Alexander Pruss
Philosopher and mathematician who defends the principle of sufficient reason and cosmological arguments.
Life
Alexander Pruss (born 1973) is a Canadian philosopher and mathematician, professor at Baylor University (Texas). He works on metaphysics, philosophy of religion and probability. He is known for defending the principle of sufficient reason (every contingent fact has an explanation) and cosmological arguments for the existence of God.
Main works
Defends the principle of sufficient reason against its classical objections and gives positive arguments for it.
With Joshua Rasmussen, studies arguments leading from a necessary being to the existence of God.
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceHe argues that everything must have an explanation and that this points to a necessary, ultimate cause, which he takes to be God.
Pruss, The Principle of Sufficient Reason - A Reassessment (2006)
Reality is intelligible: every fact has an explanation, a principle that guides reasoning beyond experience alone.
Pruss, The Principle of Sufficient Reason - A Reassessment (2006)
He defends libertarian free will and holds that a free choice can be explained by the agent's own free act.
Pruss, The Principle of Sufficient Reason - A Reassessment (2006)
He defends a natural-law ethics: some acts are wrong by the nature of the human body and person.
Pruss, One Body (2013)
A Catholic who argues for God by rigorous philosophical arguments: faith and reason work together.
Pruss and Rasmussen, Necessary Existence (2018)