Department of Philosophy

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Lawrence Pasternack, Professor & Director of Religious Studies

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

• BA York University
• MA Yale University
• Ph.D. Boston University

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Kant
• Ethical Theory
• Philosophy of Religion  

 BOOKS (MONOGRAPHS AND COLLECTIONS)

• Pascal's Wager (Classic Philosophical Arguments Series). Lawrence Pasternack and Paul Bartha, eds., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 
• Immanuel Kant’s Sources in Translation. Volume IV: Gottfried Achenwall’s Jus Naturae, Lawrence Pasternack and Pablo Muchnik, eds., London: Bloomsbury Press (forthcoming).
• Immanuel Kant’s Sources in Translation. Volume III: Alexander Baumgarten’s Initia Philosophiae Practicae, Lawrence Pasternack and Pablo Muchnik, eds., London: Bloomsbury Press (forthcoming).
• Immanuel Kant’s Sources in Translation. Volume II: Johann August Eberhard’s Vorbereitung zur natürlichen Theologie zum Gebrauch akademischer Vorlesungen, Lawrence Pasternack and Pablo Muchnik, eds. London: Bloomsbury Press, 2016.
• Immanuel Kant’s Sources in Translation. Volume I: Georg Friedrich Meier's Auszug aus der Vernunftlehre, Lawrence Pasternack and Pablo Muchnik, eds., London: Bloomsbury Press, 2016.
• Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: an Interpretation and Defense (Routledge Philosophy Guidebook Series) London: Routledge, 2014 (272p).
• Immanuel Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals: In Focus, London: Routledge, 2002. (280p).

RECENT ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS

• "Pascal's Wager: An Argument with Many Audiences" (co-authored with Paul Bartha) in Pascal's Wager (Classic Philosophical Arguments Series) Lawrence Pasternack and Paul Bartha, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge  University Press, 2018), 1-24. 
• "Predication and Modality in Kant's Critique of the Ontological Argument" The Kant Yearbook 10: Kant's Philosophy of Religion (2018), 149-170.
• “Baumgarten and Kant on Rational Theology: Deism, Theism and the role of Analogy” in Kant's Lectures on Metaphysics: Critical Essays, Courtney Fugate, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 214-232 (invited).
• “The Wager as Decision under Ignorance: Decision-Theoretic Responses to the Many Gods Objection” in Pascal's Wager (Classic Philosophical Arguments Series) Lawrence Pasternack and Paul Bartha, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 168-186.
• “Kant’s Fourfold Critique of the Ontological Argument: Containment, Predication, and the Wisdom of Free Logic” in Ontological Arguments (Classic Philosophical Arguments Series) Graham Oppy, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 99-120 (invited).
• “Rational Faith and the Pantheism Controversy: Kant's "Orientation" Essay and the Evolution of his Moral Argument” (co-authored with Brian Chance) in Essays on Kant and his German Contemporaries, Daniel Dahlstrom, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 195-214 (invited).
• “Kant on Faith: Religious Assent and the Limits to Knowledge” in The Palgrave Kant Handbook, Matthew Altman, ed. (London: Palgrave, 2017), 962-986.
• Hume's Principle and Kant's Pure Rational System of Religion: Divine Aid, Moral Hope, and the Highest Good” in Kant and the Scottish Enlightenment, Chris Surprenant, ed. (London: Routledge, 2017), 159-180.
• “Religious Assent and the Question of Theology: Making Room for Historical Faith” in Kant and the Question of Theology, Chris Firestone and Nathan Jacobs, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2017), 99-118.
• “Restoring Kant's Conception of the Highest Good” Journal of the History of Philosophy, 55:3 (2017), 435-468.
• “The ‘Two Experiments’ of Kant’s Religion: Dismantling the Conundrum” Kantian Review, 22:1 (2017), 107-131.
• “Kant’s ‘Appraisal’ of Christianity: Biblical Interpretation and the Pure Rational System of Religion” Journal of the History of Philosophy, 53:3 (2015), 485-506.
• “Kant on Opinion: Assent, Hypothesis, and the Norms of General Applied Logic” Kant-Studien 105:1 (2014), 41-82.
• “Kant on Knowledge, Opinion, and the Threshold for Assent” in Rethinking Kant, Vol. 4, Oliver Thorndike, ed. (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2014), 55-74.
• “Kant’s Touchstone of Communication and the Public Use of Reason” Society & Politics: Special Issue on Truth & Certainty in the Early Modern Period 8:1 (2014), 78-91.
• “Kant on the Debt of Sin” Faith and Philosophy, 29:1 (2012), 30-52.
• “The Development and Scope of Kantian Belief: The Highest Good, the Practical Postulates, and the Fact of Reason” Kant-Studien, 102:3 (2011), 290-315.

RECENT AND UPCOMING TALKS

• Author-Meets-Critics session on Steven Palmquist’s Baring all in Reason’s Light: Kant’s Critique of Mysticism, Pacific APA, April 2017.
• “On the Two Experiments of Kant’s Religion: Dismantling the Conundrum” Kant-Gesellschaft, University of Mainz, December 2016 (invited).
• “Religious Assent and the Question of Theology: Making Room for Historical Faith,” Concordia University, Philosophy of Religion Speaker Series, October 2015 (invited).
• “Re-Examining the Theological Interpretation of Kant's Highest Good” University of Alberta Philosophy Colloquium, October 2015 (invited).
• “The Highest Good in Kant’s Religion: Our Duty to Promote the Highest Good and the Problem of Ought implies Can” North American Kant Society, November 2014 (invited).
• Book Symposium presentation on Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: an Interpretation and Defense, Pacific APA, April 2014 (invited).
• Book Symposium presentation on Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: an Interpretation and Defense, Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry, Emory University, April 2014 (invited).

Fall 2019 Class Schedule

• PHIL 1313.64965 Logic & Critical Thinking Web Internet Course
• PHIL 3413.63675 Ethical Theory TR 2:00-3:15 pm CLB 219