Questions, the Part 2 module Ancient Philosophy and the Part 3 module Paradoxes.
Research groups / Centres
I am the editor of Ratio, an international journal of analytic philosophy, and on the editorial boards of Metaphysica and Studia Neo-Aristotelica.
Publications
Y
Number of items: 50.
2019
- Oderberg, D. (2019) The Metaphysics of Good and Evil. Routledge, pp226. ISBN 9780367408640
- Oderberg, D. S. (2019) Death, unity and the brain. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, 40 (5). pp. 359-379. ISSN 1573-1200 doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-019-09479-8
- Oderberg, D. S. (2019) How special is medical conscience? The New Bioethics, 25 (3). pp. 207-220. ISSN 2050-2885 doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/20502877.2019.1651078
- Oderberg, D. (2019) On a so-called demonstration of the causal power of absences. Studia Neoaristotelica, 16 (1). pp. 141-148. ISSN 1804-6843 doi: https://doi.org/10.5840/studneoar20191614
2018
- Oderberg, D. (2018) The impossibility of natural necessity. In: Carruth, A., Gibb, S. C. and Heil, J. (eds.) Ontology, Modality, and Mind: Themes from the Metaphysics of E.J. Lowe. Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 9780198796299
- Oderberg, D. S. (2018) Opting out: conscience and cooperation in a pluralistic society. Institute of Economic Affairs, pp. 1-155. ISBN 9780255367615
- Oderberg, D. (2018) The great unifier: form and the unity of the organism. In: Simpson, W. M. R., Koons, R. C. and Teh, N. J. (eds.) Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science. Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Routledge, pp. 210-232. ISBN 9780415792561
2017
- Oderberg, D. S. (2017) No beginning, no explanation: the kalām cosmological argument and the principle of sufficient reason. In: Copan, P. and Lane Craig, W. (eds.) The Kalām Cosmological Argument Philosophical Arguments for the Finitude of the Past. Bloomsbury.
- Oderberg, D. S. (2017) Finality revived: powers and intentionality. Synthese, 194 (7). pp. 2387-2425. ISSN 1573-0964 doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-016-1057-5
- Oderberg, D. S. (2017) Should there be freedom of dissociation? Economic Affairs, 37 (2). pp. 167-181. ISSN 1468-0270 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecaf.12231
- Oderberg, D. S. (2017) Further clarity on co-operation and morality. Journal of Medical Ethics, 43 (4). pp. 192-200. ISSN 1473-4257 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2016-103476
- Oderberg, D. S. (2017) Co-operation in the age of Hobby Lobby: when sincerity is not enough. Expositions: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, 11 (1). pp. 15-30. ISSN 1747–5376
2016
- Oderberg, D. S. (2016) Divine premotion. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 794 (3). pp. 207-222. ISSN 1572-8684 doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-015-9536-z
2015
- Oderberg, D. S. (2015) Religion and normative ethics. In: Oppy, G. (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy of Religion. Routledge, London, pp. 316-328. ISBN 9781844658312
- Oderberg, D. S. (2015) All for the good. Philosophical Investigations, 38 (1-2). pp. 72-95. ISSN 1467-9205 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/phin.12070
2014
- Oderberg, D. S. (2014) Being and goodness. American Philosophical Quarterly, 51 (4). pp. 345-356. ISSN 2152-1123
- Oderberg, D. S. (2014) Could there be a superhuman species? The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 52 (2). pp. 206-226. ISSN 0038-4283 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12057
- Oderberg, D. S. (2014) Is form structure? In: Novotny, D. D. and Novak, L. (eds.) Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives in Metaphysics. Routledge Studies in Metaphysics. Routledge, London, pp. 164-180. ISBN 9780415709392
- Oderberg, D. S. (2014) The metaphysics of privation. In: Huntelmann, R. and Hattler, J. (eds.) New Scholasticism Meets Analytic Philosophy. Heusenstamm: Editiones Scholasticae, pp. 63-68. ISBN 9783868385458
2011
- Oderberg, D. S. (2011) No potency without actuality: the case of graph theory. In: Tahko, T. E. (ed.) Contemporary Aristotelian Metaphysics. Cambridge University Press, pp. 207-228. ISBN 9781107000643
- Oderberg, D. S. (2011) The world is not an asymmetric graph. Analysis, 71 (1). pp. 3-10. ISSN 1467-8284 doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anq115
2010
- Oderberg, D. S. (2010) Appearance and reality: what Plato can teach journalists and the media. MercatorNet.
