Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong is Chauncey Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics at Duke University, jointly appointed in the Department of Philosophy and the Kenan Institute for Ethics, with prior tenure at Dartmouth College. Trained at Amherst College and Yale (PhD 1982), his work spans metaethics, moral psychology, neuroethics, and philosophy of religion. In philosophy of religion he is best known for his sustained, civil engagement with Christian philosophers, especially his book-length debate with William Lane Craig, God? A Debate between a Christian and an Atheist (Oxford, 2004), where he challenges cosmological, design, moral, and resurrection arguments. His popular Morality Without God? (2009) argues that secular ethics is not merely possible but more defensible than divine-command theories. He develops contrastivist accounts of moral reasons and defends a form of moderate Pyrrhonian skepticism in epistemology. Within atheist philosophy, Sinnott-Armstrong is distinctive for rejecting the polemics of the New Atheists, insisting on the burden-of-proof structure of theistic claims while granting genuine puzzlement about ultimate origins. Critics including Craig and Paul Copan argue he understates the resources of classical theism and fine-tuning arguments; defenders note the analytical rigor of his case from evil and non-belief. He has also collaborated extensively with neuroscientists on the cognitive bases of moral judgment, situating religious ethics within broader empirical inquiry.