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439Book Review: Hard Feelings: The Moral Psychology of Contempt. By Macalester Bell. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. xi + 292. Price £34.49.) (review)Philosophical Quarterly. forthcoming.
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411The problem with moralismRatio 342-350. 2018.Moralism is often described as a vice. But what exactly is wrong with moralism that makes it aptly described as a character flaw? This paper will argue that the problem with moralism is that it downgrades the force of legitimate moral criticism. First, I will argue that moralism involves an inflated sense of the extent to which moral criticism is appropriate. Next, I will examine the value of legitimate moral criticism, arguing that its value stems from enabling us to take a stand against immora…Read more
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397Sporting supererogation and why it mattersJournal of the Philosophy of Sport 44 (3): 359-373. 2017.A commonly accepted feature of commonsense morality is that there are some acts that are supererogatory or beyond the call of duty. Recently, philosophers have begun to ask whether something like supererogation might exist in other normative domains such as epistemology and esthetics. In this paper, I will argue that there is good reason to think that sporting supererogation exists. I will then argue that recognizing the existence of sporting supererogation is important because it highlights the…Read more
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354Against Vote Markets: A Reply To FreimanJournal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (2): 1-5. 2014.No.
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341Review: M. v. Ackeren and M. Kühler (Eds.) The Limits of Moral Obligation: Moral Demandingness and Ought Implies Can (New York: Routledge, 2016), 210 pages. ISBN: 9781138824232 (Hbk). Hardback: £90.00. (review)Journal of Moral Philosophy. forthcoming.
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308Tightlacing and Abusive Normative AddressErgo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 10 (n/a). 2023.In this paper, we introduce a distinctive kind of psychological abuse we call Tightlacing. We begin by presenting four examples and argue that there is a distinctive form of abuse in these examples that cannot be captured by our existing moral categories. We then outline our diagnosis of this distinctive form of abuse. Tightlacing consists in inducing a mistaken self-conception in others that licenses overburdening demands on them such that victims apply those demands to themselves. We discuss t…Read more
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252What’s the Use of Non-moral Supererogation?In David Heyd (ed.), Handbook of Supererogation, Springer Nature Singapore. pp. 237-253. 2023.While moral philosophers have paid significant attention to the concept of moral supererogation, far less attention has been paid to the possibility that supererogation may also exist in other areas of normativity. Recently, though, philosophers have begun to consider the possible existence of prudential, epistemic, aesthetic, and sporting supererogation. These discussions tend to focus on aspects of our practices in these areas of normativity that suggest an implicit acceptance of the existence…Read more
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186Beyond the Call of Beauty: Everyday Aesthetic Demands Under PatriarchyThe Monist 101 (1): 114-127. 2018.This paper defends two claims. First, we will argue for the existence of aesthetic demands in the realm of everyday aesthetics, and that these demands are not reducible to moral demands. Second, we will argue that we must recognise the limits of these demands in order to combat a widespread form of gendered oppression. The concept of aesthetic supererogation offers a new structural framework to understand both the pernicious nature of this oppression and what may be done to mitigate it.
