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96Moral CompromisePhilosophy 87 (3): 403-420. 2012.A moral compromise is a compromise on moral matters; it is agreement in the face of moral disagreement but where there is agreement on the importance of consensus -namely that it secures a morally desirable outcome. It is distinguishable from other forms of agreement, and an important distinction between moral compromise with public agreement and moral compromise with public disagreement is also made. Circumstances in which the former might be permissible are outlined, and the sense in which it …Read more
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Child Protection: An Holistic ViewAustralian Journal of Professional and Applied Ethics 7 (2). 2005.
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13Review of Lainie Friedman Ross, Children in Medical Research: Access Versus Protection (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2006 (9). 2006.
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94How should we teach sex?Journal of Philosophy of Education 32 (3). 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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Liberty Liberating Cyberspace: Civil Liberties, Human Rights & The Internet (review)Ends and Means 3 (1). 1998.
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50Political philosophy and the concept of the nationJournal of Value Inquiry 29 (3): 379-392. 1995.
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80For our own goodAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 72 (3). 1994.This Article does not have an abstract
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9Pathologien des Sozialen: die Aufgaben der Sozialphilosophie (edited book)Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. 1994.
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193The moral and political status of childrenPhilosophical Quarterly 54 (216): 490-492. 2004.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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317Is it rape? On acquaintance rape and taking women's consent seriously - by Joan McGregor, making sense of sexual consent - by mark Cowling & Paul Reynolds, the logic of consent, the diversity and deceptiveness of consent as a defence to criminal conduct - by Peter Westen, and consent to sexual relations - by Lan WertheimerJournal of Applied Philosophy 24 (2). 2007.
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198Child Abuse: parental rights and the interests of the childJournal of Applied Philosophy 7 (2): 183-194. 1990.I criticise the ‘liberal’view of the proper relationship between the family and State, namely that, although the interests of the child should be paramount, parents are entitled to rights of both privacy and autonomy which should be abrogated only when the child suffers a specifiable harm. I argue that the right to bear children is not absolute, and that it only grounds a right to rear upon an objectionable proprietarian picture of the child as owned by its producer. If natural parents have any …Read more
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42One Body but Many Kinds of Sex and Procreation: A Liberal ResponseRoczniki Filozoficzne 63 (3): 75-85. 2015.I contrast a liberal and a conservative approach to the morality of sex, endorsing the former with a concession as to the special nature of sex, and note Pruss’ philosophical and theological endorsement of the latter. I criticize his argumentative strategy in three regards: first, he defends Christian love as equivalent to benevolence; second, he allows for only a moral evaluation of sex; third, he moves too quickly from some factual claims to others, and thence to normative conclusions. His acc…Read more
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34IntroductionRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 40 1-5. 1996.As befits a volume devoted to the topic of pluralism the contributing pieces collected here are varied. Their concern is with very different kinds of difference, and their conclusions range from an insistence that pluralism is both inevitable and desirable to a belief that it is unsustainable and perhaps remediable. The starting point for any discussion of pluralism is a recognition that we inhabit a world of differences. These differences are exhibited in moral outlooks, cultural identities, wa…Read more
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15Whose body is it anyway|[quest]| Justice and the integrity of the personContemporary Political Theory 9 (3): 345. 2010.
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Queen's University, BelfastSchool of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and PoliticsRetired faculty