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14An overlooked aspect of the fairness-utility controversyJournal of Value Inquiry 8 (2): 124-130. 1974.
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92Egalitarianism: Partial, counterproductive, and baselessRatio 10 (3). 1997.Egalitarians hold that some good things should, in principle, be distributed equally among all people. Which good things? Why just those and not others? Why are they to be equalized only among humans and not, say, between humans and cats? And why is the equalization to be confined within the borders of the author's State, rather than practiced over the whole human race (at least)? Those are all matters for the particular egalitarian to explain, as best he can. None, I think, can be explained sat…Read more
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10Silverstein on egoism and universalizabilityAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 47 (3). 1969.This Article does not have an abstract
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57When, If Ever, Do We Aggregate? And Why?Social Philosophy and Policy 26 (1): 48-75. 2009.Aggregation in moral philosophy calls for the summing or averaging of values or utilities as a guide to individual behavior. But morality, it is argued, needs to be individualistic, in view of the evident separateness of persons, especially given the great disparities among individuals who nevertheless interact with each other in social life. The most plausible general moral program is the classical liberal (or “libertarian”) one calling for mutual noninterference rather than treating others as …Read more
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257Utilitarianism and formalismAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 43 (1): 58-72. 1965.No abstract
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44Utilitarianism, group actions, and coordination or, must the utilitarian be a Buridan's ass?Noûs 10 (2): 173-194. 1976.
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28On Defense by Nuclear DeterrenceCanadian Journal of Philosophy 16 (sup1): 195-211. 1986.(1986). On Defense by Nuclear Deterrence. Canadian Journal of Philosophy: Vol. 16, Supplementary Volume 12: Nuclear Weapons, Deterrence and Disarmament, pp. 195-211
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23Charles Taylor., The Ethics of Authenticity (review)International Studies in Philosophy 26 (2): 147-148. 1994.
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51Reply to DworkinSocial Philosophy and Policy 1 (1): 41. 1983.My main complaint about Dworkin's papers on equality was that he had not said much by way of arguing for it. His intriguing response to this request provides a good start, and I shall confine this brief, further comment to what he says on that basic subject. Space considerations, alas, require me to ignore the other parts of his discussion. Dworkin distinguishes what he calls the “abstract egalitarian thesis” from his particular version of equalitarianism, equality of resources. His strategy is …Read more
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2Have We A Right to Non-discrimination?In D. Poff & W. Waluchow (eds.), Business Ethics in Canada, Prentice Hall. pp. 183-199. 1987.
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Maxificing: life on a budget; or, if you would maximize, then satisfice!In Michael Byron (ed.), Satisficing and Maximizing: Moral Theorists on Practical Reason, Cambridge University Press. pp. 59--70. 2004.
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5Rights and UtilitarianismCanadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 5 (n/a): 137-160. 1979.Few questions about utilitarianism have been more vexed than that of its relation to rights. It is commonplace to hold that there are nonutilitarian rights, rights not founded on considerations of utility. And it is even thought that the very notion of rights is inherently incapable of being significantly employed within the utilitarian framework. In the present paper, I wish to consider both of these matters. I propose to give reasons—mostly not really new—for rejecting the stronger, conceptual…Read more
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46The "Invisible Hand"Journal of Business Ethics 46 (3). 2003.The argument of the "Invisible Hand" is that the system of free enterprise benefits society in general even though it is not the aim of any particular economic agent to do that. This article proposes an analysis of why this is so. The key is that the morality of the market forbids only force and fraud; it does not require people to do good to others. Nevertheless, when all transactions are voluntary to both parties, that is exactly what we can expect to happen. This is both because the sum of th…Read more
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29MinarchismEtica E Politica 5 (2): 1-14. 2003.This essay addresses the on-going controversy between supporters of minimal government, or minarchists, and supporters of no government, or anarchists. Both lay claim to the Libertarian principle, which holds that the only justification for the use of force is to deal with aggressive force initiated by someone else. Both agree that force is justified in dealing with aggressors. The only question is, who wields it, and how? The essay explains, briefly, the role of private property in all this. Pr…Read more
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63Property rights: Original acquisition and Lockean provisosPublic Affairs Quarterly 13 (3): 205-227. 1999.
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10Future people and usIn Richard I. Sikora & Brian M. Barry (eds.), Obligations to Future Generations, White Horse Press. pp. 38--60. 1978.
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Timo Airaksinen and Martin A. Bertman, eds., Hobbes: War among Nations Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 11 (1): 3-5. 1991.
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1Jerry Z. Muller, ed., Conservatism—An Anthology of Social and Political Thought from David Hume to the Present Reviewed by (review)Philosophy in Review 17 (6): 432-433. 1997.
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60For and Against the State: New Philosophical Readings (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield. 1996.This collection addresses the central issue of political philosophy or, in a couple of cases, issues very close to the heart of that question: Is government justified? This ancient question has never been more alive than at the present time, in the midst of continuing political and social upheaval in virtually every part of the world. Only two of the pieces collected here have been published previously. All the other contributions were, at the time of the inception of the volume, fresh from the…Read more
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53Aesthetics, Charity, Utility, and Distributive JusticeThe Monist 56 (4): 527-551. 1972.As I sit down to begin this essay, the strains of “Tristan und Isolde” are still ringing in my ears; meanwhile, another dozen or so Pakistanian refugees have died for lack of sufficient food, shelter, or medical attention, probably, during the time it will have taken to compose this paragraph. The Isolde in that performance commanded, probably, a fee of four or five thousand dollars; each member of the audience paid, on the average, perhaps ten dollars to see the performance. This works out, pro…Read more
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17Professor Filice’s Defense of Pacifism: A CommentJournal of Philosophical Research 17 483-491. 1992.
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D. Weinstein, Equal Freedom and Utility-Herbert Spencer's Liberal Utilitarianism Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 19 (4): 295-297. 1999.
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University of WaterlooDepartment of Philosophy
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Areas of Specialization
Value Theory |