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174Epistemic Injustice and the Attention EconomyEthical Theory and Moral Practice 23 (5): 777-795. 2020.In recent years, a significant body of literature has emerged on the subject of epistemic injustice: wrongful harms done to people in their capacities as knowers. Up to now this literature has ignored the role that attention has to play in epistemic injustice. This paper makes a first step towards addressing this gap. We argue that giving someone less attention than they are due, which we call an epistemic attention deficit, is a distinct form of epistemic injustice. We begin by outlining what w…Read more
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172Consigning to HistoryPhilosophers' Imprint. forthcoming.How might a society wrong people by the way in which it remembers its past? In recent years, philosophers have articulated serval ways in which people may be wronged by dominant historical narratives. My focus will be on a way in which we may wrong people which has yet to feature in this discussion: the consigning of people to history. This paper investigates the wrongs involved in collective narratives that consign certain identities to a country’s past but not its present or future. I will arg…Read more
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166Divine moral goodness, supererogation and The Euthyphro DilemmaInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 79 (2): 147-160. 2016.How can we make sense of God’s moral goodness if God cannot be subject to moral obligations? This question is troubling for divine command theorists, as if we cannot make sense of God’s moral goodness then it seems hard to see how God’s commands could be morally good. Alston argues that the concept of supererogation solves this problem. If we accept the existence of acts that are morally good but not morally required then we should accept that there is no need for an act to fulfill a moral oblig…Read more
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163The heroism paradox: another paradox of supererogationPhilosophical Studies 172 (6): 1575-1592. 2015.Philosophers are by now familiar with “the” paradox of supererogation. This paradox arises out of the idea that it can never be permissible to do something morally inferior to another available option, yet acts of supererogation seem to presuppose this. This paradox is not our topic in this paper. We mention it only to set it to one side and explain our subtitle. In this paper we introduce and explore another paradox of supererogation, one which also deserves serious philosophical attention. Peo…Read more
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140Forcing Cohen To Abandon Forced SupererogationJournal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (1): 1-7. 2014.No abstract.
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139SupererogationPhilosophy Compass 13 (3). 2018.It is a recognizable feature of commonsense morality that some actions are beyond the call of duty or supererogatory. Acts of supererogation raise a number of interesting philosophical questions and debates. This article will provide an overview of three of these debates. First, I will provide an overview of the debate about whether or not acts of supererogation exist. Next, I will investigate the issue of how to define the supererogatory. I will finish by examining a problem known as the Parado…Read more
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135How Public Statues Wrong: Affective Artifacts and Affective InjusticeTopoi 1-11. forthcoming.In what way might public statues wrong people? In recent years, philosophers have drawn on speech act theory to answer this question by arguing that statues constitute harmful or disrespectful forms of speech. My aim in this paper will be add a different theoretical perspective to this discussion. I will argue that while the speech act approach provides a useful starting point for thinking about what is wrong with public statues, we can get a fuller understanding of these wrongs by drawing on re…Read more
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128Integrity and the Value of an Integrated SelfJournal of Value Inquiry 51 (3): 435-454. 2017.What is integrity and why is it valuable? One account of the nature of integrity, proposed by John Cottingham amongst others, is The Integrated Self View. On this account integrity is a formal relation of coherence between various aspects of a person. One problem that has been raised against this account is that it isn’t obvious that it can account for the value of integrity. In this paper I will respond to this problem by providing an account of the value of an integrated self. I will do so by …Read more
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109Commemoration and Emotional ImperialismJournal of Applied Philosophy 39 (5): 761-777. 2022.The Northern Irish footballer James McClean chooses not to take part in the practice of wearing a plastic red poppy to commemorate those who have died fighting for the British Armed Forces. Each year he faces abuse, including occasional death threats, for his choice. This forms part of a wider trend towards ‘poppy enforcement’, the pressuring of people, particularly public figures, to wear the poppy. This enforcement seems wrong in part because, at least in some cases, it involves abuse. But is …Read more
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104Honouring and Admiring the Immoral: An Ethical GuideRoutledge. 2021.Is it appropriate to honour and admire people who have created great works of art, made important intellectual contributions, performed great sporting feats or shaped the history of a nation if those people have also acted immorally? This book provides a philosophical investigation of this important and timely question. The authors draw on the latest research from ethics, value theory, philosophy of emotion, social philosophy and social psychology to develop and substantiate arguments that have …Read more
