University of Oxford
Faculty of Philosophy
DPhil, 1989
Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Value Theory
  •  94
    The Non-arbitrariness of Reasons: Reply to Lenman
    Utilitas 11 (2): 178-193. 1999.
    James Lenman is critical of my claim that moral requirements are requirements of reason. I argue that his criticisms miss their target. More importantly, I argue that the anti-rationalism that informs Lenman's criticisms is itself implausible.
  •  99
    Reason and desire
    Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 88 243-58. 1988.
    My topic is the debate in moral psychology between the rationalist and the anti-rationalist over the proper relation between reason and desire. My aim is not to adjudicate this debate, but rather to clarify what is at stake, for, it seems to me, both parties are prone to misconceive the issues that divide them
  •  28
    Shadow and shade: The ethopoietics of enlightenment
    Ethics, Place and Environment 6 (2). 2003.
    Modern Western thought and culture have envisaged their task in terms of a metaphorics, a metaphysics and a technics of 'enlightenment'. However, the ethical and environmental implications of this determination to dispel all shadows have become increasingly pernicious as modernity both extends and alters the conceptualization and employment of (a now artificial) light as a tool of discovery and control. Drawing on the work of Foucault and Benjamin amongst others, this paper seeks to illustrate, …Read more
  •  686
  •  191
    Galen Strawson and the Weather WatchersMind and World
    with John McDowell
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 58 (2): 449. 1998.
  •  4
    Emotion, Place and Culture
    with Liz Bondi
    Routledge. 2009.
    There has been a rapid rise in engagement with emotion and affect across a range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, with geographers making a significant contribution by examining the emotional intersections between people and places. This book investigates feelings and affect in various spatial and social contexts.
  •  188
    Many claim that a plausible moral theory would have to include a principle of beneficence, a principle telling us to produce goods that are both welfarist and agent‐neutral. But when we think carefully about the necessary connection between moral obligations and reasons for action, we see that agents have two reasons for action, and two moral obligations: they must not interfere with any agent's exercise of his rational capacities and they must do what they can to make sure that agents have rati…Read more
  • Freedom in Belief and Desire
    with Philip Pettit
    In Gary Watson (ed.), Free Will, Oxford University Press. 1996.
  •  9
    Global Consequentialism
    In Brad Hooker, Elinor Mason & Dale E. Miller (eds.), Morality, Rules, and Consequences: A Critical Reader, Edinburgh University Press. pp. 121--133. 2000.
  •  19
    Manipulating Levels of Socially Evaluative Threat and the Impact on Anticipatory Stress Reactivity
    with Olivia A. Craw and Mark A. Wetherell
    Frontiers in Psychology 12. 2021.
    Previous work suggests that relative increases in socially evaluative threat modulate the psychobiological stress response. However, few studies have compared stressors which manipulate the level of socially evaluative threat to which the participant is exposed. Here we present two studies. In the first, we assessed the integrity of an ecologically valid, laboratory stressor and its effects on acute psychobiological reactivity and ability to evoke an anticipatory response prior to participation.…Read more
  •  50
    Imagine that Bloggs is faced with a choice between giving a benefit to his child, or a slightly greater benefit to a complete stranger. The benefit is whatever the child or the stranger can buy for $100 — Bloggs has $100 to give away — and it just so happens that the stranger would buy something from which he would gain a slightly greater benefit than would Bloggs's child. Let's stipulate that Bloggs believes this to be, and let's stipulate, as well, that he believes that the consequences of his…Read more
  •  147
    Towards Interoperability of Biomedical Ontologies
    with Musen Mark, A. Schroeder, and Barry
    Schloss Dagstuhl: Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik. 2008.
    Report on Dagstuhl Seminar 07132, Schloss Dagstuhl, March 27-30 , 2007.
  •  169
    Kinds of consequentialism
    In Ernest Sosa & Enrique Villanueva (eds.), Metaethics, Wiley Periodicals. pp. 257-272. 2009.
