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128Should We Teach Patriotism?Studies in Philosophy and Education 18 (3): 157-173. 1999.This article examines a particular debate between Eamonn Callan and William Galston concerning the need for a civic education which counters the divisive pull of pluralism by uniting the citizenry in patriotic allegiance to a single national identity
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Just between ourselves+ new books on justiceInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 4 (1): 128-138. 1996.
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203Informed consent: Autonomy and self-ownershipJournal of Applied Philosophy 25 (1). 2008.Using the example of an unconsented mouth swab I criticise the view that an action of this kind taken in itself is wrongful in respect of its being a violation of autonomy. This is so much inasmuch as autonomy merits respect only with regard to ‘critical life choices’. I consider the view that such an action is nevertheless harmful or risks serious harm. I also respond to two possible suggestions: that the action is of a kind that violates autonomy; and, that the class of such actions violates a…Read more
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1Michael Freeden, Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual ApproachRadical Philosophy. forthcoming.
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276Children's rightsStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2008.Children are young human beings. Some children are very young human beings. As human beings children evidently have a certain moral status. There are things that should not be done to them for the simple reason that they are human. At the same time children are different from adult human beings and it seems reasonable to think that there are things children may not do that adults are permitted to do. In the majority of jurisdictions, for instance, children are not allowed to vote, to marry, to b…Read more
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Review of Liberating Cyperspace: Civil Liberties, Human Rights and the Internet (review)Ends and Means 4 (1). 1999.
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26How Should We Teach Sex?Journal of Philosophy of Education 32 (3): 437-450. 1998.In the face of differences about how sex should be taught to young persons, and consistent with a liberal principle of neutrality, educationalists can adopt one of two strategies. The ‘retreat to basics’ consists in teaching only a basic agreed code of sexual conduct, or a set of agreed principles of sexual morality. The ‘conjunctive–disjunctive’ strategy consists in teaching the facts of sexual activity together with the various possible evaluations of these facts. Both strategies are beset wit…Read more
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17Liao, S. Matthew. The Right to Be Loved.New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. 272. $45.00Ethics 127 (1): 294-298. 2016.
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61Political ReasonabilityCanadian Journal of Philosophy 35 (1). 2005.According to Stephen Macedo, ‘[liberal], democratic politics is not only about individual rights and limited government, it is also about justification … political justification … understood politically.’ ‘Political justification,’ he asserts, ‘is a core liberal goal.’ Gerald Gaus, similarly, writes that the ‘idea of public justification is at the heart of a contractual liberalism.’ Very many other contemporary political philosophers believe that the politics of a liberal polity must be justifia…Read more
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29From Pluralist to Patriotic Politics, Putting Practice FirstContemporary Political Theory 3 (2): 212-213. 2004.
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377The wrong of rapePhilosophical Quarterly 57 (228). 2007.If rape is evaluated as a serious wrong, can it also be defined as non-consensual sex (NCS)? Many do not see all instances of NCS as seriously wrongful. I argue that rape is both properly defined as NCS and properly evaluated as a serious wrong. First, I distinguish the hurtfulness of rape from its wrongfulness; secondly, I classify its harms and characterize its essential wrongfulness; thirdly, I criticize a view of rape as merely ‘sex minus consent’; fourthly, I criticize mistaken attempts to …Read more
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56Letting babies dieJournal of Medical Ethics 33 (3): 125-126. 2007.Prolonging neonatal lifeThe paradox that medicine’s success breeds medicine’s problems is well known to readers of the Journal of Medical Ethics. Advances in neonatal medicine have worked wonders. Not long ago, extremely premature birth babies, or those born with very serious health problems, would inevitably have died. Today, neonatologists can resuscitate babies born at ever-earlier stages of gestation. And very ill babies also benefit from advances in neonatal intensive care. Infant lives can…Read more
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73The Moral and Political Status of Children (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2002.The book contains original essays by distinguished moral and political philosophers on the topic of the moral and political status of children. It covers the themes of children's rights, parental rights and duties, the family and justice, and civic education.
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129“A Nod's as Good as a Wink”: Consent, Convention, and Reasonable BeliefLegal Theory 3 (3): 273. 1997.Consider the following examples of behavior by Smith: 1. Smith, seated at her restaurant table, gives an order to the waiter; 2. Smith gets into a cab and names a destination; 3. Smith agrees to Jones's suggestion that they go back to Jones's apartment for a few drinks; 4. Smith casts her vote in some election. In each of these instances what can Smith be understood as consenting to? Is she consenting to pay the bill for whatever meal she orders; pay the fare for the journey to her named destina…Read more
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35Contested Commodities: The trouble with Trade in Sex, Children, Body Parts, and Other Things, Margaret Jane Radin. Harvard University Press, 1996, xiv + 279 pages (review)Economics and Philosophy 14 (2): 362. 1998.
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Queen's University, BelfastSchool of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and PoliticsRetired faculty