Tom Yates
@drtomyates.bsky.social
Kiwi philosopher, working at the intersection of ethics, epistemology, and responsibility studies: philpeople.org/profiles/thomas-a-yates
“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” (Mary Oliver)
“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” (Mary Oliver)
Pinned
Tom Yates
@drtomyates.bsky.social
· Sep 6
Culpable Ignorance and Causal Deviance
I argue that tracing theorists of culpability for ignorant wrongdoing should reject the widely accepted principle that culpability for ignorant wrongdoing should always be traced through culpability ...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Voilà! The third publication from my PhD research—and my proudest yet—is now out in the journal, Ratio! It’s called “Culpable Ignorance and Causal Deviance.” And thanks to Massey University, you can read it for free!
Voilà! The third publication from my PhD research—and my proudest yet—is now out in the journal, Ratio! It’s called “Culpable Ignorance and Causal Deviance.” And thanks to Massey University, you can read it for free!
Culpable Ignorance and Causal Deviance
I argue that tracing theorists of culpability for ignorant wrongdoing should reject the widely accepted principle that culpability for ignorant wrongdoing should always be traced through culpability ...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
September 6, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Voilà! The third publication from my PhD research—and my proudest yet—is now out in the journal, Ratio! It’s called “Culpable Ignorance and Causal Deviance.” And thanks to Massey University, you can read it for free!
If you believe that some act is wrong, you now have an objective (but defeasible) reason to avoid performing that act. It’s a reason of rationality or moral integrity.
August 20, 2025 at 8:25 AM
If you believe that some act is wrong, you now have an objective (but defeasible) reason to avoid performing that act. It’s a reason of rationality or moral integrity.
“He does not fail to make himself present in many ways, not only to individuals but also to entire peoples through their spiritual riches, of which their religions are the main and essential expression, even when they contain ‘gaps, insufficiencies, and errors’” < John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio
July 19, 2025 at 10:28 AM
“He does not fail to make himself present in many ways, not only to individuals but also to entire peoples through their spiritual riches, of which their religions are the main and essential expression, even when they contain ‘gaps, insufficiencies, and errors’” < John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio
I have started a Substack to broaden my readership beyond Facebook!
Welcome to Tomfoolish Ideality
And a word on the name
open.substack.com
July 7, 2025 at 9:27 AM
I have started a Substack to broaden my readership beyond Facebook!
There are some views out there that I have very little respect for. Harry Chalmers’ view that monogamy is wrong is one of them.
Is Monogamy Wrong? | Harry Chalmers (Rebroadcast)
Brain in a Vat · Episode
open.spotify.com
July 6, 2025 at 9:54 PM
There are some views out there that I have very little respect for. Harry Chalmers’ view that monogamy is wrong is one of them.
God is a perfecter, not a protector.
June 25, 2025 at 10:34 PM
God is a perfecter, not a protector.
Silence in the face of the problem of evil makes theism as vulnerable to the problem as materialism is to the hard problem of consciousness.
June 21, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Silence in the face of the problem of evil makes theism as vulnerable to the problem as materialism is to the hard problem of consciousness.
I’m sorry, moral anti-realists, but I am just so much more certain of the truth of the proposition that (e.g.) kidnapping & torturing children is wrong than the truth of any premise that you could cite in support of the rejection of moral facts.
June 10, 2025 at 11:13 AM
I’m sorry, moral anti-realists, but I am just so much more certain of the truth of the proposition that (e.g.) kidnapping & torturing children is wrong than the truth of any premise that you could cite in support of the rejection of moral facts.
Platonism in te ao Māori: "Herea tō waka ki te whetū kāore ki te titiwai": Tie your waka (canoe) to a star not a glowworm.
June 10, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Platonism in te ao Māori: "Herea tō waka ki te whetū kāore ki te titiwai": Tie your waka (canoe) to a star not a glowworm.
Worlds containing a narrative arc in which the Good triumphs over evil (in particular, potential moral, and what we call “natural,” evil) are better than worlds in which there is no possibility of evil in the first place. That is why the actual world contains evil in it.
June 8, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Worlds containing a narrative arc in which the Good triumphs over evil (in particular, potential moral, and what we call “natural,” evil) are better than worlds in which there is no possibility of evil in the first place. That is why the actual world contains evil in it.
Everything I’ve written, published, and am writing about revolves in one way or another around the normative status & significance of belief (especially moral and religious belief). That’s really where my expertise lies. All the other stuff I post about you can (generally) take with a grain of salt.
June 7, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Everything I’ve written, published, and am writing about revolves in one way or another around the normative status & significance of belief (especially moral and religious belief). That’s really where my expertise lies. All the other stuff I post about you can (generally) take with a grain of salt.
The plausibility of theism depends on the plausibility of theistic explanations of evil (“theodicies”). The evil in the world is too great to wave off with cop-out appeals to mystery, unknowable divine reasons, or mere “defences” (outlining logically possible scenarios where God and evil coexist).
June 6, 2025 at 9:56 AM
The plausibility of theism depends on the plausibility of theistic explanations of evil (“theodicies”). The evil in the world is too great to wave off with cop-out appeals to mystery, unknowable divine reasons, or mere “defences” (outlining logically possible scenarios where God and evil coexist).
If you feel the full weight of the reasons against doing some wrong act and you know exactly what it would be like to experience its full effects (e.g., as would-be victim), then it is psychologically impossible for you to intend to do it anyway.
