Gunther Laird - A Tippling Philosopher

A Tippling Philosopher

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Gunther Laird

A collection of 12 posts

The Unnecessary Science: A Critical Analysis of Natural Law Theory

Book review: Gunther Laird's Unnecessary Science debunks Natural Law Theory from within

Laws like Roe vs. Wade that many secular people hold dear are under threat. Much of how they are threatened is down to the partisan nature of American politics, but it is also underwritten by thinkers who provide an ethical framework from which certain political factions can structure their legal

Deism and Existential Inertia Revisited

Deism and Existential Inertia Revisited

As many of you will know, I recently edited a book by Gunther Laird called The Unnecessary Science, a book that counters the claims of Aristotle, Aquinas and recently Ed Feser on Natural Law Theory, a particularly religious moral value system. The context of the piece below is that Gunther

Debunking Natural Law Theory - The Unnecessary Science: A Useful Summary

This is the summary of a book by Gunther Laird (criticising natural law theory) that I recently edited. The summary has been written up by the author for your delectation. While The Unnecessary Science: A Critical Analysis of Natural Law Theory [UK] is written with an eye to philosophy, by

The Unnecessary Science Revisited

As many of you will know, I recently edited author Gunther Laird's book The Unnecessary Science: A Critical Analysis of Natural Law Theory (UK), with its foreword by Bradley Bowen of The Secular Outpost. The book is now available on Kindle, Nook and Kobo and I implore everyone

Actuality, Abortion and the SCOTUS

Here is a guest piece from author Gunther Laird, who recently wrote The Unnecessary Science: A Critical Analysis of Natural Law Theory (UK), which I edited and consulted on. Please grab a copy! This piece is particularly pertinent given what is going on in the Supreme Court right now. Actuality

Mano Singham on The Unnecessary Science

Crime & Punishment

Mano Singham on The Unnecessary Science

Mano Singham, over at Freethought Blogs, has recently kindly reviewed a book I edited by Gunther Laird, The Unnecessary Science: A Critical Analysis od Natural Law Theory (UK). The book is particularly prevalent now as Natural Law Theory forms the foundation upon which conservative lawyers, lawmakers and justices stake their

Contraceptive Causality: Natural Law & Sexual Ethics

Contraceptive Causality: Natural Law & Sexual Ethics

Gunther Laird has recently written a superb refutation of Natural Law Theory (NLT), as espoused these days by Christian thinkers such as Edward Feser who build upon work of Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle. This kind of worldview underwrites conservative lawmakers who try to utilise NLT to underwrite modern jurisprudence. Therefore,

Amuse Bouche and Other Updates

Amuse Bouche and Other Updates

Just to remind people of what I have been up to of late and what I plan for the near future (and a book that might be right up your alleys). Let's start with the now. I have just released a book called The Family Book of Word

The Problems of Pure Act

The Problems of Pure Act

This is a guest post from Gunther Laird, whose superb new book The Unnecessary Science: A Critical Analysis of Natural Law Theory (UK), a devastating critique of Ed Feser, Thomas Aquinas and Natural Law Theory, is out now. Over to Laird: The philosopher Edward Feser, in most of his published

The Unnecessary Science

The Unnecessary Science

The Unnecessary Science: A Critical Analysis of Natural Law Theory (Onus Books) is a cracking book tackling the work of Edward Feser in his defences and use of Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle in trying to establish natural law theory and its connected areas of essentialism and so on. It is

Act & Potency: Responding to a Critic

Some weeks back, I posted a short piece on act and potency, "Criticising the Idea of Potential and Actuality in Natural Law Philosophy" in which I quoted extensively from a book I am presently editing by Gunther Laird. Recently, I have received a response on this ("Response

Feser and Free Will - Characters in a Story

I am presently editing a book by Gunther Laird, who has a keen interest in critiquing Thomism and Edward Feser's defence thereof. The book has a working title of The Unnecessary Science, and is solid and hefty refutation of the core tenets and claims of Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy as