Biography
Kenneth Pearce grew up in Palouse, Washington, USA. He received his BA in philosophy and classical studies and BAS in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2007. He completed his PhD in philosophy at the University of Southern California in 2014. Pearce arrived at Trinity College in the fall of 2016.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Graham Oppy and Kenneth L. Pearce, Is There a God? A Debate, New York and Oxford, Routledge, 2022
Astell and Masham on Epistemic Authority and Women's Individual Judgment in Religion in, editor(s)Donald Rutherford , Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy Volume 11, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2022, [Kenneth L. Pearce]
Kenneth L. Pearce, Thinking with the Cartesians and Speaking with the Vulgar: Extrinsic Denomination in the Philosophy of Antoine Arnauld, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 60, (2), 2022, p227 - 252
Kenneth L. Pearce, God's Impossible Options, Faith and Philosophy, 37, (2), 2021, p185 - 204
Kenneth L. Pearce, Ideas and Explanation in Early Modern Philosophy, Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, 103, (2), 2021, p252 - 280
Kenneth L. Pearce, Foundational Grounding and Creaturely Freedom, Mind, 2021
Kenneth L. Pearce, Are We Free to Break the Laws of Providence?, Faith and Philosophy, 37, (2), 2020, p158 - 180
Kenneth L. Pearce, Intentionality, Belief, and the Logical Problem of Evil, Religious Studies, 56, (3), 2020, p419 - 435
Kenneth L. Pearce, William King on Free Will, Philosophers' Imprint, 19, (21), 2019, p1 - 15
Infinite Power and Finite Powers in, editor(s)Benedikt Paul Goecke and Christian Tapp , The Infinity of God: New Perspectives in Theology and Philosophy, Notre Dame, IN, University of Notre Dame Press, 2019, pp233 - 257, [Kenneth L. Pearce]
Kenneth L. Pearce, Locke, Arnauld, and Abstract Ideas, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 27, (1), 2019, p75 - 94
Kenneth L. Pearce, What Descartes Doubted, Berkeley Denied, and Kant Endorsed, Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review, 58, (1), 2019, p31 - 63
Matter, God, and Nonsense: Berkeley's Polemic Against the Freethinkers in the Three Dialogues in, editor(s)Stefan Storrie , Berkeley's Three Dialogues: New Essays, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2018, pp176 - 190, [Kenneth L. Pearce]
Kenneth L. Pearce, How Berkeley's Gardener Knows his Cherry Tree, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 98, (S1), 2017, p553 - 576
Tyron Goldschmidt and Kenneth L. Pearce, Idealism: New Essays in Metaphysics, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017, 1 - 300pp
Berkeley's Philosophy of Religion in, editor(s)Richard Brook and Bertil Belfrage , The Bloomsbury Companion to Berkeley, London, Bloomsbury, 2017, pp458 - 483, [Kenneth L. Pearce]
Kenneth L. Pearce, Counterpossible Dependence and the Efficacy of the Divine Will, Faith and Philosophy, 34, (1), 2017, p3 - 16
Kenneth L. Pearce, Berkeley on Unperceived Objects and the Publicity of Language, History of Philosophy Quarterly, 34, (3), 2017, p231 - 250
Kenneth L. Pearce, Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017, 1 - 218pp
Mereological Idealism in, editor(s)Tyron Goldschmidt and Kenneth L. Pearce , Idealism: New Essays in Metaphysics, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017, pp200 - 216, [Kenneth L. Pearce]
Kenneth L. Pearce, Foundational Grounding and the Argument from Contingency, Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion, 2017, p245 - 268
Kenneth L. Pearce, Counteressential Conditionals, Thought, 5, (1), 2016, p73-81
Pearce Kenneth L., Leibniz and the veridicality of body perceptions, Philosophers Imprint, 16, (5), 2016, p1-17
Kenneth L. Pearce, Arnauld's Verbal Distinction between Ideas and Perceptions, History and Philosophy of Logic, 37, (4), 2016, p375 - 390
Kenneth L. Pearce, Berkeley's Lockean Religious Epistemology, Journal of the History of Ideas, 75, (3), 2014, p417 - 438
Kenneth L. Pearce, Thomas Reid on Character and Freedom, History of Philosophy Quarterly, 29, (2), 2012, p159 - 176
Kenneth L. Pearce and Alexander R. Pruss, Understanding Omnipotence, Religious Studies, 48, (3), 2012, p403 - 414
Omnipotence, James Fieser and Bradley Dowden, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2011, [Kenneth L. Pearce]
Kenneth L. Pearce, The Semantics of Sense Perception in Berkeley, Religious Studies, 4, (3), 2008, p249 - 268
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
Berkeley's Theory of Language in, editor(s)Samuel Rickless , The Oxford Handbook of Berkeley, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2022, pp194 - 218, [Kenneth L. Pearce]
God's Perfect Will: Remarks on Johnston and O'Connor in, editor(s)Lara Buchak and Dean W. Zimmerman , Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion Volume 10, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2022, pp247 - 253, [Kenneth L. Pearce]
Kenneth L. Pearce, Who was George Berkeley? Kenneth L. Pearce on a book that breaks new ground, Review of George Berkeley: A Philosophical Life, by Tom E. Jones , Books Ireland, 2021
Kenneth L. Pearce, Peter Browne on the Metaphysics of Knowledge, Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 88, 2020, p215 - 237
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 88, (2020), Kenneth L. Pearce and Takaharu Oda, [eds.]
Berkeley and Newton in, editor(s)Dana Jalobeanu and Charles T. Wolfe , Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and Sciences, Springer, 2019, [Kenneth L. Pearce]
Kenneth L. Pearce, Review of Necessary Existence, by Alexander R. Pruss and Joshua Rasmussen , American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 93, 2019, p763-767
Daniel Flage and Kenneth Pearce, 'George Berkeley', Oxford Bibliographies, Oxford University Press, 2019, -
Kenneth L. Pearce, 'Berkeley's Manuscript Introduction: A piece of philosophical history from the Library of Trinity College Dublin's manuscript collection', Google Arts and Culture, 2018, -
Kenneth L. Pearce, Review of Idealism and Christian Theology, by Joshua R. Farris and S. Mark Hamilton , Faith and Philosophy, 34, (3), 2017, p365-369
Kenneth L. Pearce, 'Deism', The Special Divine Action Project, Oxford, Bodleian Library, 2017, -
Kenneth L. Pearce, Review of The Everlasting Check: Hume on Miracles, by Alexander George , Journal of the History of Philosophy, 54, (4), 2016, p680-681
Port-Royal, Tim Crane, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online, Routledge, 2015, [Kenneth L. Pearce]
Kenneth L. Pearce, Review of The Puzzle of Existence: Why is There Something Rather Than Nothing?, by Tyron Goldschmidt , Faith and Philosophy, 31, (3), 2014, p341-344
Research Expertise
Recognition
Representations
Reader for Oxford University Press and Princeton University Press
Referee for Philosophers' Imprint, Analysis, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion, History of Philosophy Quarterly, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, American Philosophical Quarterly, Religious Studies, Erkenntnis, Archiv Für Geschichte der Philosophie, Journal of Analytic Theology, European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Sophia, Philosophical Papers, Journal of Philosophical Research, History and Philosophy of Logic, Hermathena, Berkeley Studies, Dialectica, Society and Politics, Journal of Polish Philosophy, Eighteenth Century Ireland, Annals of Philosophy, Diametros, and Forum Philosophicum.
PhilPapers.org category editor for "George Berkeley;" "Berkeley: Metaphysics," with subcategories; "Berkeley: Philosophy of Language;" "Berkeley: Philosophy of Religion," with subcategories; "Divine Attributes;" and "Divine Omnipotence"
Awards and Honours
Fellow of Trinity College Dublin
Sanders Prize in Philosophy of Religion (for "Foundational Grounding and the Argument from Contingency")