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111Quasi-realism's problem of autonomous effectsPhilosophical Quarterly 53 (212). 2003.Simon Blackburn defends a 'quasi-realist' view intended to preserve much of what realists want to say about moral discourse. According to error theory, moral discourse is committed to indefensible metaphysical assumptions. Quasi-realism seems to preserve ontological frugality, attributing no mistaken commitments to our moral practices. In order to make good this claim, quasi-realism must show that (a) the seemingly realist features of the 'surface grammar' of moral discourse can be made compatib…Read more
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104The Perils of Earnest ConsequentializingPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 88 (1): 233-240. 2014.
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98Duality of motivation and the guise of the good in Kant’s practical philosophyPhilosophical Explorations 24 (1): 75-92. 2021.Although Kant is clearly committed to some version of the Guise of the Good thesis, he only explicitly endorses a very weak version of it; namely, that under the direction of reason, we only p...
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94Realists without a Cause: Deflationary Theories of Truth and Ethical RealismCanadian Journal of Philosophy 26 (4). 1996.In ‘The Status of Content,’ Paul Boghossian points out an embarrassment in which A.J. Ayer finds himself in his extensive irrealism. Ayer embraces both an emotivist theory of ethics and a deflationary theory of truth. According to an emotivist theory, sentences that look like perfectly good declarative sentences, such as ‘One ought not to kill,’ should be interpreted as non-declarative sentences. According to a deflationary theory of truth, ‘truth’ is not a predicate of sentences, and sentences …Read more
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94Appearances of the Good: An Essay on the Nature of Practical ReasonCambridge University Press. 2007.'We desire all and only those things we conceive to be good; we avoid what we conceive to be bad.' This slogan was once the standard view of the relationship between desire or motivation and rational evaluation. Many critics have rejected this scholastic formula as either trivial or wrong. It appears to be trivial if we just define the good as 'what we want', and wrong if we consider apparent conflicts between what we seem to want and what we seem to think is good. In Appearances of the Good, Se…Read more
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79Representing collective agencyPhilosophical Studies 172 (12): 3379-3386. 2015.This paper examines whether Bratman’s succeeds in provides a reductive account of collective intention
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75On self-governance over timeInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 64 (9): 901-912. 2021.ABSTRACT In Planning, Time, and Self-Governanace, Bratman argues that the notion of self-governance plays an important role in grounding the rational principles such as means-ends coherence in the synchronic case, and principles of stability and coherence through time in the case of self-governance over time. In this paper, I grant Bratman’s claim for the synchronic case, however I argue that it is not clear that one can extend the reasoning to the diachronic case. More specifically, I raise a n…Read more
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70Reasons and Action ExplanationIn Daniel Star (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Reasons and Normativity, Oxford University Press. 2018.The problem of deviant causation has been a serious obstacle for causal theories of action. We suggest that attending to the problem of deviant causation reveals two related problems for causal theories. First, it threatens the reductive ambitions of causal theories of intentional action. Second, it suggests that such a theory fails to account for how the agent herself is guided by her reasons. Focusing on the second of these, we argue that the problem of guidance turns out to be related to a nu…Read more
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61Accidie, Evaluation, and MotivatlonIn Sarah Stroud & Christine Tappolet (eds.), Weakness of will and practical irrationality, Oxford University Press. pp. 147. 2003.Accidie, depression, and dejection seem to be psychological phenomena that are best characterized as cases in which an agent has no motivation to pursue what he or she judges to be good or valuable. The phenomena thus seem to present a challenge to any view that draws a close connection between motivation and evaluation. ‘Accidie, Evaluation, and Motivation’ aims to show that the phenomena are actually best explained by a theory that postulates a conceptual connection between motivation and eval…Read more
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60Value Disagreement, Action, and CommitmentIn Katja Vogt & Justin Vlasits (eds.), Epistemology After Sextus Empiricus, Oxford University Press. pp. 291-311. 2020.
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58Review of J. David Velleman, Self to Self: Selected Essays (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2007 (8). 2007.
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57Rational Powers in Action: Instrumental Rationality and Extended AgencyOxford University Press. 2021.Rational Powers in Action presents a conception of instrumental rationality as governing actions that are extended in time with indeterminate ends. Tenenbaum argues that previous philosophical theories in this area, in focusing on momentary snapshots of the mind of idealized agents, miss central aspects of human rationality.
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53In Defense of “Appearances”Dialogue 48 (2): 411. 2009.Reply to critics on panel on "Appearances of the Good"
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48Cullity on The Foundations of MoralityPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 104 (2): 511-518. 2022.Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Volume 104, Issue 2, Page 511-518, March 2022.
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32Speculative Mistakes and Ordinary Temptations: Kant on Instrumentalist Conceptions of Practical ReasonHistory of Philosophy Quarterly 20 (2): 203-223. 2003.
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13Feeling Like It: A Theory of Inclination and WillSchapiro, Tamar, Feeling Like It: A Theory of Inclination and Will, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021, pp. viii + 173, £61 (hardback) (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 101 (4): 1026-1026. 2023.Tamar Schapiro’s terrific book gives a central role to inclination in our understanding of agency. Contemporary philosophers often presuppose a monistic theory of motivation; under the heading of ‘...
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12Belief, Action and Rationality Over Time (edited book)Routledge. 2016.Action theorists and formal epistemologists often pursue parallel inquiries regarding rationality, with the former focused on practical rationality, and the latter focused on theoretical rationality. In both fields, there is currently a strong interest in exploring rationality in relation to time. This exploration raises questions about the rationality of certain patterns over time. For example, it raises questions about the rational permissibility of certain patterns of intention; similarly, it…Read more
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11Mark Timmons, Significance and System: Essays on Kant's Ethics Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017 Pp. 352 ISBN 9780190203368 (hbk) $78.00 (review)Kantian Review 25 (2): 321-327. 2020.
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9IntroductionPoznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 94 (1): 9-13. 2007.
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8Raz on responsibility: comments on MayrJurisprudence 15 (1): 116-121. 2024.Mayr’s paper is extremely interesting and compelling and I don’t plan here to address all its insights. Rather, I’ll just try to argue that there might be more unity in understanding of Raz’s accou...
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6Moral PsychologyRodopi. 2007.In recent decades the central questions of moral psychology have attracted renewed interest. Contemporary work on moral motivation and the rationality of moral action has broadened its focus to include a wide array of related issues. New interpretations of historical figures have also contributed to conceptual advances in moral psychology, in a way unparalleled in any other area of philosophy. This volume presents original work from some of the most prominent philosophers currently working on mo…Read more
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Value disagreement, action, and commitmentIn Justin Vlasits & Katja Maria Vogt (eds.), Epistemology after Sextus Empiricus, Oxford University Press. 2020.
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