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306Patriotism: Philosophical and political perspectivesAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 87 (1). 2009.A review of Patriotism: Philosophical and Political Perspectives
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2299Is radical evil banal? Is banal evil radical?Philosophy and Social Criticism 33 (6): 717-735. 2007.There has been much recent debate concerning how Hannah Arendt's concepts of radical evil and the banality of evil `fit together', if at all. I argue that the first of these concepts deals with a certain type of evil, in particular the evil that occurred in the Nazi death camps. The second deals with a certain type of perpetrator of evil, in particular the banal `nobody', Eichmann. As such, bar a localized incompatibility in regard to Arendt's early account of the motivation of perpetrators of r…Read more
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1607A Conception of EvilJournal of Value Inquiry 42 (2): 217-239. 2008.There are a number of different senses of the term “evil.” We examine in this paper the term “evil” when it is used to say things such as: “what Hitler did was not merely wrong, it was evil”, and “Hitler was not merely a bad person, he was an evil person”. Failing to keep a promise or telling a white lie may be morally wrong, but unlike genocide or sadistic torture, it is not evil in this sense. In this paper we analyze the specific moral difference between “evil” and “mere wrongdoing”. In so do…Read more
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579Understanding Evil ActsHuman Studies 30 (2): 57-77. 2007.Evil acts strike us, by their very nature, as not only horrifying and reprehensible, but also as deeply puzzling. No doubt for reasons like this, evil has often been seen as mysterious, demonic and beyond our human powers of understanding. The question I examine in this paper is whether or not we can (or would want to) overcome this puzzlement in the face of evil acts. I shall argue that we ought want to (in all cases) and can (in at least most cases) come to understand why people perpetrate evi…Read more
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1493Kant on the Limits of Human EvilJournal of Philosophical Research 34 189-214. 2009.Kant has often been accused of being far too “optimistic” when it comes to the extremes of evil that humans can perpetrate upon one another. In particular, Kant’s supposed claim that humans cannot choose evil qua evil has struck many people as simply false. Another problem for Kant, or perhaps the same problem in another guise, is his supposed claim that all evil is done for the sake of self-love. While self-love might be a plausible way to explain some instances of evil, it seems to be an impla…Read more
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Areas of Specialization
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Kantian Ethics |
Computer Ethics |
Ethics of Artificial Intelligence |
Value Theory |
Moral Evil |
Video Games |