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39Orwell and the Anti-RealistsPhilosophy 67 (260): 141-154. 1992.The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible.
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41Sexual Ontology and Group MarriagePhilosophy 58 (224): 215-227. 1983.Philosophers of earlier ages have usually spent time in considering thenature of marital, and in general familial, duty. Paley devotes an entire book to those ‘relative duties which result from the constitution of the sexes’,1 a book notable on the one hand for its humanity and on the other for Paley‘s strange refusal to acknowledge that the evils for which he condemns any breach of pure monogamy are in large part the result of the fact that such breaches are generally condemned. In a society wh…Read more
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P. K. Feyerabend, "Philosophical Papers; Vol I Realism, Rationalism and Scientific Method; Vol II Problems of Empiricism"Philosophical Quarterly 34 (135): 172. 1984.
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27Henry S. Salt, "Animals' Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress" (review)Philosophical Quarterly 33 (30): 98. 1983.
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23PLOTINUS ON SELF. R. Mortley Plotinus, Self and the World. Pp. viii + 153. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Cased, £50, US$85. ISBN: 978-1-107-04024-3 (review)The Classical Review 65 (1): 87-89. 2015.
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36From Jim Harter, Animals: 1419 Copyright-Free 1UustraJWns, 1979; Carol Belanger Grafton, OldBetween the Species 9 (3). 1993.
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54Progress and the argument from evilReligious Studies 40 (2): 181-192. 2004.The argument from evil, though it is the most effective rhetorical argument against orthodox theism, fails to demonstrate its conclusion, since we are unavoidably ignorant whether there is more evil than could possibly be justified. That same ignorance infects any claims to discern a divine purpose in nature, as well as recent attempts at a broadly Irenaean theodicy. Evolution is not, on neo-Darwinian theory, intellectually, morally, or spiritually progressive in the way that some religious thin…Read more
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38Book Review: Stephen J. Pope, Human Evolution and Christian Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007). xiii + 359 pp. £50/us$95 (hb), ISBN 978-0-521-86340-7 (review)Studies in Christian Ethics 22 (4): 506-509. 2009.
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Ethical problems in animal welfare 1 what philosophers can't doIn David Paterson & Mary Palmer (eds.), The Status of animals: ethics, education, and welfare, Published On Behalf of the Humane Education Foundation By C.a.b. International. 1989.
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6Objective values, final causes: Stoics, Epicureans, and PlatonistsElectronic Journal of Analytic Philosophy 3. 1995.
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31Animals' Rights Considered in Relation to Social ProgressPhilosophical Quarterly 33 (130): 98. 1983.
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53Philosophical PapersVol. I Realism, Rationalism & Scientific MethodVol. II Problems of EmpiricismPhilosophical Quarterly 34 (135): 172. 1984.
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29Value Judgments: Value Judgments and Normative ClaimsRoyal Institute of Philosophy Lectures 24 145-172. 1988.A person's values are what that person regards as or thinks important; a society's values are what that society regards as important. A society's values are expressed in laws and legislatively enacted policies, in its mores, social habits, and positive morality. Any body's values—an individual person's or a society's—are subject to change, and in our time especially. An individual manifests his or her values in expressions of approval or disapproval, of admiration or disdain, by seeking or avoid…Read more
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21The Better PartRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 35 29-49. 1993.According to Aristotle, the goal of anyone who is not simply stupid or slavish is to live a worthwhile life. There are, no doubt, people who have no goal at all beyond the moment's pleasure or release from pain. There may be people incapable of reaching any reasoned decision about what to do, and acting on it. But anyone who asks how she should live implicitly agrees that her goal is to live well, to live a life that she can think worth living. That goal, eudaimonia, is something that is sought …Read more
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17The Limits of Explanation: Limited ExplanationsRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 27 195-210. 1990.When I was first approached to read a paper at the conference from which this volume takes its beginning I expected that Flint Schier, with whom I had taught a course on the Philosophy of Biology in my years at Glasgow, would be with us to comment and to criticize. I cannot let this occasion pass without expressing once again my own sense of loss. I am sure that we would all have gained by his presence, and hope that he would find things both to approve, and disapprove, in the following venture.
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14Value Judgments: How to Reason About Value JudgmentsRoyal Institute of Philosophy Lectures 24 173-190. 1988.When opinion polls are conducted on some urgent matter of the day those polled are permitted to declare themselves ‘Don't Knows’. It is usually a minority who are so ill-disposed as to forget their civic duty to have an opinion on each and every subject, and they can usually expect to be rebuked as fence-sitters or slugabeds. People confronted by the demand that they take sides can generally produce a ‘view’ which they maintain against all-comers without the slightest attempt to seek out confirm…Read more
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41Global ReligionRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 36 113-128. 1994.The social and environmental problems that we face at this tail end of twentieth-century progress require us to identify some cause, some spirit that transcends the petty limits of our time and place. It is easy to believe that there is no crisis. We have been told too often that the oceans will soon die, the air be poisonous, our energy reserves run dry; that the world will grow warmer, coastlands be flooded and the climate change; that plague, famine and war will be the necessary checks on pop…Read more
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University of BristolHonorary Research Fellow
Liverpool, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |
Philosophical Traditions |