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2727Sanity and the Metaphysics of ResponsibilityIn Ferdinand David Schoeman (ed.), Responsibility, Character, and the Emotions: New Essays in Moral Psychology, Cambridge University Press. pp. 46-62. 1987.My strategy is to examine a recent trend in philosophical discussions of responsibility, a trend that tries, but I think ultimately fails, to give an acceptable analysis of the conditions of responsibility. It fails due to what at first appear to be deep and irresolvable metaphysical problems. It is here that I suggest that the condition of sanity comes to the rescue. What at first appears to be an impossible requirement for responsibility---the requirement that the responsible agent have create…Read more
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523Meaningfulness: A Third Dimension of the Good LifeFoundations of Science 21 (2): 253-269. 2016.This paper argues that an adequate conception of a good life should recognize, in addition to happiness and morality, a third dimension of meaningfulness. It further proposes that we understand meaningfulness as involving both a subjective and an objective condition, suitably linked. Meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness. In other words one’s life is meaningful insofar as one is gripped or excited by things worthy of one’s love, and one is able to do something …Read more
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53Returning a Research Participant's Genomic Results to Relatives: Analysis and RecommendationsJournal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 43 (3): 440-463. 2015.Genomic research results and incidental findings with health implications for a research participant are of potential interest not only to the participant, but also to the participant's family. Yet investigators lack guidance on return of results to relatives, including after the participant's death. In this paper, a national working group offers consensus analysis and recommendations, including an ethical framework to guide investigators in managing this challenging issue, before and after the …Read more
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1537Happiness and Meaning: Two Aspects of the Good LifeSocial Philosophy and Policy 14 (1): 207. 1997.The topic of self-interest raises large and intractable philosophical questions–most obviously, the question “In what does self-interest consist?” The concept, as opposed to the content of self-interest, however, seems clear enough. Self-interest is interest in one's own good. To act self-interestedly is to act on the motive of advancing one's own good. Whether what one does actually is in one's self-interest depends on whether it actually does advance, or at least, minimize the decline of, one'…Read more
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43Bioethics Matures: The Field Faces the Future (review)Hastings Center Report 35 (4): 22-24. 2012.
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27The Ethical Primate (review)Philosophical Review 106 (1): 131-133. 1997.This short, readable book, aimed at a popular audience, is concerned to show that a naturalistic view of humankind can be reconciled with a commitment to morality and a belief in human freedom.
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358Moral psychology and the unity of the virtuesRatio 20 (2). 2007.The ancient Greeks subscribed to the thesis of the Unity of Virtue, according to which the possession of one virtue is closely related to the possession of all the others. Yet empirical observation seems to contradict this thesis at every turn. What could the Greeks have been thinking of? The paper offers an interpretation and a tentative defence of a qualified version of the thesis. It argues that, as the Greeks recognized, virtue essentially involves knowledge ? specifically, evaluative knowle…Read more
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132Deconstructing welfare: Reflections on Stephen Darwall's welfare and rational careUtilitas 18 (4): 415-426. 2006.In his book Welfare and Rational Care, Stephen Darwall proposes to give an account of human welfare. Or rather, he offers two accounts, a metaethical and a normative account. The two accounts, he suggests, are somewhat supportive of each other though they are logically independent
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65The Challenge of Informed Consent and Return of Results in Translational Genomics: Empirical Analysis and RecommendationsJournal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 42 (3): 344-355. 2014.Large-scale sequencing tests, including whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing, are rapidly moving into clinical use. Sequencing is already being used clinically to identify therapeutic opportunities for cancer patients who have run out of conventional treatment options, to help diagnose children with puzzling neurodevelopmental conditions, and to clarify appropriate drug choices and dosing in individuals. To evaluate and support clinical applications of these technologies, the National Human G…Read more
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106The Moral of Moral LuckPhilosophic Exchange 31 (1). 2001.This essay is primarily concerned with one type of moral luck – luck in how things turn out. Do acts that actually lead to harm deserve the same treatment as similar acts that, by chance, do not lead to harm? This paper argues that we must recognize the truth in two, opposing tendencies in such cases.
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315Responsibility, Moral and OtherwiseInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 58 (2): 127-142. 2015.Philosophers frequently distinguish between causal responsibility and moral responsibility, but that distinction is either ambiguous or confused. We can distinguish between causal responsibility and a deeper kind of responsibility, that licenses reactive attitudes and judgments that a merely causal connection would not, and we can distinguish between holding people accountable for their moral qualities and holding people accountable for their nonmoral qualities. But, because we sometimes hold pe…Read more
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9INTRODUCTION: Return of Research Results: What About the Family?Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 43 (3): 437-439. 2015.
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42Book Review:Surrogate Motherhood: Politics and Privacy. Larry Gostin (review)Ethics 102 (3): 671-. 1992.
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79Feminism & bioethics: beyond reproduction (edited book)Oxford University Press. 1996.Bioethics has paid surprisingly little attention to the special problems faced by women and to feminist analyses of current health care issues other than ...
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Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Action |
Normative Ethics |