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100Gripped by authorityCanadian Journal of Philosophy 48 (3-4): 313-336. 2018.Moral judgments are typically experienced as being categorically authoritative – i.e. as having a prescriptive force that is motivationally gripping independently of both conventional norms and one's pre-existing desires, and justificationally trumps both conventional norms and one's pre-existing desires. We argue that this key feature is best accommodated by the meta-ethical position we call ‘cognitivist expressivism’, which construes moral judgments as sui generis psychological states whose di…Read more
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11Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics, Vol 7 (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2017.OSNE is an annual forum for new work in normative ethical theory. Leading philosophers advance our understanding of a wide range of moral issues and positions, from analysis of competing normative theories to questions of how we should act and live well. OSNE will be an essential resource for scholars and students working in moral philosophy.
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17Significance and System: Essays on Kant's EthicsOup Usa. 2017.This collection features 10 essays on a variety of topics in Kant's ethics. Part 1 addresses questions about the interpretation and justification of the categorical imperative. Part 2 is concerned with the doctrine of virtue, while part 3 delves into various issues pertaining to Kant's moral psychology of evil.
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1Evil And Imputation In Kant's EthicsJahrbuch für Recht Und Ethik 2. 1994.For Kant, moral evil of all sorts - evil that is rooted in a person's character - is manifested in action which, on the one hand, is explicable in terms of an agent's own reasons for action and so imputable, though on the other hand it is, in some sense, irrational. Because such evil is rooted in a person's character, it "corrupts the ground of all maxims" and thus deserves to be called radical evil. Moreover, according to Kant, not only are human beings susceptible to such evil, being evil is a…Read more
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8Mark Timmons, ed., Kant's Metaphysics of Morals: Interpretative Essays (review)Philosophical Review 115 (3): 399-403. 2006.
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38Review of N. T. Potter and Mark Timmons: Morality and Universality: Essays on Ethical Universalizability (review)Ethics 98 (2): 390-391. 1988.
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15Morality and Universality: Essays on Ethical UniversalizabilitySpringer Verlag. 2012.In the past 25 years or so, the issue of ethical universalizability has figured prominently in theoretical as well as practical ethics. The term, 'universaliz ability' used in connection with ethical considerations, was apparently first introduced in the mid-1950s by R. M. Hare to refer to what he characterized as a logical thesis about certain sorts of evaluative sentences (Hare, 1955). The term has since been used to cover a broad variety of ethical considerations including those associated wi…Read more
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578This chapter argues for an interpretation of Kant's psychology of moral evil that accommodates the so-called excluded middle cases and allows for variations in the magnitude of evil. The strategy involves distinguishing Kant's transcendental psychology from his empirical psychology and arguing that Kant's character rigorism is restricted to the transcendental level. The chapter also explains how Kant's theory of moral evil accommodates 'the badass'; someone who does evil for evil's sake.
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1218Outline of a Contextualist Moral EpistemologyIn Walter Sinnott-Armstrong & Mark Timmons (eds.), Moral knowledge?: new readings in moral epistemology, Oxford University Press. 1996.
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A.C. Ewing's First and Second Thoughts about MetaethicsIn Thomas Hurka (ed.), Underivative duty: British moral philosophers from Sidgwick to Ewing, Oxford University Press. 2011.
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The Philosophical and Practical Significance of Kant’s Universality Formulations of the Categorical ImperativeJahrbuch für Recht Und Ethik 13. 2005.
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136Review: Andrews Reath: Agency and Autonomy in Kant's Moral Theory (review)Mind 117 (467): 722-727. 2008.
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64On the epistemic status of considered moral judgmentsSouthern Journal of Philosophy 29 (S1): 97-129. 1991.
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Morality without Foundations: A Defense of Moral ContextualismPhilosophical Quarterly 51 (202): 124-127. 2001.
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43Contradictions and the Categorical ImperativeArchiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 66 (3): 294-312. 1984.
