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19Designer Biology: The Ethics of Intensively Engineering Biological and Ecological Systems (edited book)Lexington Books. 2013.This book consists of thirteen chapters that address the ethical issues raised by technological intervention and design across a broad range of biological and ecological systems. Among the technologies addressed are geoengineering, human enhancement, sex selection, genetic modification, and synthetic biology.
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1Spinoza's Ethical TheoryDissertation, The University of Wisconsin - Madison. 2001.This dissertation is a systematic study of Spinoza's ethical system as a virtue ethic. Spinoza's ethical theory has been under-appreciated in this regard and has therefore been virtually ignored by contemporary virtue ethicists who have looked almost exclusively to the ancients as a source of insight regarding the virtues. With my dissertation I aim both to contribute to Spinoza scholarship and to provide an historical resource to contemporary ethicists working in the area of virtue. ;The disser…Read more
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96Character and Environment: A Virtue-Oriented Approach to Environmental Ethics (edited book)Columbia University Press. 2007.Virtue ethics is now widely recognized as an alternative to Kantian and consequentialist ethical theories. However, moral philosophers have been slow to bring virtue ethics to bear on topics in applied ethics. Moreover, environmental virtue ethics is an underdeveloped area of environmental ethics. Although environmental ethicists often employ virtue-oriented evaluation (such as respect, care, and love for nature) and appeal to role models (such as Henry Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, and Rachel Carson) …Read more
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24Hunting, Fishing, and Environmental Virtue: Reconnecting Sportsmanship and Conservation by Charles J. ListEnvironmental Ethics 36 (3): 373-376. 2014.
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46Game Theory and the Ethics of Global Climate ChangePhilosophy and Public Issues - Filosofia E Questioni Pubbliche 3 (1). 2013.download
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72Environmental Virtue Ethics (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2004.The first on the topic of environmental virtue ethics, this book seeks to provide the definitive anthology that will both establish the importance of environmental virtue in environmental discourse and advance the current research on environmental virtue in interesting and original ways. The selections in this collection, consisting of ten original and four reprinted essays by leading scholars in the field, discuss the role that virtue and character have traditionally played in environmental dis…Read more
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63Climate Change and Ecosystem ManagementEthics, Policy and Environment 16 (1): 1-15. 2013.This article addresses the implications of rapid and uncertain ecological change, and global climate change in particular, for reserve oriented and restoration oriented ecosystem management. I argue for the following conclusions: (1) rapid and uncertain ecological change undermines traditional justifications for reserve oriented and restoration oriented ecosystem management strategies; (2) it requires rethinking ecosystem management goals, not just developing novel strategies (such as assisted c…Read more
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33The Ethics of Species: An IntroductionCambridge University Press. 2012.Machine generated contents note: Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. The value of species; 3. The conservation biology dilemma; 4. Assisted colonization; 5. Shifting goals and changing strategies; 6. The (in)significance of species boundaries; 7. Homo sapiens in particular; 8. Artifactual species; 9. Conclusion.
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21Environmental Ethics and the Need to Motivate Pro-Environmental BehaviorPhilosophy in the Contemporary World 9 (2): 101-105. 2002.In this article I argue that it is appropriate for environmental ethicists to be concerned with the practical efficacy of their arguments. Such a concern follows from a commonly accepted construal of what would constitute an adequate environmental ethic and it finds precedent in the history of philosophy.
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46Culture and the Specification of Environmental VirtuePhilosophy in the Contemporary World 10 (2): 63-68. 2003.One concern about a virtue ethics approach to environmental ethics is that virtue ethics lack the theoretical resources to provide a specification of environmental virtue that does not pander to obtaining cultural practices and conceptions of the human-nature relationship. In this paper I argue that this concern is unfounded.
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36An aretaic objection to agricultural biotechnologyJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 17 (3): 301-317. 2004.Considerations of virtue and character appear from time to time in the agricultural biotechnology literature. Critics of the technologies often suggest that they are contrary to some virtue (usually humility) or do not fit with the image of ourselves and the human place in the world that we ought to embrace. In this article, I consider the aretaic or virtue-based objection that to engage in agricultural biotechnology is to exhibit arrogance, hubris, and disaffection. In section one, I discuss Ga…Read more
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19The National Nanotechnology Initiative and the Social GoodJournal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 34 (4): 675-681. 2006.The purpose of the National Nanotechnology Initiative is to promote nanotechnology in a way that benefits the citizens of the United States. It involves a commitment to support responsible development of nanotechnology. The NNI's enactment of this commitment is critically assessed. It is concluded that there are not adequate avenues within the NNI by which social and ethical issues can be raised, considered, and, when appropriate, addressed
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146Environmental Virtue Ethics (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2005.The first on the topic of environmental virtue ethics, this book seeks to provide the definitive anthology that will both establish the importance of environmental virtue in environmental discourse and advance the current research on environmental virtue in interesting and original ways. The selections in this collection, consisting of ten original and four reprinted essays by leading scholars in the field, discuss the role that virtue and character have traditionally played in environmental dis…Read more
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39Private Ownership and Common GoodsPhilosophy in the Contemporary World 12 (2): 1-2. 2005.Balancing, integrating, or otherwise sorting out private ownership, control, and property rights, on the one hand, with social, common, and shared goods or rights, on the other, is manifest in socio-ethical issues ranging from eminent domain to gay marriage and from endangered species protection to social security. In fact, when one surveys the contemporary socio-ethical landscape with this problem in mind, there appears hardly an issue that it does not touch; and it is frequently the central or…Read more
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60Is artefactualness a value-relevant property of living things?Synthese 185 (1): 89-102. 2012.Artefacts are often regarded as being mere things that possess only instrumental value. In contrast, living entities (or some subset of them) are often regarded as possessing some form of intrinsic (or non-instrumental) value. Moreover, in some cases they are thought to possess such value precisely because they are natural (i.e., non-artefactual). However, living artefacts are certainly possible, and they may soon be actual. It is therefore necessary to consider whether such entities should be r…Read more
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79Beware of Averages: A Response to John Nolt's 'How Harmful are the Average American's Greenhouse Gas Emissions?'Ethics, Policy and Environment 14 (1): 31-33. 2011.In ‘How harmful are the average American's greenhouse gas emissions?’ John Nolt correctly points out that the claim that an individual's contribution to total atmospheric greenhouse gas leve...
