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35What Can Philosophy Teach Us About Multiculturalism? (review)Dialogue 36 (3): 607-614. 1997.Multiculturalism is an increasingly important topic for philosophers, largely because of the practical problems posed by diversity. Traditional political philosophy had little to say about cultural difference, taking the existence of a shared language and culture pretty much for granted. The multicultural societies of the contemporary world make such assumptions untenable. Traditional questions of fairness and sovereignty find hard cases in such policy issues as immigration, education, criminal …Read more
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34Liberal Justification and the Limits of NeutralityAnalyse & Kritik 14 (1): 3-17. 1992.This paper examines a style of political justification prominent in contemporary liberalism, according to which policies are legitimate only if they can be shown to be acceptable to all. Although this approach is often associated with neutrality about the good life, it is argued that liberalism cannot be neutral about questions of the role of various goods, such as work, play and community. The paper closes by exploring the implications and applicability of this account of justification to conte…Read more
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33Explanation and EmpathyReview of Metaphysics 40 (3). 1987.I WISH to defend the claim that imagining what it would be like to be in "someone else's shoes" can serve to explain that person's actions. This commonsense view has considerable plausibility, but requires clarification to be philosophically defensible; discussions of explanation often assume that understanding requires a theory of the thing understood. If understanding requires a theory, then however much imagining what it would be like to be in another person's situation might sooth one's curi…Read more
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33Law and disagreementPhilosophical Review 110 (4): 611-614. 2001.Author Jeremy Waldron has thoroughly revised thirteen of his most recent essays in order to offer a comprehensive critique of the idea of the judicial review of legislation. He argues that a belief in rights is not the same as a commitment to a Bill of Rights. This book presents legislation by a representative assembly as a form of law making which is especially apt for a society whose members disagree with one another about fundamental issues of principle
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33Strictly Speaking—It Went Without SayingLegal Theory 2 (1): 63-81. 1996.Herbert Simon once observed that watching an ant make its way across the uneven surface of a beach, one can easily be impressed—too impressed—with the foresight and complexity of the ant's internal map of the beach. Simon went on to point out that such an attribution of complexity to the ant makes a serious mistake. Most of the complexity is not in the ant but in the beach. The ant is just complex enough to use the features of the beach to find its way.
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31Review of Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro, The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World 608 pp. $30.00 (review)Criminal Law and Philosophy 13 (1): 205-214. 2019.The thesis of The Internationalists is that the Kellogg Briand Pact of 1928 fundamentally reshaped the international legal order. By outlawing war, the Pact replaced one basic norm of international legal ordering with another. Hathaway and Shapiro present their argument in the form of a narrative, including biographical details about the central protagonists and vignettes about key meetings. They present it all with an eye not only to the importance of particular characters, but also to sheer co…Read more
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27Leaving the State of NaturePhilosophy and Public Issues - Filosofia E Questioni Pubbliche. forthcoming.Download.
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27Making the World Safe for LiberalismDialogue 32 (2): 309-. 1993.‘Liberal’ is still a term of abuse in US presidential politics and certain academic circles. But gone for now are the days when liberals were saddled with responsibility for (depending on who was making the accusation) crime, promiscuity or crass concern with material wealth. Instead, competing political visions increasingly do battle for the right to carry the liberal banner.
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25Political Independence, Territorial Integrity and Private Law AnalogiesKantian Review 24 (4): 573-604. 2019.Kant deploys analogies from private law in describing relations between states. I explore the relation between these analogies and the broader Kantian idea of the distinctively public nature of a rightful condition, in order to explain why states, understood as public things, stand in horizontal, private legal relations without themselves being private. I use this analysis to explore the international law analogues of the three titles of private right, explaining how territory differs from prope…Read more
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24Review of Gary Bruce Herbert: Thomas Hobbes: the unity of scientific & moral wisdom (review)Ethics 101 (1): 200-201. 1990.
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236. Three Defects in the State of NatureIn Force and freedom: Kant's legal and political philosophy, Harvard University Press. pp. 145-181. 2009.
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234. Private Right II: PropertyIn Force and freedom: Kant's legal and political philosophy, Harvard University Press. pp. 86-106. 2009.
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229. Public Right III: Redistribution and Equality of OpportunityIn Force and freedom: Kant's legal and political philosophy, Harvard University Press. pp. 267-299. 2009.
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20Closing the GapTheoretical Inquiries in Law 9 (1): 61-95. 2008.Contemporary debates about "moral luck" were inaugurated by Thomas Nagel’s celebrated essay on the topic. Nagel notes that the puzzle about moral luck is formally parallel to the familiar epistemological problem of skepticism. In each case, the problem is generated by the apparent coherence of the thought that inner aspects of our lives are self-contained, and can be both understood and evaluated without any reference to anything external. Epistemological skepticism begins with the thought that …Read more
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20Wise Choices, Apt Feelings: A Theory of Normative JudgmentPhilosophical Review 101 (4): 934. 1992.
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19Mandatory CooperationAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 96 (1): 23-40. 2022.My aim in this paper is to develop a new model of the obligation to do your part in contributing to the provision of what are frequently described as ‘public goods’. I will situate my account in a broadly Kantian account of the state as a public rightful condition, which enjoys powers that no private person could enjoy, in the service of its distinctively public mandate. The exercise of those powers imposes special duties on the state, which require it to provide distinctively public goods. As a…Read more
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197. Public Right I: Giving Laws to OurselvesIn Force and freedom: Kant's legal and political philosophy, Harvard University Press. pp. 182-231. 2009.
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18IndexIn Force and freedom: Kant's legal and political philosophy, Harvard University Press. pp. 389-399. 2009.
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18Appendix: “A Postulate Incapable of Further Proof”In Force and freedom: Kant's legal and political philosophy, Harvard University Press. pp. 355-388. 2009.
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175. Private Right III: Contract and ConsentIn Force and freedom: Kant's legal and political philosophy, Harvard University Press. pp. 107-144. 2009.