May 30, 2025 at 3:21 PM
If you feel the full weight of the reasons against doing some wrong act and you know exactly what it would be like to experience its full effects (e.g., as would-be victim), then it is psychologically impossible for you to intend to do it anyway.
12 years after completing my Bachelor of Theology at Laidlaw College, I’m excited to be back leading a seminar on Christian moral epistemology for a masters ethics class! The seminar is entitled “What Can We Learn about Ethics from General Revelation?” My answer will be “nearly everything important”
May 20, 2025 at 9:10 PM
12 years after completing my Bachelor of Theology at Laidlaw College, I’m excited to be back leading a seminar on Christian moral epistemology for a masters ethics class! The seminar is entitled “What Can We Learn about Ethics from General Revelation?” My answer will be “nearly everything important”
Much of what you have (most) moral reason to do aligns with what is practically rational for you to do, given your ends. This is because your ends (e.g., to love your family) are often of (great) moral value. The lesson is that practical rationality gets you a long way into the moral life.
May 14, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Much of what you have (most) moral reason to do aligns with what is practically rational for you to do, given your ends. This is because your ends (e.g., to love your family) are often of (great) moral value. The lesson is that practical rationality gets you a long way into the moral life.
If you’re a Catholic and you voted for Chump, how do you feel about him now? That it was still worth it for his policy on abortion?
May 3, 2025 at 11:14 PM
If you’re a Catholic and you voted for Chump, how do you feel about him now? That it was still worth it for his policy on abortion?
By the way, moderate generalism about moral principles is true and accommodates holism about moral reasons. Thanks @vayrynen.bsky.social
Pekka Väyrynen, Moral Generalism: Enjoy in Moderation - PhilArchive
I defend moral generalism against particularism. Particularism, as I understand it, is the negation of the generalist view that particular moral facts depend on the existence of a comprehensive set of...
philarchive.org
April 19, 2025 at 11:28 PM
By the way, moderate generalism about moral principles is true and accommodates holism about moral reasons. Thanks @vayrynen.bsky.social
“If materialism offers an intelligible account of the physical world and the way it appears to us, why look any further? Why upset the received wisdom if we don’t have to? In short: Because idealism can offer us something better.“
Helen Yetter-Chappell, Idealism and the Best of All (Subjectively Indistinguishable) Possible Worlds - PhilPapers
The space of possible worlds is vast. Some of these possible worlds are materialist worlds, some may be worlds bottoming out in 0s and 1s, or other strange things we cannot ...
philpapers.org
March 22, 2025 at 7:17 PM
“If materialism offers an intelligible account of the physical world and the way it appears to us, why look any further? Why upset the received wisdom if we don’t have to? In short: Because idealism can offer us something better.“
Reposted by Tom Yates
If the clear moral teaching of Scripture clashes with an unshakeable moral intuition of yours which has survived an intellectually virtuous examination of the arguments inside & outside of Scripture, you’re not only within your intellectual rights to go with your intuition, but I think you ought to.
March 13, 2025 at 12:11 AM
If the clear moral teaching of Scripture clashes with an unshakeable moral intuition of yours which has survived an intellectually virtuous examination of the arguments inside & outside of Scripture, you’re not only within your intellectual rights to go with your intuition, but I think you ought to.
Hey this paper cites me. It’s apparently the first (peer-reviewed) philosophy paper to have done so.
Caring About Our Own Epistemic Capacities qua Responsible Citizens - Topoi
Are citizens responsible for their own bad epistemic conduct? What grounds do we have for such accountability practice? And what if citizens lack education and knowledge on how evidence should be cons...
link.springer.com
March 10, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Hey this paper cites me. It’s apparently the first (peer-reviewed) philosophy paper to have done so.
Robinson is spot on about how agents in Frankfurt-style cases still have a “flicker of freedom” or robust alternative to doing what’s wrong “on their own”: i.e, the simple alternative of refraining from choosing to act wrongly (and thereby forcing the hand of the counterfactual intervener).
Michael Robinson, Flickering the W‐Defense - PhilPapers
One way to defend the Principle of Alternative Possibilities (PAP) against Frankfurt‐style cases is to challenge the claim that agents in these scenarios are genuinely morally responsible for what the...
philpapers.org
March 6, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Robinson is spot on about how agents in Frankfurt-style cases still have a “flicker of freedom” or robust alternative to doing what’s wrong “on their own”: i.e, the simple alternative of refraining from choosing to act wrongly (and thereby forcing the hand of the counterfactual intervener).
Politically indifferent Christianity is not Christianity at all, for the essence of Christianity is love, and the antithesis of love is indifference.
March 6, 2025 at 3:40 AM
Politically indifferent Christianity is not Christianity at all, for the essence of Christianity is love, and the antithesis of love is indifference.
My PhD and subsequent published work focuses on the epistemic condition for moral responsibility. Here is my PhilPeople page for links to all of it: philpeople.org/profiles/tho...
Thomas A. Yates (Massey University) - PhilPeople
Thomas A. Yates is a tutor (part-time) at Massey University, College of Humanities and Social Sciences. They are interested in Philosophy of Religion, Social and Political Philosophy, Meta-Ethics, Phi...
philpeople.org
March 6, 2025 at 1:25 AM
My PhD and subsequent published work focuses on the epistemic condition for moral responsibility. Here is my PhilPeople page for links to all of it: philpeople.org/profiles/tho...