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135Dirty Hands and the Complicity of the Democratic PublicEthical Theory and Moral Practice 16 (4): 777-790. 2013.The alleged problem of the dirty hands of politicians has been much discussed since Michael Walzer’s original piece (Walzer 1974). The discussion has concerned the precise nature of the problem or sought to dissolve the apparent paradox. However there has been little discussion of the putative complicity, and thus also dirtying of hands, of a democratic public that authorizes politicians to act in its name. This article outlines the sense in which politicians do get dirty hands and the degree to…Read more
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340Insults, Free Speech and OffensivenessJournal of Applied Philosophy 31 (2): 127-141. 2013.This article examines what is wrong with some expressive acts, ‘insults’. Their putative wrongfulness is distinguished from the causing of indirect harms, aggregated harms, contextual harms, and damaging misrepresentations. The article clarifies what insults are, making use of work by Neu and Austin, and argues that their wrongfulness cannot lie in the hurt that is caused to those at whom such acts are directed. Rather it must lie in what they seek to do, namely to denigrate the other. The causi…Read more
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40The Marxist Ethic of Self-realization: Individuality and CommunityRoyal Institute of Philosophy Lecture Series 22 19-34. 1987.If, for Marx and Marxists, communism would be the most ideal of human societies, this is because it would make possible the maximum use of human and natural resources to the equal benefit of all. This means that, under communism, human beings would ‘realize themselves’. In direct and pointed contrast to capitalism wherein all individuals lead alienated, stunted, and fragmented lives, communism for Marx would provide the preconditions for a flowering, a full and final development of all human pot…Read more
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268Children: Rights and ChildhoodRoutledge. 1993.Whether children have rights is a debate that in recent years has spilled over into all areas of public life. It has never been more topical than now as the assumed rights of parents over their children is challenged on an almost daily basis. David Archard offers the first serious and sustained philosophical examination of children and their rights. Archard reviews arguments for and against according children rights. He concludes that every child has at least the right to the best possible upbri…Read more
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316Sexual consent (review)In Peter Schaber & Andreas Müller (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Consent, Routledge. pp. 643-644. 2018.
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22Reviews Cultural Identity and Political Ethics. By Paul Gilbert. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010. ISBN 9780748623884, pb. £19.99 (review)Philosophy 86 (4): 627-631. 2011.
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41ChildrenIn Hugh LaFollette (ed.), The Oxford handbook of practical ethics, Oxford University Press. 2003.Whether children have rights is a debate that in recent years has spilled over into all areas of public life. It has never been more topical than now as the assumed rights of parents over their children is challenged on an almost daily basis. David Archard offers the first serious and sustained philosophical examination of children and their rights. Archard reviews arguments for and against according children rights. He concludes that every child has at least the right to the best possible upbri…Read more
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14Political and Social PhilosophyIn Nicholas Bunnin & Eric Tsui-James (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy, Wiley-blackwell. 1996.This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction John Rawls and Robert Nozick on Justice Equality Pluralism and Neutrality Critics of Liberalism: Communitarianism, Feminism, and Analytical Marxism Individuals and Communities Political Philosophy and Politics Conclusion.
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Review Symposium: Hiding from Humanity by Martha NussbaumJournal of Applied Philosophy 25 (4): 291-349. 2008.
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24Filial MoralityPacific Philosophical Quarterly 77 (3): 179-192. 2017.Filial regard is the special consideration that children, even as adults, show their parents and filial morality the demonstration that such a regard is demanded of them. The three main accounts of filial morality, based upon ideas of gratitude, role obligations, and friendship, are shown to be unsatisfactory. The article explores the idea, found in traditional Chinese thinking, that filial regard is the ‘root’ of goodness, and suggests that the Chinese model has been viewed unsympathetically du…Read more
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Liberals and Communitarians; Liberalism and Modern Society: an Historical Argument (review)Radical Philosophy 64. 1993.
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67Applying Philosophy: A Response to O’NeillJournal of Applied Philosophy 26 (3): 238-244. 2009.abstract I consider the putative originality of applied philosophy and seek to defend a version of it often called 'bottom up'. I review ways in which imagined cases may cause us to reconsider our normative commitments, and endorse a general attentiveness to the matter of how the world is and how it might reasonably be imagined. This is important if practical philosophers want to form the correct normative judgements, to be able to recognize the sui generis character of some moral theorising in …Read more
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312Why moral philosophers are not and should not be moral expertsBioethics 25 (3): 119-127. 2011.Professional philosophers are members of bioethical committees and regulatory bodies in areas of interest to bioethicists. This suggests they possess moral expertise even if they do not exercise it directly and without constraint. Moral expertise is defined, and four arguments given in support of scepticism about their possession of such expertise are considered and rejected: the existence of extreme disagreement between moral philosophers about moral matters; the lack of a means clearly to iden…Read more
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35Nationalism and PatriotismIn Hugh LaFollette (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Ethics, Blackwell. 2013.
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David Copp, Jean Hampton and John E. Roemer (eds), The Idea of DemocracyRadical Philosophy. forthcoming.
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Queen's University, BelfastSchool of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and PoliticsRetired faculty