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143Hands invisible and intangibleSynthese 94 (2). 1993.The notion of a spontaneous social order, an order in human affairs which operates without the intervention of any directly ordering mind, has a natural fascination for social and political theorists. This paper provides a taxonomy under which there are two broadly contrasting sorts of spontaneous social order. One is the familiar invisible hand; the other is an arrangement that we describe as the intangible hand. The paper is designed to serve two main purposes. First, to provide a pure account…Read more
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20A Précis of On the People’s Terms. A Republican Theory and Model of DemocracyPhilosophy and Public Issues - Filosofia E Questioni Pubbliche 5 (2). 2015.Download.
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112The Virtual Reality of Homo EconomicusThe Monist 78 (3): 308-329. 1995.The economic explanation of individual behaviour, even behaviour outside the traditional province of the market, projects a distinctively economic image on the minds of the agents involved. It suggests that, in regard to motivation and rationality, they conform to the profile of homo economicus. But this suggestion, by many lights, flies in the face of common sense; it conflicts with our ordinary assumptions about how we each feel and think in most situations, certainly most non-market situation…Read more
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389 The common goodIn Keith M. Dowding, Robert E. Goodin, Carole Pateman & Brian Barry (eds.), Justice and Democracy: Essays for Brian Barry, Cambridge University Press. pp. 150. 2004.
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148In Defence of Fictionalism about Possible WorldsAnalysis 54 (1). 1994.Modal functionalism is the view that talk about possible worlds should be construed as talk about fictional objects. The version of modal fictionalism originally presented by Gideon Rosen adopted a simple prefixing strategy for fictionalising possible worlds analyses of modal propositions. However, Stuart Brock and Rosen himself in a later article have independently advanced an objection that shows that the prefixing strategy cannot serve fictionalist purposes. In this paper we defend fictionali…Read more
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67Law and LibertyIn Samantha Besson & José Luis Martí (eds.), Legal Republicanism: National and International Perspectives, Oxford University Press. 2009.
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62Trust, Reliance and the InternetAnalyse & Kritik 26 (1): 108-121. 2004.Trusting someone in an intuitive, rich sense of the term involves not just relying on that person, but manifesting reliance on them in the expectation that this manifestation of reliance will increase their reason and motive to prove reliable. Can trust between people be formed on the basis of Internet contact alone? Forming the required expectation in regard to another person, and so trusting them on some matter, may be due to believing that they are trustworthy; to believing that they seek es …Read more
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2Chapter four. Using words to personateIn Made with Words: Hobbes on Language, Mind, and Politics, Princeton University Press. pp. 55-69. 2009.
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618Political realism meets civic republicanismCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 20 (3): 331-347. 2017.The paper offers five desiderata on a realist normative theory of politics: that it should avoid moralism, deontologism, transcendentalism, utopianism, and vanguardism. These desiderata argue for a theory that begins from values rooted in a people’s experience; that avoids prescribing a collective deontological constraint; that makes the comparison of imperfect regimes possible; that takes feasibility and sustainability into account; and that makes room for the claims of democracy. The paper arg…Read more
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14Foul dealing and an assurance problemAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 67 (3). 1989.This Article does not have an abstract
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70Judging justice: an introduction to contemporary political philosophyRoutledge and Kegan Paul. 1980.Social life In order to get our discussion going we need to develop a picture of what social life involves. Political evaluation, the central theme of our ...
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3ContentsIn Made with Words: Hobbes on Language, Mind, and Politics, Princeton University Press. 2009.
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101Parmenides and SartrePhilosophical Studies (Dublin) 17 (n/a): 161-184. 1968.As the first ontologist, Parmenides has a special place in the history of philosophy, not only because of his originality, but also because of the greatness of his particular attempt in the philosophy of being. His stature is such that any later attempt in the inquiry into being must measure itself against his achievement. His famous philosophical poem, which we have in fragments, is a permanent challenge to later philosophers. Thus Plato could describe Parmenides as ‘a man to be respected and a…Read more
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36Response to Commentaries on Made with WordsHobbes Studies 22 (2): 208-218. 2009.This reply argues five points, in response to the commentaries on my book, “Made with Words”. First, that Hobbes's theory of language may have supported his materialism, as his materialism supported the theory of language. Second, that for Hobbes legal penalties as such do not take from freedom, only legal obligations. Third, that his emphasis on maker's knowledge explains his theory of a priori demonstrable knowledge and, in particular, the importance he gives to definitions. Fourth, that Hobbe…Read more
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InhaltsverzeichnisIn Philip Pettit & Christopher Hookway (eds.), Handlung Und Interpretation: Studien Zur Philosophie der Sozialwissenschaften, De Gruyter. 1982.
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170There are three major issues which crop up in the discussion of metaphor among philosophers of language. They are: whether metaphor is cognitive, whether it is descriptive, and whether it is innovative. Those who deny that metaphor is cognitive are a group more often imagined than encountered, but if they existed they would consign the study of metaphor to affective stylistics, stressing the ornamentative and related effects which the phenomenon is likely to have.‘ Those who admit that metaphor …Read more
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30On People’s Terms. A Reply to Four CritiquesPhilosophy and Public Issues - Filosofia E Questioni Pubbliche 5 (2). 2015.Download.
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455Republican Theory and Criminal PunishmentUtilitas 9 (1): 59. 1997.Suppose we embrace the republican ideal of freedom as non-domination: freedom as immunity to arbitrary interference. In that case those acts that call uncontroversially for criminalization will usually be objectionable on three grounds: the offender assumes a dominating position in relation to the victim, the offender reduces the range or ease of undominated choice on the part of the victim, and the offender raises a spectre of domination for others like the victim. And in that case, so it appea…Read more
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709Deliberative Democracy and the Discursive DilemmaPhilosophical Issues 11 (1): 268-299. 2001.Taken as a model for how groups should make collective judgments and decisions, the ideal of deliberative democracy is inherently ambiguous. Consider the idealised case where it is agreed on all sides that a certain conclusion should be endorsed if and only if certain premises are admitted. Does deliberative democracy recommend that members of the group debate the premises and then individually vote, in the light of that debate, on whether or not to support the conclusion? Or does it recommend t…Read more
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91Rawls’s political ontologyPolitics, Philosophy and Economics 4 (2): 157-174. 2005.The background thesis is that an implicit ontology of the people and the relation between the people and the state often shapes how we think in normative terms about politics. This article attempts to defend that thesis in relation to Rawls. The argument is that the rejection of an image of the people as a group agent connects with his objection to utilitarianism and the rejection of an image of the people as a mere aggregate connects with his objection to libertarianism. Rawls, it is argued, ho…Read more
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