Paul Draper (philosopher)

Paul Draper is a philosopher, and currently a professor at Purdue University, where he edits the academic journal "Philo". His philosophical inquiry is focused on issues in the philosophy of religion [cite web |title=Paul Draper, Professor |work=Philosopher Compass |publisher=Blackwell publishing |url=http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/philosophy/profile?person=DraperPaul |accessdate=2007-10-10] ; he has written extensively on the problem of evil, including the argument that the process of natural selection is sufficiently brutal so as to pose a problem for those who believe in a omnipotent and morally good creator. [cite web |first=Paul |last=Draper |title=Natural Selection and the Problem of Evil |url=http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/paul_draper/evil.html |work=The Great Debate |publisher=Internet infidels |accessdate=2007-10-10] He is currently editing a debate collection called "God or Blind Nature? Philosophers Debate the Evidence", released as an e-book in 2007. [cite web |author=Paul Draper (editor) |title=God or Blind Nature? Philosophers Debate the Evidence |publisher=Internet infidels |accessdate=2007-10-10 |url=http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/debates/great-debate.html]

One of Draper's influential and widely-reprinted papers is "Pain and Pleasure: An Evidential Problem for Theists", [cite web |first=Jeffrey Jay |last=Lowder |title=The Biological Role of Pain and Pleasure |url=http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/nontheism/atheism/pain-and-pleasure.html |publisher=Internet infidels |accessdate=2007-10-13] published in the journal "Noûs" in 1989. [cite journal |first=Paul |last=Draper |title=Pain and Pleasure: An Evidential Problem for Theists |journal=Noûs |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=331–350 |url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0029-4624%28198906%2923%3A3%3C331%3APAPAEP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0 |month=Jun |year=1989 |doi=10.2307/2215486] In it, Draper proposes a modification and extension of the "problem of evil" argument. Instead of claiming that the existence of evil logically contradicts theism, he argues that the "hypothesis of indifference", which holds that should supernatural beings exist, they are indifferent to our suffering, better explains the existence of suffering. Since the hypothesis of indifference is logically incompatible with theism, he considers this an evidentiary problem for theism. The paper relies significantly on the use of epistemic probabilities, equivalent to those used in Bayesian reasoning.

External links

* [http://www.cla.purdue.edu/philosophy/directory/?personid=1230 Paul Draper at Purdue University Directory]
* [http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/paul_draper/ Paul Draper's writing at Internet Infidels]

Notes and references