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275Why Jonas Olson Cannot Believe the Error Theory EitherJournal of Moral Philosophy 13 (4): 419-436. 2016.Jonas Olson writes that "a plausible moral error theory must be an error theory about all irreducible normativity". I agree. But unlike Olson, I think we cannot believe this error theory. I first argue that Olson should say that reasons for belief are irreducibly normative. I then argue that if reasons for belief are irreducibly normative, we cannot believe an error theory about all irreducible normativity. I then explain why I think Olson's objections to this argument fail. I end by showing tha…Read more
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347Semi-global consequentialism and blameless wrongdoing: Reply to BrownUtilitas 17 (2): 226-230. 2005.Campbell Brown is right that my argument against semi-global consequentialism relies on the principle of agglomeration. However, semi-global consequentialists cannot rescue their view simply by rejecting this principle.
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179No, We CannotInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 24 (4): 537-546. 2016.Marianna Bergamaschi Ganapini argues that we can believe the error theory. In this reply, I explain why I still think we cannot.
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355Can consequentialism cover everything?Utilitas 15 (2): 237-47. 2003.Derek Parfit, Philip Pettit and Michael Smith defend a version of consequentialism that covers everything. I argue that this version of consequentialism is false. Consequentialism, I argue, can only cover things that belong to a combination of things that agents can bring about.
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138Review of David Sobel and Steven Wall, Reasons for Action (review)Analysis 71 (1): 200-202. 2011.
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285Inferential and non-inferential reasoningPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 74 (1): 1-29. 2007.It is sometimes suggested that there are two kinds of reasoning: inferential reasoning and non-inferential reasoning. However, it is not entirely clear what the difference between these two kinds of reasoning is. In this paper, I try to answer the question what this difference is. I first discuss three answers to this question that I argue are unsatisfactory. I then give a different answer to this question, and I argue that this answer is satisfactory. I end by showing that this answer can help …Read more
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527Are the Moral Fixed Points Conceptual Truths?Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (1): 1-9. 2016.Terence Cuneo and Russ Shafer-Landau have recently proposed a new version of moral nonnaturalism, according to which there are nonnatural moral concepts and truths but no nonnatural moral facts. This view entails that moral error theorists are conceptually deficient. We explain why moral error theorists are not conceptually deficient. We then argue that this explanation reveals what is wrong with Cuneo and Shafer-Landau’s view.
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307Why There Really Are No Irreducibly Normative PropertiesIn David Bakhurst, Margaret Olivia Little & Brad Hooker (eds.), Thinking about reasons: themes from the philosophy of Jonathan Dancy, Oxford University Press. pp. 310-336. 2013.Jonathan Dancy thinks that there are irreducibly normative properties. Frank Jackson has given a well-known argument against this view, and I have elsewhere defended this argument against many objections, including one made by Dancy. But Dancy remains unconvinced. In this chapter, I hope to convince him.
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289Practical ReasoningIn Timothy O'Connor & Constantine Sandis (eds.), Blackwell Companion to the Philosophy of Action, Blackwell. pp. 244-251. 2010.To be able to say what practical reasoning is, we first need to say what reasoning is and what the conclusion of a process of reasoning is. I shall do this in sections 1 and 2. We can then make a distinction between practical and theoretical reasoning. There are three main ways to do this, which I shall survey in sections 3 to 5. I shall end by suggesting that there are different kinds of practical reasoning
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796Can We Believe the Error Theory?Journal of Philosophy 110 (4): 194-212. 2013.According to the error theory, normative judgements are beliefs that ascribe normative properties, even though such properties do not exist. In this paper, I argue that we cannot believe the error theory, and that this means that there is no reason for us to believe this theory. It may be thought that this is a problem for the error theory, but I argue that it is not. Instead, I argue, our inability to believe the error theory undermines many objections that have been made to this theory.
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222Reasons, impossibility and efficient steps: reply to HeuerPhilosophical Studies 151 (1). 2010.Ulrike Heuer argues that there can be a reason for a person to perform an action that this person cannot perform, as long as this person can take efficient steps towards performing this action. In this reply, I first argue that Heuer's examples fail to undermine my claim that there cannot be a reason for a person to perform an action if it is impossible that this person will perform this action. I then argue that, on a plausible interpretation of what 'efficient steps' are, Heuer's claim is cons…Read more
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Areas of Specialization
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Areas of Interest
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