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96Forgiveness and the Limits of DutyEtica and Politica/ Ethics and Politics 19 (1): 225-244. 2017.Can there be a duty to forgive those who have wronged us? According to a popular view amongst philosophers working on forgiveness the answer is no. Forgiveness, it is claimed, is always elective. This view is rejected by Gamlund (2010a; 2010b) who argues that duties to forgive do exist and then provides conditions that are relevant to determining whether forgiveness is obligatory or supererogatory. In this paper I will argue that the conditions that Gamlund provides do not provide a plausible ac…Read more
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91Sportswashing: Complicity and CorruptionSport, Ethics and Philosophy 17 (1): 101-118. 2023.When the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup was awarded to Qatar, it raised a number of moral concerns, perhaps the most prominent of which was Qatar’s woeful record on human rights in the arena of migrant labour. Qatar’s interest in hosting the event is aptly characterised as a case of ‘sportswashing’. The first aim of this paper is to provide an account of the nature of sportswashing, as a practice of using an association with sport, usually through hosting an event or owning a club (such as Newcastle …Read more
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90Heroic SupererogationEncyclopedia of Heroism Studies. 2023.In this entry I will introduce two such puzzles that relate to the heroic actions and testimony. I will first introduce the basic idea of supererogation and why some heroic actions give us reason to accept the existence of supererogatory actions. I will then introduce the problem that supererogation raises for moral theory and explain the main responses that have been offered to this problem. I will then explain two related problems that arise from the way that heroes describe their actions and …Read more
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87In defence of biodiversityBiology and Philosophy 32 (6): 969-997. 2017.The concept of biodiversity has played a central role within conservation biology over the last thirty years. Precisely how it should be understood, however, is a matter of ongoing debate. In this paper we defend what we call a classic multidimensional conception of biodiversity. We begin by introducing two arguments for eliminating the concept of biodiversity from conservation biology, both of which have been put forward in a recent paper by Santana. The first argument is against the concept’s …Read more
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83Admiration and MotivationEmotion Review 11 (2): 140-150. 2019.What is the motivational profile of admiration? In this article, I will investigate what form of connection between admiration and motivation there may be good reason to accept. A number of philosophers have advocated a connection between admiration and motivation to emulate. I will start by examining this view and will then present objections to it. I will then suggest an expanded account of the connection between admiration and motivation, according to which, admiration involves motivation to …Read more
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82Admiration Over TimePacific Philosophical Quarterly 101 (4): 669-689. 2020.In this paper, we investigate the diachronic fittingness conditions of admiration – that is, what it takes for a person to continue or cease to be admirable over time. We present a series of cases that elicit judgements that suggest different understandings of admiration over time. In some cases, admirability seems to last forever. In other cases, it seems that it can cease within a person’s lifetime if she changes sufficiently. Taken together, these cases highlight what we call the puzzle of ad…Read more
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79Sebastian Schleidgen (ed.): Should we Act Morally? Essays on Overridingness (review)Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 17 (2): 349-350. 2014.
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77‘Equal play, equal pay’: moral grounds for equal pay in footballJournal of the Philosophy of Sport 46 (3): 416-436. 2019.ABSTRACTIn this paper, we investigate three different ways of defending the claim that national football associations ought to pay their men’s and women’s football teams the same amount. First, we...
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63Shame and the sports fanJournal of the Philosophy of Sport 46 (2): 208-223. 2019.ABSTRACTSports fans sometimes feel shame for their team’s moral transgressions. In this paper, we investigate this phenomenon. We offer an account of sports fan shame in terms of collective shame....
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58Self-Sacrifice and Moral PhilosophyInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 26 (3): 301-307. 2018.
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56Why It's Ok to Be a Sports FanRoutledge. 2023.This book offers readers a pitch side seat to the ethics of fandom. Its accessible six chapters are aimed both at true sports fans whose conscience may be occasionally piqued by their pastime, and at those who are more certain of the moral hazards involved in following a team or sport. Why It's OK to Be a Sports Fan wrestles with a range of arguments against fandom and counters with its own arguments on why being a fan is very often a good thing. It looks at the ethical issues fans face, from th…Read more
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Aesthetics |
Applied Ethics |
Meta-Ethics |
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Supererogation |