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22Living together: inventing moral scienceOxford University Press. 2023.Is moral philosophy more foundational than political philosophy? In other words, is "how to live?" more fundamental than "how to live together?" We were trained to say yes, but there was never any reason to believe it. Must rigorous reflection on how to live aim to derive necessary truths from timeless axioms, ignoring ephemeral contingencies of time and place? In the 1800s, philosophy left the contingencies to emerging departments of social science. Where did that leave philosophy? Did cutting …Read more
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11Science, Technology, and ValueSocial Philosophy and Policy 38 (2): 1-10. 2021.Technological innovations and scientific discoveries do not occur in a vacuum but instead leave us needing to reimagine what we thought we knew about the human condition.
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7Philosophy: Environmental Ethics (edited book)Macmillan. 2016.The Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks: Philosophy series serves undergraduate college students who have had little or no exposure to philosophy, as well as the curious lay reader. Following this first primer volume, which introduces both the discipline and the topics of the remaining nine volumes, each handbook will usher the reader into a subfield of philosophy, and explore fifteen to thirty topics in that subfield. Every chapter in each volume will use vehicles such as film to facilitate u…Read more
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22University of Arizona Philosopher David Schmidtz discusses the nature and features of corruption, and how concentrated power may aggravate corruption problems.
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24Freedom of thoughtSocial Philosophy and Policy 37 (2): 1-8. 2020.This essay introduces basic issues that make up the topic of freedom of thought, including newly emerging issues raised by the current proliferation of Internet search algorithms.
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15Origins of political economySocial Philosophy and Policy 37 (1): 1-9. 2020.Our modern observation-based approaches to the study of the human condition were shaped by the Scottish Enlightenment. Political Economy emerged as a discipline of its own in the nineteenth century, then fragmented further around the dawn of the twentieth century. Today, we see Political Economy’s pieces being reassembled and reunited with their philosophical roots. This issue pauses to reflect on the history of this new but also old field of study.
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196Serena Olsaretti, Liberty, Desert, and the Market: A Philosophical Study (review)Philosophical Review 116 (1): 128-131. 2007.
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34Rational Choice and Moral AgencyPrinceton University Press. 1995.Is it rational to be moral? How do rationality and morality fit together with being human? These questions are at the heart of David Schmidtz's exploration of the connections between rationality and morality. This inquiry leads into both metaethics and rational choice theory, as Schmidtz develops conceptions of what it is to be moral and what it is to be rational. He defends a fairly expansive conception of rational choice, considering how ends as well as means can be rationally chosen and expla…Read more
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107Sociality and Responsibility: New Essays in Plural Subject TheoryMind 110 (439): 756-759. 2001.
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57Review of Jon Elster: The Cement of Society: A Survey of Social Order (review)Ethics 101 (3): 653-655. 1991.
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35The Routledge Handbook of Libertarianism (edited book)Routledge. 2017.Libertarians often bill their theory as an alternative to both the traditional Left and Right. _The Routledge Handbook of Libertarianism_ helps readers fully examine this alternative, without preaching it to them, exploring the contours of libertarian thinking on justice, institutions, interpersonal ethics, government, and political economy. The 31 chapters--all written specifically for this volume--are organized into five parts. Part I asks, what should libertarianism learn from other theories …Read more
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11Debating Education: Is There a Role for Markets?Oup Usa. 2019.Debating Education puts two leading scholars in conversation with each other on the subject of education-specifically, what role, if any, markets should play in policy reform. The authors focus on the nature, function, and legitimate scope of voluntary exchange as a form of social relation, and how education raises concerns that are not at issue when it comes to trading relationships between consenting adults.
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273Environmental Ethics, What Really Matters, What Really Works, 3rd EditionOxford University Press. 2018.Significantly revised in this third edition, Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works examines morality from an environmental perspective. Featuring accessible selections—from classic articles to examples of cutting-edge original research—it addresses both theory and practice. Asking what really matters, the first section of the book explores the abstract ideas of human value and value in nature. The second section turns to the question of what really works—what it would take…Read more
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8Diminishing Marginal Utility and Egalitarian RedistributionJournal of Value Inquiry 34 (2/3): 263-272. 2000.
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23GuaranteesSocial Philosophy and Policy 14 (2): 1. 1997.People have accidents. They get old. They eat too much. They have bad luck. And sooner or later, something will be fatal. It would be a better world if such things did not happen, but they do. There is no use arguing about it. What is worth arguing about is whether it makes for a better world when people have to pay for other people's misfortunes and mistakes rather than their own
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37Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2004.Do our lives have meaning? Should we create more people? Is death bad? Should we commit suicide? Would it be better to be immortal? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic? Since Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions first appeared, David Benatar's distinctive anthology designed to introduce students to the key existential questions of philosophy has won a devoted following among users in a variety of upper-level and even introductory courses.
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12Respect for EverythingEthics, Policy and Environment 14 (2): 127-138. 2011.Species egalitarianism is the view that all living things have equal moral standing. To have moral standing is, at a minimum, to command respect, to be more than a mere thing. Is there reason to believe that all living things have moral standing in even this most minimal sense? If so—that is, if all living things command respect—is there reason to believe they all command equal respect?1 I explain why members of other species command our respect but also why they do not command equal respect. Th…Read more
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8What Nozick did for decision theoryIn Person, polis, planet: essays in applied philosophy, Oxford University Press. pp. 282-294. 2008.
Tucson, Arizona, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |