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52Presumptive benefits and political obligationJournal of Applied Philosophy 18 (3). 2001.No abstract available
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68In defence of radical disobedienceJournal of Applied Philosophy 15 (1). 1998.The article defends the forms of civil disobedience currently practised by environmental protesters. It reviews the justifications of civil disobedience by Dworkin, Rawls and Singer, and finds them more or less wanting. A new and more extensive justification is provided on the basis of our duties to prevent harm befalling future generations.
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52A radical green political theory (edited book)Routledge. 1999.This volume analyzes authoritarian, reformist, Marxist and anarchist approaches to the environmental problem, exposing the relationships between environmental crises, economic structures and the role of the state.
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2Anarchism: some theoretical foundationsJournal of Political Ideologies 16 (3): 245-264. 2011.This article considers two different, yet related, theoretical approaches that could be employed to ground the anarchist critique of Marxist-Leninist revolutionary practice, and thus of the state in general: the State-Primacy Theory and the Quadruplex Theory. The State-Primacy Theory appears to be consistent with several of Bakunin's claims about the state. However, the Quadruplex Theory might, in fact, turn out to be no less consistent with Bakunin's claims than the State-Primacy Theory. In add…Read more
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Towards a green political theoryIn Andrew Dobson & Paul Lucardie (eds.), The Politics of Nature: Explorations in Green Political Theory, Routledge. pp. 39--40. 1993.
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52Game theory and decentralisationJournal of Applied Philosophy 16 (3). 1999.Whereas many environmentalists have traditionally argued in favour of small‐scale, decentralised communities as a solution to the environmental crises which we appear to face, some environmental political theorists have recently argued against decentralisation. In this article I first show that game theory seems, at first glance, to support the insistence by statists that decentralisation is highly impracticable. But, second, I then attempt to demonstrate that, on closer inspection, game theory …Read more
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102The evolution of Rawls's justification of political compliance: Part 1 of the problem of political compliance in Rawls's theories of justiceJournal of Moral Philosophy 3 (1): 7-21. 2006.As Rawls's thought evolved from his 1958 article Justice as Fairness to the 1996 edition of his book Political Liberalism, his response to the problem of political compliance would seem to have undergone a number of changes. This article critically evaluates the development of Rawls's various explicit or implied arguments that serve to justify compliance to just social arrangements, and concludes that the problem of political compliance remains without any cogent solution within the vast corpu…Read more
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212Political liberalism and political compliance: Part 2 of the problem of political compliance in rawls’s theories of justiceJournal of Moral Philosophy 3 (2): 135-157. 2006.Three interlocking features appear to underpin Rawlss justification of political compliance within the context of political liberalism: namely, a specific territory; a specific society; and a specific conception of what it is to be reasonable. When any one feature is subject to critical examination, while presupposing that the other two are acceptable, Rawlss argument for political compliance may seem persuasive. But when all three features are critically examined together, his justification o…Read more
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60A Solution to the Purported Non-Transitivity of Normative EvaluationJournal of Philosophy 112 (1): 23-45. 2015.Derek Parfit presents his Mere Addition Paradox in order to demonstrate that it is extremely difficult to avoid the Repugnant Conclusion. And in order to avoid it, Parfit has embraced perfectionism. However, Stuart Rachels and Larry Temkin, taking their lead from Parfit, have concluded, instead, that the Repugnant Conclusion can be avoided by denying the axiom of transitivity with respect to the all-things-considered-better-than relation. But this seems to present a major challenge to how we eva…Read more
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14XIII*—Moral Theory and Global PopulationProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 99 (1): 289-314. 1999.Alan Carter; XIII*—Moral Theory and Global Population, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 99, Issue 1, 1 June 1999, Pages 289–314, https://doi.org/
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1Beyond primacy: Marxism, anarchism and radical green political theoryEnvironmental Politics 19 (6). 2010.
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52Towards a Multidimensional, Environmentalist EthicEnvironmental Values 20 (3): 347-374. 2011.There has been a process of moral extensionism within environmental ethics from anthropocentrism, through zoocentrism, to ecocentrism. This article maps key elements of that process, and concludes that each of these ethical positions fails as a fully adequate, environmentalist ethic, and does so because of an implicit assumption that is common within normative theory. This notwithstanding, each position may well contribute a value. The problem that then arises is how to trade off those values ag…Read more
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18Infanticide and the Right to LifeRatio 10 (1): 1-9. 1997.Michael Tooley defends infanticide by analysing ‘A has a right to X’ as roughly synonymous with ‘If A desires X, then others are under a prima facie obligation to refrain from actions that would deprive him [or her] of it.’ An infant who cannot conceive of himself or herself as a continuing subject of experiences cannot desire to continue existing. Hence, on Tooley’s analysis, killing the infant is not impermissible, for it does not go against any of the infant’s desires. However, Tooley’s argum…Read more
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138Some groundwork for a multidimensional axiologyPhilosophical Studies 154 (3). 2011.By distinguishing between contributory values and overall value, and by arguing that contributory values are variable values insofar as they contribute diminishing marginal overall value, this article helps to establish the superiority of a certain kind of maximizing, value-pluralist axiology over both sufficientarianism and prioritarianism, as well as over all varieties of value-monism, including utilitarianism and pure egalitarianism
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33Distributive justice and enviromental sustainabilityHeythrop Journal 41 (4). 2000.Andrew Dobson has outlined three conceptions of environmental sustainability: the ‘critical natural capital’ conception; the ‘irreversibility’ conception; and the ‘natural value’ conception. He has also attempted to map out the various ‘dimensions of social justice’– his purpose in so doing being to analyze the ‘encounter’ of each conception of environmental sustainability with the points on his map. Not surprisingly, Dobson concludes that as one moves from the ‘critical natural capital’ concept…Read more
Areas of Interest
Normative Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |