The following list some of my principal research interests at the present time:
- SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY AND PERSONHOOD. To research the validity of contemporary challenges to the notion of the human person as an irreducible entity, with some continuous identity through time and capable of thought and free will. To examine how contemporary science can be used to shed light on questions of personhood, such as whether a person is an inherently relational entity, and how a person relates to time, space and the cosmos – for example, the contemporary status of anthropic principles in cosmology and interpretations of quantum mechanics. To examine the implications of these findings for relationships with a personal God.
- GOD, METAPHYSICS AND CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE. To research the ways in which contemporary science sheds light on longstanding metaphysical questions. To examine, for example, whether modern discoveries suggest a richer notion of causation than the collision of self-subsistent individual objects, as in a Newtonian paradigm, and how such insights impact on traditional proofs for the existence of God. To research the validity of claims that contemporary science throws doubt on any substance-based ontology, and to examine what conclusions, if any, can be drawn from contemporary science regarding what kinds of beings are most foundational in the cosmos.
- SCIENCE AND THE VIRTUES. To research the ways contemporary science impacts on virtue ethics and vice versa. To examine, for example, the impact of neuroscience and information technology on virtue ethics and the role of joint attention in interpersonal accounts of character development. To examine the implications for virtue-based accounts of relationship with a personal God.