    No Abstract
  •  138
    Immodest Consequentialism and Character
    Utilitas 13 (2): 173. 2001.
    The fact that we place the value that we do on the traits of character constitutive of being a good friend, and the acts that good friends are disposed to perform, creates a considerable problem for what I call. The problem is, in essence, that the very best that the immodest global consequentialists can do by way of vindicating our most deeply held convictions about the value of these traits of character and actions isn't good enough, because, while vindicating our possession of those convictio…Read more
  •  202
    The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy (edited book)
    with Frank Jackson
    Oxford University Press UK. 2005.
    Oxford Handbooks offer authoritative and up-to-date surveys of original research in a particular subject area. Specially commissioned essays from leading figures in the discipline give critical examinations of the progress and direction of debates. Oxford Handbooks provide scholars and graduate students with compelling new perspectives upon a wide range of subjects in the humanities and social sciences. The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy is the definitive guide to what's going on in …Read more
  •  75
    Frank Jackson, Philip Pettit, and Michael Smith have been at the forefront of philosophy in Australia for much of the last two decades, and their collaborative work has had widespread influence throughout the world. Mind, Morality, and Explanation collects the best of that work in a single volume, showcasing their seminal contributions to philosophical psychology, the theory of psychological and social explanation, moral theory, and moral psychology.
  •  739
    Ethical particularism and patterns
    with Frank Jackson and Philip Pettit
    In Brad Hooker & Margaret Olivia Little (eds.), Moral Particularism, Oxford University Press. pp. 79--99. 2000.
  •  491
    Absolutist Moral Theories and Uncertainty
    with Frank Jackson
    Journal of Philosophy 103 (6): 267-283. 2006.
  •  21
    BLOM Hans, John Christian Laursen and Luisa Simonutti (eds)
    with Brennan Geoffrey, Robert Goodwin, and Frank Jackson
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 15 (4): 833-837. 2007.
  •  81
    How not to be muddled by a meddlesome muggletonian
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 75 (4). 1997.
    Holton, we acknowledge, has given a good counter-example to a theory, and that theory is interesting and worth refuting. The theory we have in mind is like Smith's, but is more reductionist in spirit. It is a theory that ties value to Reason and to processes of reasoning, or inference - not to the recognition of reasons and acting on reasons. Such a theory overestimates the importance of logic, truth, inference, and thinking things through for yourself independently of any ideas about where you …Read more
  •  11
    The power and the promise of deep ecology is seen, by its supporters and detractors alike, to lie in its claims to speak on behalf of a natural world threatened by human excesses. Yet, to speak of trees as trees or nature as something worthy of respect in itself has appeared increasingly difficult in the light of social constructivist accounts of “nature.” Deep ecology has been loath to take constructivism’s insightsseriously, retreating into forms of biological objectivism and reductionism. Yet…Read more
  •  14
    Avalanches and Snowballs A Reply to Arne Naess
    Environmental Ethics 23 (2): 223-224. 2001.
  •  12
    This volume compares the writings of Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, Jacques Maritain, and Charlis De Koninck on the dignity of the individual and the common good, topics fundamental to Catholic social teaching.
  •  158
    Moral Realism
    In Hugh LaFollette & Ingmar Persson (eds.), The Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory, Blackwell. pp. 15-42. 2013.
    In the past twenty years or so the debate over moral realism has become a major focus of philosophical activity. Unfortunately, however, as a glance at the enormous literature the debate has generated makes clear, there is still no consensus as to what, precisely, it would take to be a moral realist (Sayre‐McCord 1988a). My aims in this essay are thus twofold: first, to clarify what is at stake in the debate over realism, and, second, to explain why, as it seems to me, the realist's stance is so…Read more
  •  5
    Valuing: Desiring or Believing?
    In K. Lennon & D. Charles (eds.), Reduction, Explanation, and Realism, Oxford University Press. pp. 323--60. 1992.