•  15
    Religious meddling: a comment on Skene and Parker
    Journal of Medical Ethics 28 (4): 221-222. 2002.
    The question of churches resorting to the courts to influence public policy is one that concerns the appropriate role of the courts and the appropriate conduct of religious authorities. I agree with Skene and Parker that there is no principled legal reason to exclude such interventions out of hand; but my comments are principally addressed to the political and religious reasons for being rightly concerned about such activity. These advert both to the nature of the liberal democratic compromise a…Read more
  •  11
    Hobbes and 'The Beautiful Axiom'
    Philosophy 65 (251). 1990.
    The ‘beautiful axiom’ to which Dickens refers is a central feature of Thomas Hobbes' thinking but its precise role in his moral philosophy remains unclear. I shall here attempt both to dispel the unclarity and to evaluate the adequacy of the position that emerges. Given the high level of contemporary interest in Hobbes' thought, both within and beyond philosophical circles, this is an enterprise of considerable importance. None the less, my interest is not merely interpretative, since the assess…Read more
  •  148
    The morality of terrorism
    Philosophy 60 (231). 1985.
    There is a strong tendency in the scholarly and sub-scholarly literature on terrorism to treat it as something like an ideology. There is an equally strong tendency to treat it as always immoral. Both tendencies go hand in hand with a considerable degree of unclarity about the meaning of the term ‘terrorism’. I shall try to dispel this unclarity and I shall argue that the first tendency is the product of confusion and that once this is understood, we can see, in the light of a more definite anal…Read more
  •  183
    The idea of violence
    Philosophical Papers 14 (1): 3-19. 1985.
  •  30
    Collingwood and Historical Testimony
    Philosophy 50 (194). 1975.
    Although there are many different philosophical hares that could be started by the use of the term ‘historical fact’ I am interested in pursuing one that is related to the historian's attitude to testimony. By way of preliminary, however, I should say something about my use of the word ‘fact’. A contrast that sets off my use best is probably that between fact and theory. This distinction is at once methodological and epistemological in that it concerns the structure of inquiry as well as the str…Read more
  •  18
    The Ethics of Human Enhancement: Understanding the Debate (edited book)
    with Steve Clarke, Julian Savulescu, Alberto Giubilini, and Sagar Sanyal
    Oxford University Press UK. 2016.
    We humans can enhance some of our mental and physical abilities above the normal upper limits for our species with the use of particular drug therapies and medical procedures. We will be able to enhance many more of our abilities in more ways in the near future. Some commentators have welcomed the prospect of wide use of human enhancement technologies, while others have viewed it with alarm, and have made clear that they find human enhancement morally objectionable. The Ethics of Human Enhanceme…Read more
  •  32
    The Ethics of Human Enhancement: Understanding the Debate (edited book)
    with Steve Clarke, Julian Savulescu, Alberto Giubilini, and Sagar Sanyal
    Oxford University Press. 2016.
    An international team of ethicists refresh the debate about human enhancement by examining whether resistance to the use of technology to enhance our mental and physical capabilities can be supported by articulated philosophical reasoning, or explained away, e.g. in terms of psychological influences on moral reasoning.
  •  75
    Messy morality: the challenge of politics
    Oxford University Press. 2008.
    Coady explores the challenges that morality poses to politics. He confronts the complex intellectual tradition known as realism, which seems to deny any relevance of morality to politics, especially international politics. He argues that, although realism has many serious faults, it has lessons to teach us: in particular, it cautions us against the dangers of moralism in thinking about politics and particularly foreign affairs. Morality must not be confused with moralism: Coady characterizes var…Read more
  •  22
    Business, ethics, and the law (edited book)
    with C. J. G. Sampford
    Federation Press. 1993.
    This book focuses on two central debates:how to introduce higher ethical standardshow to regulate business activity and prosecute offenders The authors bring ...
