McAllister
Philosophy & Religion

Blake McAllister

Associate Professor of Philosophy

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The ancient Greek philosophers, such as Epicurus, Zeno, and Socrates, remained more faithful to the Idea of the philosopher than their modern counterparts have done. ‘When will you finally begin to live virtuously?’ said Plato to an old man who told him he was attending classes on virtue. The point is not always to speculate, but also ultimately to think about applying our knowledge. Today, however, he who lives in conformity with what he teaches is taken for a dreamer.
— Immanuel Kant

Faculty Information

Additional Faculty Information for Blake McAllister

Education

B.A. in Philosophy, Pepperdine University, 2011

M.A. in Philosophy, Baylor University, 2013

Ph.D. in Philosophy, Baylor University, 2016

Specializations

Epistemology

Philosophy of Religion

Philosophical Theology

Early Modern Philosophy

Selected Publications

“The Phenomenal Conservative Approach to Religious Epistemology.” In J. DePoe and T. McNabb, eds., Debating Christian Religious Epistemology: An Introduction to Five Views on the Knowledge of God. New York: Bloomsbury.

“Evidence is Required for Religious Beliefs.” In Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion. Edited by Michael L. Peterson and Raymond J. VanArragon. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

“Reforming Reformed Epistemology: A New Take on the Sensus Divinitatis.” Religious Studies 55(4): 537-557.

“A Return to Common Sense: Restorationism and Common Sense Epistemology.” In Restoration & Philosophy. Edited by J. Caleb Clanton. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press.

“The Perspective of Faith: Its Nature and Epistemic Implications.” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 92(3): 515-533.

“Seemings as Sui Generis.” Synthese 195(7): 3079-3096.

“Re-evaluating Reid’s Response to Skepticism.” Journal of Scottish Philosophy 14(3): 317- 339.

Courses Taught

PHL 105 – The Western Philosophical Tradition

PHL 213 – Modern Philosophy

PHL 341 – Twentieth Century Analytic Philosophy

PHL 342 – Issues in Contemporary Epistemology

PHL 343 – Issues in Contemporary Metaphysics

PHL 420 – Philosophy of Religion

PHL 493 – Philosophy, Science, and Religion

CSP 255 – Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering

CSP 255 – Heaven, Hell & In Between

Biography

Spring semester of my freshman year, my British friend Morten insisted that I take Ethics with him. I wanted to live well so I thought, “Sure, why not?” Soon thereafter, I dropped my engineering major and took up philosophy. The rest is history.

Though I officially discovered philosophy in college, I realized that I had been doing it my whole life. When I was debating my family or friends (usually around the dinner table or a bonfire, respectively), I was doing philosophy. I just wasn’t doing it as well as I could have. The training I received taught me how to think with greater clarity, depth, and incisiveness, and to better articulate and defend those thoughts to others. It introduced me to the greatest thinkers in the tradition—dear friends whose ideas have profoundly shaped Western Civilization (and me!). And it cultivated my love for the True, the Beautiful, and the Good. I gained a deeper sense of what life was all about: the initial sparks of wisdom.

Now I get to walk my students through their own version of this process. It is a privilege and a wonder.