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167Enhancing justice?NanoEthics 2 (3): 277-287. 2008.This article focuses on the follow question: Are human enhancement technologies likely to be justice impairing or justice promoting? We argue that human enhancement technologies may not be inherently just or unjust, but when situated within obtaining social contexts they are likely to exacerbate rather than alleviate social injustices.
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78The external goods approach to environmental virtue ethicsEnvironmental Ethics 25 (3): 279-293. 2003.If virtue ethics are to provide a legitimate alternative for reasoning about environmental issues, they must meet the same conditions of adequacy as any other environmental ethic. One such condition that most environmental ethicists insist upon is that an adequate environmental ethic provides a theoretical platform for consistent and justified critique of environmentally unsustainable practices and policies. The external goods approach seeks to establish that any genuinely virtuous agent will be…Read more
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252Ethical Theory and the Problem of Inconsequentialism: Why Environmental Ethicists Should be Virtue-Oriented Ethicists (review)Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 23 (1-2): 167-183. 2009.Many environmental problems are longitudinal collective action problems. They arise from the cumulative unintended effects of a vast amount of seemingly insignificant decisions and actions by individuals who are unknown to each other and distant from each other. Such problems are likely to be effectively addressed only by an enormous number of individuals each making a nearly insignificant contribution to resolving them. However, when a person’s making such a contribution appears to require sacr…Read more
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38A Response to Martin Calkins's “How Casuistry and Virtue Ethics Might Break the Ideological Stalemate Troubling Agricultural Biotechnology”Business Ethics Quarterly 15 (2): 319-327. 2005.Martin Calkins proposes the “combined use of casuistry and virtue ethics as a way for both sides to move ahead on [the] pressing issue [of agricultural biotechnology].” However, his defense of this methodology relies on a set of mistaken, albeit familiar, claims regarding the normative resources of virtue ethics: (1) virtue ethics is egoistic; (2) virtue ethics cannot defend any particular account of the virtues as the objectively correct ones and is therefore inextricably relativistic; (3) virt…Read more
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42The Value of Artefactual OrganismsEnvironmental Values 21 (1). 2012.Synthetic biology makes use of genetic and other materials derived from modern biological life forms to design and construct novel synthetic organisms. Artificial organisms are not constructed from parts of existing biological organisms, but from non-biological materials. Artificial and synthetic organisms are artefactual organisms. Here we are concerned with the non-instrumental value of such organisms. More specifically, we are concerned with the extent to which artefactual organisms have natu…Read more
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23Review of G. Comstock, Vexing Nature? On the Ethical Case Against Agricultural Biotechnology (review)Environmental Values 12 (3): 403-405. 2003.
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17Review of Fritz Allhoff, Patrick Lin, James Moor, and John Weckert, eds., Nanoethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Nanotechnology.1 (review)American Journal of Bioethics 8 (8): 70-71. 2008.
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107Intuitus and ratio in Spinoza's ethical thoughtBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 13 (1). 2005.(2005). Intuitus and Ratio in Spinoza's Ethical Thought. British Journal for the History of Philosophy: Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 73-90. doi: 10.1080/0960878042000317591
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16Book Review: Vexing Nature? On the Ethical Case against Agricultural Biotechnology (review)Environmental Values 12 (3): 403-405. 2003.
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94Virtue and respect for nature: Ronald Sandler's character and environment (review)Ethics, Place and Environment 11 (2). 2008.Ron Sandler's Character and Environment is a very welcome addition to the growing literature on virtue-based approaches to environmental ethics. In the book...
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25The External Goods Approach to Environmental Virtue EthicsEnvironmental Ethics 25 (3): 279-293. 2003.If virtue ethics are to provide a legitimate alternative for reasoning about environmental issues, they must meet the same conditions of adequacy as any other environmental ethic. One such condition that most environmental ethicists insist upon is that an adequate environmental ethic provides a theoretical platform for consistent and justified critique of environmentally unsustainable practices and policies. The external goods approach seeks to establish that any genuinely virtuous agent will be…Read more
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Areas of Interest
1 more
Applied Ethics |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Philosophy of Biology |
Value Theory, Miscellaneous |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |