Edward Feser

Edward C. Feser (born April 16, 1968)^[1] is an American associate professor of philosophy at Pasadena City College. He has also been a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University and a visiting scholar at the social philosophy and policy center at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.^[2] He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1999 with a PhD in philosophy; his thesis was entitled "Russell, Hayek, and the mind-body problem".^[3]

By his own account, Feser had been an atheist for ten years during his early adulthood. However, as a graduate student in philosophy, his deep readings of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas led him back to a Christian belief in God and the Catholic Church (he had been baptized and confirmed as a child). He is now harshly critical of the "New Atheists" for what he claims are their straw man caricatures and distortions of classical theological arguments.^[4][5] He also considers intelligent design to be incompatible with the classical Thomistic arguments for the existence of God.^[6] Feser has also voiced support for felony disenfranchisement.^[7]

Feser is the author of the polemical book, The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism, in which he makes a philosophical argument for the classical Aristotelian-Thomistic worldview over and against the materialist assumptions and scientistic prejudices of contemporary atheists such as Richard Dawkins, of whom he is particularly critical.^[8] Additionally, Feser has written a number of articles for the website of the politically conservative Witherspoon Institute.^[9]

Reception

Feser has been called "one of the best contemporary writers on philosophy" by National Review.^[10] In the Review of Metaphysics, Michael O'Halloran wrote that in The Last Superstition, Feser "melds philosophical acumen with an acute sense of humor."^[11] In Booklist, Ray Olson wrote of the same book that "With energy and humor as well as transparent exposition, Feser reestablishes the unassailable superiority of classical philosophy."^[12] D. Q. McInerny of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary wrote in the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly that "Of all the books written in response to “the new atheists"...this one has to be counted among the very best."^[13] However, a more lukewarm review of the book came from Mary McWay Seamen, who wrote that "The loquacious Feser sometimes belabors well-made arguments, but his meanderings into allegorical sideshows are often delightful. Alas, his brief discourse concerning the world’s evil seems simplistic, even dismissive with the proclamation that “God can and will bring out of the sufferings of this life a good that so overshadows them that this life will be seen in retrospect to have been worth it."^[8]

Personal life

Feser is married, and lives in Los Angeles with his wife and six children.^[2]

Books

• Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction (Editiones Scholasticae, 2014), ISBN 978-3868385441
• Aristotle on Method and Metaphysics (as editor and contributor) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) ISBN 978-0230360914
• Aquinas (A Beginner's Guide) (Oneworld Publications, 2009) ISBN 978-1851686902
• The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism (St. Augustines Press, 2008) ISBN 978-1587314520
• Locke (Oneworld Publications, 2007) ISBN 978-1851684892
• Philosophy of Mind (A Beginner's Guide) (Oneworld Publications, 2007) ISBN 978-1851684786
• The Cambridge Companion to Hayek (Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 978-0521849777
• On Nozick (Thomson-Wadsworth, 2003) ISBN 978-0534252335

References

External links

• Edward Feser's home page
• Edward Feser's blog
• An article by Edward Feser