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14Liberalism with ExcellenceOxford University Press. 2017.During the past several decades, political philosophers have frequently clashed with one another over the question whether governments are morally required to remain neutral among reasonable conceptions of excellence and human flourishing. Whereas the numerous followers of John Rawls have maintained that a requirement of neutrality is indeed incumbent on every system of governance, other philosophers -- often designated as 'perfectionists' -- have argued against the existence of such a requireme…Read more
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10Another Look at the Problem of the Unexpected ExaminationDialogue 38 (3): 491-502. 1999.RÉSUMÉ: Les philosophes, au cours des cinquante dernières années, se sont efforcés de démontrer qu’un professeur peut, d’une manière cohérente et exacte, annoncer à ses étudiants qu’un examen surprise aura lieu lors d’une journée non spécifiée d’une période donnée, le problème étant qu’une telle annonce peut sembler s’annuler ellemême lorsqu’elle est soumise à une induction régressive. Deux grandes approches, l’une épistémique et l’autre logique, one été développées à ce propos. Le présent artic…Read more
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264Liberty and dominationIn Cécile Laborde & John W. Maynor (eds.), Republicanism and Political Theory, Blackwell. pp. 31--57. 2003.
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21[Book review] John Locke and the origins of private property, philosophical explorations of individualism, community, and equality (review)In Stephen Everson (ed.), Ethics, Cambridge University Press. pp. 109--1. 1998.
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60Another Look at the Problem of the Unexpected ExaminationDialogue 38 (3): 491-. 1999.RÉSUMÉ: Les philosophes, au cours des cinquante dernières années, se sont efforcés de démontrer qu’un professeur peut, d’une manière cohérente et exacte, annoncer à ses étudiants qu’un examen surprise aura lieu lors d’une journée non spécifiée d’une période donnée, le problème étant qu’une telle annonce peut sembler s’annuler ellemême lorsqu’elle est soumise à une induction régressive. Deux grandes approches, l’une épistémique et l’autre logique, one été développées à ce propos. Le présent artic…Read more
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108On the unavoidability of actions: Quentin Skinner, Thomas Hobbes, and the modern doctrine of negative libertyInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 44 (3). 2001.During the past few decades, Quentin Skinner has been one of the most prominent critics of the ideas about negative liberty that have developed out of the writings of Isaiah Berlin. Among Skinner?s principal charges against the contemporary doctrine of negative liberty is the claim that the proponents of that doctrine have overlooked the putative fact that people can be made unfree to refrain from undertaking particular actions. In connection with this matter, Skinner contrasts the present-day t…Read more
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39Supervenience As an Ethical PhenomenonAmerican Journal of Jurisprudence 50 (1): 173-224. 2005.All or virtually all moral philosophers agree that moral properties supervene on natural properties; that is, two actions or situations cannot differ in their moral properties unless there are differences in their natural properties that account for the moral difference between them. Virtually all moral philosophers also believe that supervenience is a conceptual or logical feature of moral discourse and judgments. While accepting that supervenience is a fundamental feature of morality, this ess…Read more
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28Of final things: Morality as one of the ultimate determinants of legal validity (review)Law and Philosophy 24 (1): 47-97. 2004.
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52Crime, punishment, and responsibility: the jurisprudence of Antony Duff (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2011.This volume collects essays by leading criminal law theorists to explore the principal themes in his work.
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42Michael Moore on Torture, Morality, and LawRatio Juris 25 (4): 472-495. 2012.During the past few decades, Michael Moore has written incisively on an array of matters concerning the relationships between law and morality. While reflecting on those relationships, he has plumbed the nature of morality itself in impressive depth. Among the topics which he has addressed, the problem of torture has been prominent and controversial. It is a problem, moreover, that has led to some of his most searching enquiries into the character of moral obligations. In the present essay I tak…Read more
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69The Quality of FreedomOxford University Press. 2008.In his provocative book Matthew Kramer offers a systematic theory of freedom that challenges most of the other major contemporary treatments of the topic.
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In Defense of Legal Positivism: Law without TrimmingsPhilosophical Quarterly 50 (200): 422-425. 2000.
