•  28
    Face transplants have been performed, in a small number, since 2005. Popular concern over the morality of the face transplant has tended to focus on the role that one’s face plays in one’s sense of self or one’s personal identity. In order to address this concern, the current paper will explore the significance of face transplants in the light of a theory of the self that draws on symbolic interactionism, narrative theory, and accounts of embodiment. The paper will respond to certain presupposit…Read more
  •  14
    Sport and Philosophy: from Methodology to Ethics
    Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 38 (1): 132-134. 2011.
    No abstract
  • Habermas: A Very Short Introduction (review)
    Radical Philosophy 133. 2005.
  •  27
    Confidentiality and Personal Integrity
    Nursing Ethics 1 (2): 86-95. 1994.
    This paper uses the social theory of Erving Goffman in order to argue that confidentiality should be understood in relation to the mundane social skills by which individuals present and respect specific self-images of themselves and others during social interaction. The breaching of confidentiality is analysed in terms of one person's capacity to embarrass another, and so to expose that person as incompetent. Respecting confidentiality may at once serve to protect the vulnerable from an unjust s…Read more
  •  42
    The Philosophy of Habermas
    Mcgill-Queen's University Press. 2005.
    This comprehensive introduction to the thought of Jurgen Habermas covers the full range of his ideas from his early work on student politics to his recent work on communicative action, ethics and law. Andrew Edgar examines Habermas' key texts in chronological order, revealing the developments, shifts and turns in Habermas' thinking as he refines his basic insights and incorporates new sources and ideas. Some of the themes discussed include Habermas' early reshaping of Marxist theory and practice…Read more
  •  17
    The Athletic Body
    Health Care Analysis 26 (3): 269-283. 2018.
    This paper seeks to explore the attraction and the beauty of the contemporary athletic body. It will be suggested that a body shaped through muscular bulk and definition has come to be seen as aesthetically normative. This body differs from the body of athletes from the early and mid-twentieth century. It will be argued that the contemporary body is not merely the result of advances in sports science, but rather that it is expressive of certain meanings and values. The visual similarity of the c…Read more
  •  34
    Enterprise association or civil association? The uk national health service
    Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 20 (6): 669-688. 1995.
    This paper falls into three parts. In the first part I will briefly review the current process of reform that the United Kingdom National Health Service is undergoing. Two fundamental motivations for reform, the desire for increased efficiency and for an increased responsiveness to patients' needs and preferences will be discussed in greater detail. The second part attempts to provide a perspective on the moral debate concerning health care reform by introducing the distinction between ‘civil as…Read more
  •  22
    Hermeneutics and Sport
    with Francisco Javier Lopez Frias
    Sport, Ethics and Philosophy 10 (4): 343-348. 2016.
    Hermeneutics is the exploration of the process of textual interpretation. As such, it has long been recognised as an important component within the humanities and social sciences, whether one deals with actual texts or with other the products of meaningful human activity, including social actions and utterances. Here, we offer a brief overview of the contribution that hermeneutics might make to the philosophy of sport. If sports and sporting events are seen to be the results of meaningful human …Read more
  •  44
    The Art of Useless Suffering
    Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 10 (4): 95-405. 2007.
    The purpose of this paper is to explore the role that modernism in the arts might have in articulating the uselessness and incomprehensibility of physical and mental suffering. It is argued that the experience of illness is frequently resistant to interpretation, and as such, it will be suggested, to conventional forms of artistic expression and communication. Conventional narratives, and other beautiful or conventionally expressive aesthetic structures, that presuppose the possibility and desir…Read more
  •  70
    The dominance of big pharma: power (review)
    Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 16 (2): 295-304. 2013.
    The purpose of this paper is to provide a normative model for the assessment of the exercise of power by Big Pharma. By drawing on the work of Steven Lukes, it will be argued that while Big Pharma is overtly highly regulated, so that its power is indeed restricted in the interests of patients and the general public, the industry is still able to exercise what Lukes describes as a third dimension of power. This entails concealing the conflicts of interest and grievances that Big Pharma may have w…Read more
  •  37
    Sport as strategic action: A Habermasian perspective
    Sport, Ethics and Philosophy 1 (1). 2007.
    The purpose of this paper is to explore the moral status of sport through a conceptual structure borrowed from Jürgen Habermas's philosophy and social theory. Habermas distinguishes between communicative and strategic action as two ways in which social action may be coordinated. While the former relies on the building of mutual understanding between social agents, the latter entails one agent manipulating others, as if they were mere objects to be treated instrumentally. In an initial model of s…Read more