- Oderberg, D. S. (2010) 'Whatever is changing is being changed by something else': a reappraisal of premise one of the first way. In: Cottingham, J. G. and Hacker, P. (eds.) Mind, method, and morality: essays in honour of Anthony Kenny. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp. 140-164. ISBN 9780199556120
- Oderberg, D. S. (2010) The doctrine of double effect. In: O'Connor, T. and Sandis, C. (eds.) A companion to the philosophy of action. Blackwell companions to philosophy. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK, pp. 324-330. ISBN 9781405187350
- Oderberg, D. S. (2010) The metaphysical foundations of natural law. In: Zaborowski, H. (ed.) Natural moral law in contemporary society. Studies in philosophy and the history of philosophy (53). Catholic University of America Press, Washington DC, USA, pp. 44-75. ISBN 9780813217864
2009
- Oderberg, D. (2009) The non-identity of the categorical and the dispositional. Analysis, 69 (4). pp. 677-684. ISSN 1467-8284 doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anp098
- Oderberg, D. (2009) Persistence. In: Kim, J., Sosa, E. and Rosenkrantz, G. (eds.) A companion to metaphysics. 2nd edition. Blackwell Companions to Philosophy. Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 55-65. ISBN 9781405152983 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/b.9781405152983.2009.x
2008
- Oderberg, D. (2008) The metaphysical status of the embryo: some arguments revisited. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 25 (4). pp. 263-276. ISSN 0264-3758 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5930.2008.00421.x
- Oderberg, D. (2008) Concepts, dualism, and the human intellect. In: Antonietti, A., Corradini, A. and Lowe, E. (eds.) Psycho-physical dualism today: an interdisciplinary approach. Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield Group), Lanham, MD, pp. 211-233. ISBN 9780739123843
- Oderberg, D. (2008) Teleology: inorganic and organic. In: Gonzalez, A. (ed.) Contemporary perspectives on natural law. Ashgate, Aldershot, pp. 259-279. ISBN 9780754660545
- Oderberg, D. (2008) Self-love, love of neighbour and impartiality. In: Athanassoulis, N. and Vice, S. (eds.) The moral life: essays in honour of John Cottingham. Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 58-84. ISBN 9780230527560
2007
- Oderberg, D. (2007) The cosmological argument. In: Meister, C. and Copan, P. (eds.) The Routledge companion to philosophy of religion. Routledge, London, pp. 341-50. ISBN 9780415380386
- Oderberg, D. (2007) Real Essentialism. Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy. Routledge, London, pp314. ISBN 9780415872126
2006
- Oderberg, D. (2006) Review: George Klosko, Jacobins and Utopians. University of Notre Dame Press, 2003. Philosophy, 81 (4). pp. 690-694. ISSN 1469-817X doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819106318104
- Oderberg, D. (2006) Instantaneous change without instants. In: Paterson, C. and Pugh, M. S. (eds.) Analytical Thomism: traditions in dialogue. Ashgate, Aldershot, pp. 101-118. ISBN 9780754634386
2005
- Oderberg, D. (2005) Predicate logic and bare particulars. In: Oderberg, D. (ed.) The old new logic: essays on the philosophy of Fred Sommers. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 183-210. ISBN 9780262651066
- Oderberg, D., ed. (2005) The old new logic: essays on the philosophy of Fred Sommers. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp254. ISBN 9780262651066
- Oderberg, D. and Laing, J. A. (2005) Artificial reproduction, the 'welfare principle', and the common good. Medical Law Review, 13 (3). pp. 328-356. ISSN 0967-0742 doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwi022
- Oderberg, D. (2005) Hylemporhic dualism. In: Paul, E. F. and Miller, F. D. (eds.) Personal identity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 70-99. ISBN 9780521617673
- Oderberg, D. (2005) Towards a natural law critique of genetic engineering. In: Athanassoulis, N. (ed.) Philosophical reflections on medical ethics. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 109-134. ISBN 9781403945273
2004
- Oderberg, D. S. and Chappell, T., eds. (2004) Human values: new essays on ethics and natural law. 1st edition. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK. ISBN 9781403918109
- Oderberg, D. S. (2004) Perennial philosophy's theory of art. Quadrant (Jan-Feb 20). pp. 68-74. ISSN 0033-5002
- Oderberg, D. S. (2004) Temporal parts and the possibility of change. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 69 (3). pp. 686-708. ISSN 1933-1592 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1933-1592.2004.tb00523.x
- Oderberg, D. S. (2004) The ethics of co-operation in wrongdoing. In: O'Hear, A. (ed.) Modern moral philosophy. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement (54). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp. 203-227. ISBN 9780521603263 doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1358246100008511
- Oderberg, D. S. (2004) The structure and content of the good. In: Oderberg, D. S. and Chappell, T. (eds.) Human values: new essays on ethics and natural law. 1st edition. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK, pp. 127-165. ISBN 9781403918109
2003
- Oderberg, D. S. (2003) Review of 'Causing actions' by P. Pietroski. Philosophy, 78. pp. 128-132. ISSN 1469-817X
- Oderberg, D. S. (2003) Review of 'Paradoxes from A to Z' by M. Clark. Times Higher Education Supplement. ISSN 0049-3929
- Oderberg, D. S. (2003) Review of 'Summulae de dialectica' by J. Buridan, edited by G. Klima. Times Literary Supplement. p. 9. ISSN 0307-661X
- Oderberg, D. S. (2003) Why I am a Relativist. Quadrant. pp. 38-43.
- Oderberg, D. S. (2003) The beginning of existence. International Philosophical Quarterly, 43 (2). pp. 145-157. ISSN 2153-8077