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74Torture and Moral Integrity: A Philosophical EnquiryOxford University Press. 2014.The morality of interrogational torture has been the subject of heated debate in recent years. In explaining why torture is morally wrong, Kramer engages in deep philosophical reflections on the nature of morality and on moral conflicts
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38Freedom, unfreedom and Skinner's HobbesJournal of Political Philosophy 9 (2). 2001.In an array of writings stretching over the better part of two decades, Quentin Skinner has repeatedly challenged the modern conception of negative liberty developed by Isaiah Berlin and many other theorists. He has sought to draw attention to some once vibrant but now largely peripheral traditions of thought—especially the civic‐republican or neo‐Roman tradition—in order to highlight what he sees as the limitedness and inadequacies of the currently dominant ways of thinking about freedom. The p…Read more
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26Review of Arthur Ripstein (ed.), Ronald Dworkin (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2008 (1). 2008.
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Consistency is hardly ever enough: reflections on Hillel Steiner's methodologyIn Stephen De Wijze, Matthew H. Kramer & Ian Carter (eds.), Hillel Steiner and the Anatomy of Justice: Themes and Challenges, Routledge. 2009.
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1327In Defense of HartIn Wil Waluchow & Stefan Sciaraffa (eds.), Philosophical Foundations of the Nature of Law, Oxford University Press. pp. 22. 2013.In Legality Scott Shapiro seeks to provide the motivation for the development of his own elaborate account of law by undertaking a critique of H.L.A. Hart's jurisprudential theory. Hart maintained that every legal system is underlain by a rule of recognition through which officials of the system identify the norms that belong to the system as laws. Shapiro argues that Hart's remarks on the rule of recognition are confused and that his model of lawis consequently untenable. Shapiro contends that …Read more
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87No Better Reasons: A Reply to Alan GewirthSouthern Journal of Philosophy 36 (1): 131-139. 2010.Alan Gewirth has propounded a moral theory which commits him to the view that prescriptions can appropriately be addressed to people who have neither any moral reasons nor any prudential reasons to follow the prescriptions. We highlight the strangeness of Gewirth's position and then show that it undermines his attempt to come up with a supreme moral principle
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89Where law and morality meetOxford University Press. 2004.How are law and morality connected, how do they interact, and in what ways are they distinct? In Part I of this book, Matthew Kramer argues that moral principles can enter into the law of any jurisdiction. He contends that legal officials can invoke moral principles as laws for resolving disputes, and that they can also invoke them as threshold tests which ordinary laws must satisfy. In opposition to many other theorists, Kramer argues that these functions of moral principles are consistent with…Read more
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173John Locke and the origins of private property: philosophical explorations of individualism, community, and equalityCambridge University Press. 1997.John Locke's labor theory of property is one of the seminal ideas of political philosophy and served to establish its author's reputation as one of the leading social and political thinkers of all time. Through it Locke addressed many of his most pressing concerns, and earned a reputation as an outstanding spokesman for political individualism - a reputation that lingers widely despite some partial challenges that have been raised in recent years. In this major new study Matthew Kramer offers an…Read more
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796There’s Nothing Quasi About Quasi-Realism: Moral Realism as a Moral DoctrineThe Journal of Ethics 21 (2): 185-212. 2017.This paper seeks to clarify and defend the proposition that moral realism is best elaborated as a moral doctrine. I begin by upholding Ronald Dworkin’s anti-Archimedean critique of the error theory against some strictures by Michael Smith, and I then briefly suggest how a proponent of moral realism as a moral doctrine would respond to Smith’s defense of the Archimedeanism of expressivism. Thereafter, this paper moves to its chief endeavor. By differentiating clearly between expressivism and quas…Read more
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14Reason Without Reasons: A Critique of Alan Gewirth's Moral PhilosophySouthern Journal of Philosophy 34 (3): 301-315. 2010.
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8Do Animals and Dead People Have Legal Rights?Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 14 (1): 29-54. 2001.This essay maintains that the question in its title is really three sets of questions: a conceptual inquiry, a moral/political inquiry, and an empirical inquiry. After devoting some attention to the relevant conceptual issues, the essay ponders in detail the moral/political issues. It suggests some answers to the germane moral/political questions, and it takes pains to distinguish those questions from other lines of inquiry with which they might be confused. Although only animals and dead people…Read more