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- Robert A. Delfino
Associate Professor
Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Ph.D., Philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo, 2001
B.A., Philosophy and English, St. John’s University, 1994
AREAS OF INTEREST
Metaphysics, especially natural theology, naturalism, and personal identity
The relationship between science, metaphysics, and religion
Medieval Philosophy and Thomas Aquinas
Robert A. Delfino received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he specialized in metaphysics, medieval philosophy, and Thomas Aquinas, studying under Professor Jorge J. E. Gracia. He has published articles on Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke, Kant, Husserl, the nature of philosophy, science and religion, God and evolution, philosophy of science, personal identity, and human rights, in various countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Italy, Russia, Poland, and India. He has presented papers at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom, the Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid, Spain, and the St. John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, in Poland, where he delivered the Jacek Woroniecki Lectures in May of 2010. He was the editor of Studies in the History of Western Philosophy (SHWP), a special series within the Value Inquiry Book Series (VIBS) from 2002-2015.
- Honors Philosophy of the Human Person
- Honors Ethics
- Honors Metaphysics
- Honors Logic
- Honors Science and Religion
- Ancient Philosophy
- Medieval Philosophy
- Modern Philosophy
- Contemporary Philosophy
- Medieval Philosophy and Literature (cross-listed with English 3510 Medieval Literature)
- Ancient Philosophy and Literature (cross-listed with English 3500 Classical Literature)
Books
The Philosophical Legacy of Jorge J.E. Gracia, co-edited with William Irwin and Jonathan J. Sanford (New York: Rowman & Littlefield), forthcoming.
Does God Exist?: A Socratic Dialogue on the Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas (St. Louis, MO: En Route Books and Media, LLC, 2018), co-authored with M. Fradd.
Understanding Moral Weakness. Edited by Robert A. Delfino (Amsterdam and New York: Editions Rodopi B.V., 2006), 166 pp.
What are We to Understand Gracia to Mean?: Realist Challenges to Metaphysical Neutralism. Edited by Robert A. Delfino (Amsterdam and New York: Editions Rodopi B.V., 2006), 261 pp.
Plato’s Cratylus: Argument, Form, and Structure. Edited by Robert A. Delfino (Amsterdam and New York: Editions Rodopi B.V., 2005), 151 pp.
Articles
“Gracia, Individuation, and Thomistic Metaphysics” in The Philosophical Legacy of Jorge J. E. Gracia (New York: Rowman & Littlefield), forthcoming.
“The Compatibility of Evolution and Thomistic Metaphysics: A Reply to Dennis F. Polis,” Studia Gilsoniana, vol. 10:1 (March 2021): 71–102.
“Redpath on the Nature of Philosophy,” Studia Gilsoniana, vol. 5:1 (January–March 2016): 33–53.
“The Cultural Dangers of Scientism and Common Sense Solutions,” Studia Gilsoniana, vol. 3: supplement (2014): 485–496.
“Experiment (in Science)” in New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012-2013: Ethics and Philosophy. Ed. Robert L. Fastiggi. vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2013, 542-544.
“Scientific Naturalism and the Need for a Neutral Metaphysical Framework” in Science and Faith within Reason: Reality, Creation, Life and Design, ed. by Jaume Navarro (Surrey, England: Ashgate, 2011), pp. 43-59.
."Christian Physicalism and Personal Identity," Global Spiral (November 2008).
"Realism and the Problem of Universals: A Thomistic Solution," Czlowiek W Kulturze: W obronie realizmu, Vol. 19 (March 2008), 301–15.
"The Problem of Justifying the Right to Freedom of Religion,” Journal of Dharma, Vol. 31, No. 1 (2006), 51–65.
“Mystical Theology in Aquinas and Maritain,” Jacques Maritain and The Many Ways of Knowing. Edited by Douglass A. Ollivant (Catholic University of America Press, 2002), 253–68.