-
38Moralism and morally accountable beingsJournal of Applied Philosophy 22 (2). 2005.abstract In this paper I consider the nature of the purported vice of moralism by examining two examples that, I suggest, exemplify this vice: the first from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter; the second from David Owen's account of his experience as European negotiator between the warring parties in the former Yugoslavia. I argue that in different ways both these examples show the kind of human weakness or failure that is involved in the most extreme version of moralism, a weakness that …Read more
-
11Sympathy: a philosophical analysisPalgrave-Macmillan. 2002.It is widely held in contemporary moral philosophy that moral agency must be explained in terms of some more basic account of human nature. This book presents a fundamental challenge to this view. Specifically, it argues that sympathy, understood as an immediate and unthinking response to another's suffering, plays a constitutive role in our conception of what it is to be human, and specifically in that conception of human life on which anything we might call a moral life depends.
-
Introduction to Special Issue: Global Justice and Global ProsperityAustralian Journal of Professional and Applied Ethics 8 (1). 2006.
-
1Morality and the Role-Differentiated Behaviour of LawyersAustralian Journal of Professional and Applied Ethics 6 (1). 2004.
-
66Winch on moral dilemmas and moral modalityInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 49 (2). 2006.Peter Winch's famous argument in "The Universalizability of Moral Judgments" that moral judgments are not always universalizable is widely thought to involve an essentially sceptical claim about the limitations of moral theories and moral theorising more generally. In this paper I argue that responses to Winch have generally missed the central positive idea upon which Winch's argument is founded: that what is right for a particular agent to do in a given situation may depend on what is and is no…Read more
-
45Literature and Moral ThoughtBritish Journal of Aesthetics 54 (3): 285-298. 2014.I will consider what literature might add to moral thought and understanding as distinct from moral philosophy as it is commonly understood. My argument turns on a distinction between two conceptions of moral thought. One in which the point of moral thought is that it should issue in moral judgement leading to action; the other in which it is concerned also with what Iris Murdoch calls ‘the texture of a man’s being or the nature of his personal vision’. Drawing on this second conception and Dost…Read more
-
44Moral cognitivism and characterPhilosophical Investigations 28 (3). 2005.It may seem to follow from Peter Winch's claim in ‘The Universalizability of Moral Judgements’ that a certain class of first‐person moral judgments are not universalizable that such judgments cannot be given a cognitivist interpretation. But Winch's argument does not involve the denial of moral cognitivism and in this paper I show how such judgements may be cognitively determined yet not universalizable. Drawing on an example from James Joyce's The Dead, I suggest that in the kind of situation W…Read more
-
64Art and moralismPhilosophy 84 (3): 341-353. 2009.Mrs. Digby told me that when she lived in London with her sister, Mrs. Brooke, they were every now and then honoured by the visits of Dr. Johnson. He called on them one day soon after the publication of his immortal dictionary. The two ladies paid him due compliments on the occasion. Amongst other topics of praise they very much commended the omission of all naughty words. 'What! my dears! then you have been looking for them?' said the moralist. The ladies, confused at being thus caught, dropped…Read more
Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia
Areas of Specialization
Meta-Ethics |
Value Theory |
Applied Ethics |
Areas of Interest
1 more
Meta-Ethics |
Aesthetics |
Value Theory |
Normative Ethics |
Applied Ethics |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |