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43Person, polis, planet: essays in applied philosophyOxford University Press. 2008.This volume collects thirteen of David Schmidtz's essays on the question of what it takes to live a good life, given that we live in a social and natural world. Part One defends a non-maximizing conception of rational choice, explains how even ultimate goals can be rationally chosen, defends the rationality of concern and regard for others (even to the point of being willing to die for a cause), and explains why decision theory is necessarily incomplete as a tool for addressing such issues. Part…Read more
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66Brief History of Liberty (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2010.Stimulating and thought-provoking," A Brief History of Liberty" offers readers a philosophically-informed portrait of the elusive nature of one of our most ...
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130Natural enemies: An anatomy of environmental conflictEnvironmental Ethics 22 (4): 397-408. 2000.Sometimes people act contrary to environmentalist values because they reject those values. This is one kind of conflict: conflict in values. There is another kind of conflict in which people act contrary to environmentalist values even though they embrace those values: because they cannot afford to act in accordance with them. Conflict in priorities occurs not because people’s values are in conflict, but rather because people’s immediate needs are in conflict. Conflict in priorities is not only …Read more
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57When Preservationism Doesn't PreserveEnvironmental Values 6 (3). 1997.According to conservationism, scarce and precious resources should be conserved and used wisely. According to preservation ethics, we should not think of wilderness as merely a resource. Wilderness commands reverence in a way mere resources do not. Each philosophy, I argue, can fail by its own lights, because trying to put the principles of conservationism or preservationism into institutional practice can have results that are the opposite of what the respective philosophies tell us we ought to…Read more
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Famine, poverty, and property rightsIn Christopher W. Morris (ed.), Amartya Sen, Cambridge University Press. 2009.
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106History and patternSocial Philosophy and Policy 22 (1): 148-177. 2005.This essay compares Rawls's and Nozick's theories of justice. Nozick thinks patterned principles of justice are false, and offers a historical alternative. Along the way, Nozick accepts Rawls's claim that the natural distribution of talent is morally arbitrary, but denies that there is any short step from this premise to any conclusion that the natural distribution is unjust. Nozick also agrees with Rawls on the core idea of natural rights liberalism: namely, that we are separate persons. Howeve…Read more
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10The Meanings of LifeIn Robert Nozick, Cambridge University Press. 2002.I remember being a child, wondering where I would be—wondering who I would be—when the year 2000 arrived. I hoped I would live that long. I hoped I would be in reasonable health. I would not have guessed I would have a white collar job, or that I would live in the United States. I would have laughed if you had told me the new millennium would find me giving a public lecture on the meaning of life. But that is life, unfolding as it does, meaning whatever it means. I am grateful to be here. I also…Read more
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19Garrett Cullity and Berys Gaut, eds., Ethics and Practical Reason:Ethics and Practical ReasonEthics 109 (2): 433-437. 1999.
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42I shall argue that the way people in relatively affluent countries react to a situation like that in Bengal cannot be justified; indeed, the whole way we look at moral issues—our moral conceptual scheme—needs to be altered, and with it, the way of life that has come to be taken for granted in our society.
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31Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big QuestionsRowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2004.Do our lives have meaning? Should we create more people? Is death bad? Should we commit suicide? Would it be better if we were immortal? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic? Life, Death, and Meaning brings together key readings, primarily by English-speaking philosophers, on such 'big questions.'.
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143Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really WorksOup Usa. 2002.This anthology collects 64 accessible classic and contemporary works that fall into the two main categories of research in environmental ethics. The material in the first section of the volume explores the nature of morality from an environmental perspective. It asks is the value of a human being fundamentally different from the kind of value we find elsewhere in nature? What is the role of consumer goods in life? What really matters? The second section explores the current state of our environm…Read more
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57Robert Nozick (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2002.This is an introductory volume to Robert Nozick, one of the dominant philosophical thinkers of the current age. It is part of a new series, Contemporary Philosophy in Focus. Each volume in the series will consist of newly commissioned essays that will cover all the major contributions of a preeminent philosopher in a systematic and accessible manner. Robert Nozick is one of the most creative and individual philosophical voices of the last 25 years. His most famous book, Anarchy, State and Utopia…Read more
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3PropertyIn George Klosko (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Political Philosophy, Oxford University Press. 2011.
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101Environmental Virtue Ethics: What It Is and What It Needs to BeIn Daniel C. Russell (ed.), The Cambridge companion to virtue ethics, Cambridge University Press. pp. 221. 2013.
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13An Essay on the Modern State (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 61 (2): 491-494. 2000.Christopher Morris’s book is a product of years of reflection, scholarship, and worldly experience. I have read books that were too long in the making, such that the young author who began and the older author who finished did not even use basic terms in the same way. In Morris’s case, however, the years of reflection were altogether salutary. Morris’s book started out clever and ended up wise. Any reader interested in political philosophy is bound to find it richly rewarding. Morris makes bold …Read more
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79Mark Sagoff 's price, principle, and the environment: Two commentsEthics, Place and Environment 9 (3). 2006.I will discuss two themes that can be found in Mark Sagoff's most recent book, Price, Principle, and the Environment. Built from pieces fashioned in his entertaining and incisive critical es...
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5The Elements of JusticeCambridge University Press. 2006.What is justice? Questions of justice are questions about what people are due. However, what that means in practice depends on the context in which the question is raised. Depending on context, the formal question of what people are due is answered by principles of desert, reciprocity, equality, or need. Justice, therefore, is a constellation of elements that exhibit a degree of integration and unity. Nonetheless, the integrity of justice is limited, in a way that is akin to the integrity of a n…Read more
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138Book Review:Value in Ethics and Economics. Elizabeth Anderson (review)Ethics 105 (3): 662-. 1995.
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9Freedom in the best of all possible worldsAmerican Journal of Theology and Philosophy 9 (3). 1988.
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1Satisficing as a humanly rational strategyIn Michael Byron (ed.), Satisficing and Maximizing: Moral Theorists on Practical Reason, Cambridge University Press. pp. 30--59. 2004.
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26Deterrence and Criminal AttemptsCanadian Journal of Philosophy 17 (3). 1987.It is widely held that the proper role of criminal punishment is to ensure in a cost-efficient manner that criminal laws will be obeyed. As James Buchanan puts it,the reason we have courts is not that we want people to be convicted of crimes but that we want people not to commit them. The whole procedure of the law is one, essentially, of threatening people with unpleasant consequences if they do things which are regarded as objectionable.According to the deterrence theory of punishment, which I…Read more
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25Practical Reasoning About Final Ends (review)International Studies in Philosophy 28 (4): 144-145. 1996.
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Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |