Michael Tooley

Michael Tooley (PhD, Princeton, 1968) has been at CU Boulder since 1992, where he has received a Boulder Faculty Assembly Excellence in Research Award in 1998 for his book, Time, Tense, and Causation (Oxford), and was named a College Professor of Distinction in 2006.

Before coming to the University of Colorado, Michael spent 15 years in Australia, where he held two research appointments at the Australian National University (1974-80, and 1988-92), and held the Chair in Philosophy at the University of Western Australia (1983-88).

Michael is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, was President of the Australasian Association of Philosophy in 1984, and President of the American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division, in 2010-11.

Current Research Interests: Metaphysics (time, causation, laws of nature), epistemology (the justification of induction, the refutation of skepticism, and the philosophy of perception), philosophy of religion (the argument from evil, the epistemological status of miracle claims, arguments for and against religious beliefs and Christianity in particular), and ethics (abortion, cloning,  and sexual morality).

Books Published and Contributions to Debate Volumes

Causation – A Defense of a Non-Reductionist Approach (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2026)

The Problem of Evil, Cambridge Elements Series (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).

Abortion – Three Perspectives  (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)  (This book, which is co-authored with Professor Alison Jaggar, Professor Philip E. Devine, and Associate Professor Emerita Celia Wolf-Devine, is in the Point/Counterpoint series edited by James Sterba.)

Knowledge of God  (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2008)  (This book, which I co-authored with Professor Alvin Plantinga, is in Blackwell's Great Debates in Philosophy series.)

Analytical Metaphysics (New York: Garland Publishing, 1999).  Edited, five volumes:

Volume 1:  Laws of Nature, Causation, and Supervenience
Volume 2:  The Nature of Time
Volume 3:  Properties
Volume 4:  Particulars, Actuality, and Identity
Volume 5:  Necessity and Possibility

Time, Tense, and Causation, (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1997).  Reprinted in a revised, paperback edition in 2000. 

Causation, (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, Readings in Philosophy Series, 1993).  Co-edited with Professor Ernest Sosa, and with an extended introduction.

Causation:  A Realist Approach, (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1987).

Abortion and Infanticide, (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1983).  Reprinted in a paperback edition in 1985.

Main Projects:

Book in Progress

Arguments from Evil and the Non-Existence of God    

Books at the Planning Stage:
1. Thinking about Christianity and Discussing it with Others
2. Logical Probability and the Justification of Induction

Non-Philosophical Interests: Pool, golf, and bridge.

For more information, see Professor Tooley's personal website and CV.