  •  47
    Philosophy of education in a new key: On radicalization and violent extremism
    with Mitja Sardoč, Vittorio Bufacchi, Fathali M. Moghaddam, Quassim Cassam, Derek Silva, Nenad Miščević, Gorazd Andrejč, Zdenko Kodelja, Boris Vezjak, Michael A. Peters, and Marek Tesar
    Educational Philosophy and Theory 54 (8): 1162-1177. 2022.
    This collective paper on radicalization and violent extremism part of the ‘Philosophy of education in a new key’ initiative by Educational Philosophy and Theory brings together some of the leading contemporary scholars writing on the most pressing epistemological, ethical, political and educational issues facing post-9/11 scholarship on radicalization and violent extremism. Its overall aim is to move beyond the ‘conventional wisdom’ associated with this area of scholarly research best represente…Read more
  • The moral reality in realism
    In Igor Primoratz (ed.), Politics and morality, Palgrave-macmillan. 2007.
  • Religion and politics
    In David Edmonds (ed.), Ethics and the Contemporary World, Routledge. 2019.
  • Religion and moral knowledge
    In Aaron Zimmerman, Karen Jones & Mark Timmons (eds.), Routledge Handbook on Moral Epistemology, Routledge. 2018.
  • Defending Human Chauvinism
    Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly 6 (4): 12. 1986.
  •  15
    Messy Morality and the Art of the Possible
    with Onora O'Neill
    Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 64 (1): 259-294. 1990.
  •  27
    The Meaning of Terrorism
    Oxford University Press. 2021.
    C. A. J. Coady offers to clear up confusion about what terrorism is. His "tactical definition" focuses on terrorist acts as violent attacks upon non-combatants. He discusses what it means to be a non-combatant, considers various philosophical attempts to defend terrorism, and examines the idea of a connection between religion and terrorism.
  •  32
    War Crimes and the Asymmetry Myth
    Ethics and International Affairs 35 (3): 381-394. 2021.
    The “asymmetry myth” is that war crimes are committed by one's enemies but never, or hardly ever, by one's own combatants. The myth involves not only a common failure to acknowledge our own actual war crimes but also inadequate reactions when we are forced to recognize them. It contributes to the high likelihood that wars, just or unjust in their causes, will have a high moral cost. This cost, moreover, is a matter needing consideration in the jus ante bellum circumstances of preparedness for wa…Read more
  •  15
    Terrorism and Justice: Moral Argument in a Threatened World
    with Michael O'Keefe
    Melbourne Univ. Publishing. 2002.
    This is the first book to address philosophically the moral and political underpinnings of terrorism and anti-terrorism. It brings together authors with different attitudes and original perspectives on attitudes and ethical and practical justifications for terrorism.
  •  852
    Testimony: a philosophical study
    Oxford University Press. 1992.
    Our trust in the word of others is often dismissed as unworthy, because the illusory ideal of "autonomous knowledge" has prevailed in the debate about the nature of knowledge. Yet we are profoundly dependent on others for a vast amount of what any of us claim to know. Coady explores the nature of testimony in order to show how it might be justified as a source of knowledge, and uses the insights that he has developed to challenge certain widespread assumptions in the areas of history, law, mathe…Read more
  •  8
    Moralism and Anti-moralism: Aspects of Bonhoeffer’s Christian Ethic
    In Peter Wong, Sherah Bloor, Patrick Hutchings & Purushottama Bilimoria (eds.), Considering Religions, Rights and Bioethics: For Max Charlesworth, Springer Verlag. pp. 63-79. 2019.
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s thinking about ethics and Christianity in his famous book Ethics, an unfinished and posthumously published work representing his most mature thought on the subject, is a fascinating attempt to combine different, and often conflicting, strands in the Christian intellectual tradition. In this article, I outline his thinking therein, analyse the advantages and disadvantages in his approach, and relate it to developments in contemporary philosophy. His critique of an excessive …Read more
  •  17
    Ten new essays critique the practice of armed humanitarian intervention, whereby one state sends its armed forces into another to protect citizens against major human rights abuses. The contributors examine a range of concerns, for instance about potential adverse effects and about ulterior motives.