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71Conduct and character: readings in moral theory (edited book)Cengage Learning [distributor]. 2012.CONDUCT AND CHARACTER is a concise anthology of readings in ethical theory that covers the major schools of thought as well as a handful of fundamental topics in ethical theory. Reading selections in the chapters provide coverage of both classical and contemporary philosophical writings, representing a spectrum of viewpoints on each theory or topic. The readings include brief introductions to assist students in identifying key ideas and have been selected and edited in order to optimize student …Read more
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48Necessitation and Justification in Kant’s EthicsCanadian Journal of Philosophy 22 (2): 223-261. 1992.In the Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, Kant claims that hypothetical imperatives are analytic and that categorical imperatives are synthetic. This claim plays a crucial role in Kant’s attempt to establish moral ‘oughts’ as categorically binding on all rational agents, for by classifying moral statements according to this distinction, Kant hopes to uncover the sort of justification required to establish such statements. However, Kant’s application of the analytic/ synthetic distinction to…Read more
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20On the Relevance of Metaethics: New Essays on MetaethicsPhilosophical Review 107 (3): 452. 1998.
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26Review of H.A. Prichard, W.d. Ross, Moral Writings and the Right and the Good (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2003 (10). 2003.
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27On the Epistemic Status of Considered Moral JudgmentsSouthern Journal of Philosophy 29 (S1): 97-129. 1991.
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12Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics, Volume 2 (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2012.OSNE is an annual forum for new work in normative ethical theory. Leading philosophers advance our understanding of a wide range of moral issues and positions, from analysis of competing normative theories to questions of how we should act and live well. OSNE will be an essential resource for scholars and students working in moral philosophy
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69From Moral Realism to Moral Relativism in One Easy StepCritica 28 (83): 3-39. 1996.In recent years, defenses of moral realism have embraced what we call new wave moral semantics', which construes the semantic workings of moral terms like good' and right' as akin to the semantic workings of natural-kind terms in science and also takes inspiration from functionalist themes in the philosophy of mind. This sort of semantic view which we find in the metaethical views of David Brink, Richard Boyd, Peter Railton, is the crucial semantical underpinning of a naturalistic brand of moral…Read more
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Moral Knowledge? New Readings in Moral EpistemologyPhilosophical Quarterly 49 (195): 252-254. 1999.
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468Moral Theory: An IntroductionRowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2001.Moral Theory explores some of the most historically important and currently debated moral theories about the nature of the right and good. After introducing students in the first chapter to some of the main aims and methods of evaluating a moral theory, the remaining chapters are devoted to an examination of various moral theories including the divine command theory, moral relativism, natural law theory, Kant's moral theory, moral pluralism, virtue ethics, and moral particularism
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20Experimental EthicsIn Hugh LaFollette (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Ethics, Blackwell. 2013.
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172Kant's Metaphysics of morals: interpetative essays (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2002.This is the only book devoted entirely to The Metaphysics of Morals. Seventeen essays by leading contemporary Kant scholars cover such topics as Kant's views on rights, punishment, contract, practical reasoning, revolution, freedom, virtue, legislation, happiness, moral judgement, love, respect, duties to oneself, and motivation.
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1678The Practical and Philosophical Significance of Kant's Universality Formulations of the Categorical ImperativeIn B. Sharon Byrd & Jan C. Joerdan (eds.), Jahrbuch Für Recht Und Ethik, Duncker Und Humblot. 2005.This article begins with the claim that the Formula of Universal Law, interpreted as a test of the deontic status of actions, can't be made to work. If not, then one might wonder whether what other work it might do in the overall economy of Kant's ethics. I defend what I call the "formal constraint" interpretation of FUL, explaining how it can figure in a defense of the Formula of Humanity, and its psychological significance in moral thinking
Tucson, Arizona, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Meta-Ethics |
Epistemology |
Normative Ethics |