Research
Daniel Hill's research is mostly in philosophy of religion, especially philosophical theology and the philosophy of Calvinism, and in philosophy of law, especially criminal law, marriage law, constitutional law, and discrimination law. He also has a strong interest in applied ethics, especially double effect and the trolley problem, and applied political philosophy, especially the limits of the state's authority.
Philosophy of Religion
The nature of God: omnipotence, omniscience, perfect goodness.
Philosophical analysis of religious assertions.
Free will and predestination.
The philosophy of Calvinism.
The epistemic status of the Bible.
Supralapsarianism vs Infralapsarianism.
Philosophy of Law
The nature of the law.
The relationship between the law and morality: are immoral laws null and void?
Natural law vs legal positivism.
The Hart--Devlin debate.
The declaratory theory vs the theory that judges make law.
Retrospective laws.
Thought crimes and the question whether some areas of life should be beyond the law's reach.
Whether marriage should be legally regulated.
Applied Ethics
The principle of double effect as applied to issues such as:
palliative fatal injections on those approaching the end of their lives;
collateral damage in warfare;
discrimination.
Research grants
Philosophy of Religion and Religious Communities: Defining Beliefs and Symbols
ARTS AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL
February 2012 - August 2012
Kit Fine on Neutral Relations
MIND ASSOCIATION (UK)
November 2011 - December 2011
Research collaborations
Richard Gaskin
Co-authorship.
Daniel Whistler
AHRC Scoping Study on Religious Symbolism and Discrimination
Stephen McLeod
Co-authorship.
Mary Leng
Application to the John Templeton Foundation for funding for a 15-month research project on nominalism and its implications (especially for philosophy of logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics, and religion).
Crawford Gribben
Trinity college Dublin
Proposed collaboration on an AHRC-funded project on law, religion, and morality, to describe and analyse religious (Christian) answers to the question 'how far should the law reflect morality?'. Rejected by AHRC.