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10Philosophical Perspectives on Bioethics (edited book)University of Toronto Press. 1996.The contributors to the volume discuss various approaches to bioethical thinking and the political and institutional contexts of bioethics, addressing underlying concerns about the purposes of its practice.
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8The Revolution in Ethical Theory. By George C. Kerner. Oxford University Press, 1966. Pp. vi, 254. $4.40Dialogue 5 (4): 649-652. 1967.
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8Morality and Utility. By Jan Narveson. Baltimore; The Johns Hopkins Press; Toronto: Copp Clark Pub. Co. 1967. Pp. ix, 293. $7.50 (review)Dialogue 7 (2): 302-305. 1968.
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23The Carnivore Strikes BackDialogue 23 (4): 661-668. 1984.Since philosophers began thinking seriously about the moral status of non-human animals, many of the practices we once took for granted have come to be condemned as unjustifiable, among them our reliance on animals as a food source. While the arguments which have been adduced in support of moral vegetarianism invoke quite different moral frameworks, they begin with a common concern for the welfare of animals. In the real world of practising vegetarians, this concern tends to be subordinated to c…Read more
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19Catching Up With CastañedaDialogue 14 (4): 671-685. 1975.Remember the fifties? That was, among other things, when it was outré for moral philosophers acutally to use moral discourse and de rigueur to theorize about its use. It was when we all read Stevenson and Hare and learned to believe that moral judgments had no truth values and were used to express emotion or to issue imperatives. It was when we came to realize that all previous moral philosophy rested on the mistake of supposing that moral judgments were propositions. How remote it all seems now…Read more
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18Negativities: The Limits of Life. By Joseph Margolis. Columbus. Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company. 1975. Pp. vii, 166 (review)Dialogue 16 (2): 348-352. 1977.
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6Ethics: Report of the Consultative Group on Ethics. Ottawa: The Canada Council, 1977. vi + 34 pages. $2.00 (review)Dialogue 17 (3): 575-581. 1978.
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47Toward a Credible View of AbortionCanadian Journal of Philosophy 4 (1). 1974.As little as a decade ago most moral philosophers still believed that the exercise of their craft did not include defending positions on actual moral problems. More recently they have come to their senses, one happy result being a spate of articles in the last few years on the subject of abortion. These discussions have contributed much toward an understanding of the abortion issue, but for the most part they have not attempted a full analysis of the morality of abortion. Such an analysis is too…Read more
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92Positive SexismSocial Philosophy and Policy 5 (1): 204. 1987.No one who cares about equal opportunity can derive much comfort from the present occupational distribution of working women. In the various industrial societies of the West, women comprise between one quarter and one-half of the national labor force. However, they tend to clustered in employment sectors – especially clerical, sales, and service J occupations – which rank relatively low in remuneration, status, autonomy, and other perquisites. Meanwhile, the more prestigious and rewarding manage…Read more
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18Book Review:Persons, Rights, and the Moral Community. Loren E. Lomasky (review)Ethics 99 (3): 640-. 1989.
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933The moral foundation of rightsOxford University Press. 1987.What does it mean for someone to have a moral right to something? What kinds of creatures can have rights, and which rights can they have? While rights are indispensable to our moral and political thinking, they are also mysterious and controversial; as long as these controversies remain unsolved, rights will remain vulnerable to skepticism. Here, Sumner constructs both a coherent concept of a moral right and a workable substantive theory of rights to provide the moral foundation necessary to di…Read more
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14Consequences of UtilitarianismDialogue 7 (4): 639-642. 1969.This is a book built round an argument. Several variants of the argument are offered, and I shall consider but one of them. It is directed against the following act utilitarian principle:AU: An act is right if and only if it would have best consequences The argument may be freely rendered as follows. Suppose that we have an agent, Smith, in a society, S, such that the following conditions are satisfied:C1: Smith accepts AU and attempts always to act in accordance with itC2: Smith is rational: he…Read more
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12Reply to Hurka and CoppDialogue 28 (1): 149-. 1989.I am deeply indebted to Tom Hurka and David Copp for the careful attention they have given to some of the central motifs in The Moral Foundation of Rights. By doing their job so well they have simplified mine considerably. Their exposition of my views is a model of fairness and accuracy; I need therefore waste no time disclaiming attributions or complaining about misrepresentation. Furthermore, they have shown admirable resolve in choosing to ignore the book's relatively peripheral concerns, eve…Read more
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157Welfare, Happiness, and PleasureUtilitas 4 (2): 199-223. 1992.Time and philosophical fashion have not been kind to hedonism. After flourishing for three centuries or so in its native empiricist habitat, it has latterly all but disappeared from the scene. Does it now merit even passing attention, for other than nostalgic purposes? Like endangered species, discredited ideas do sometimes manage to make a comeback. Is hedonism due for a revival of this sort? Perhaps it is overly optimistic to think that it could ever flourish again in its original form; the ev…Read more
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38Is Virtue Its Own Reward?: L. W. SUMNERSocial Philosophy and Policy 15 (1): 18-36. 1998.If I lead a life of virtue, that may well be good for you. But will it also be good for me? The idea that it will—or even must—is an ancient one, and its appeal runs deep. For if this idea is correct then we can provide everyone with a good reason—arguably the best reason—for being virtuous. However, for all the effort which has been invested in defending the idea, by some of the best minds in the history of philosophy, it remains unproven. Worse, in this skeptical age hardly anyone really belie…Read more
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9Deliberating on DeathDialogue 23 (3): 503-508. 1984.As a distinct academic subdiscipline medical ethics is only about fifteen years old, but during that brief lifespan it has managed to generate a literature so vast that only specialists and speedreaders can now hope to keep up with more than a small fraction of it. When a literature has achieved this density new contributions must bear the burden of showing that they advance the existing state of the art. Eike-Henner W. Kluge's book joins a well-established continuing debate on the morality of e…Read more
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Philosophy of Law |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Philosophy of Law |
Social and Political Philosophy |