Consciousness, God, and Causation | Michael Tooley

Why It Matters

Tooley’s work reshapes core debates about God, causation, and consciousness by applying rigorous analytic scrutiny to religious and metaphysical claims, informing contemporary discussions in metaphysics, philosophy of science, and ethics. His career trajectory and published positions highlight enduring philosophical challenges with practical implications for secular and theological discourse.

Summary

Michael Tooley recounts his intellectual journey from mathematics and physics to analytic philosophy, sparked by early encounters with arguments for God and critical readings of Russell and Hume. He specialized in philosophy of religion at Princeton, defending the cognitive significance of theological statements against logical positivism, and later developed influential views on laws of nature, causation, personhood, and the problem of evil. Tooley describes academic turns — a research post at the Australian National University after an unsuccessful tenure bid at Stanford — and cites major influences including Hempel, Coffa, Russell, and David Armstrong. The interview frames his career as a sustained, critical engagement with foundational metaphysical and ethical questions, including consciousness and theism.

Original Description

How does a mathematics and physics student become one of philosophy's major voices on causation, consciousness, and the problem of evil?

Michael Tooley reflects on his intellectual journey from mathematics and physics into analytic philosophy — discussing David Hume, philosophy of religion, causation, skepticism, abortion ethics, consciousness, and why the existence of qualia in a physical world still deeply puzzles him.

0:40 Michael Tooley’s Philosophical Retrospective

1:45 From Physics to Philosophy at Toronto

4:54 Princeton and the Philosophy of Religion

8:20 Stanford, Metaphysics, and Laws of Nature

11:13 Abortion, Personhood, and Applied Ethics

13:31 Skepticism, Causation, and the External World

16:46 The Problem of Evil and Future Work

Michael Tooley is a Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at University of Colorado Boulder. He received a Boulder Faculty Assembly Excellence in Research Award in 1998 for his book _Time, Tense, and Causation,_ and was named a College Professor of Distinction in 2006.

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