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68Market failureCritical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 7 (4): 525-537. 1993.The Theory of Market Failure explores how markets respond, both in theory and in practice, to public‐goods and externality problems. Most of the articles in this anthology find that markets often meet the demand for public goods in a variety of cases where existing theory would lead one to expect market failure. Moreover, upon reflection, existing theory reveals itself to be in need of supplementation by a more realistic picture of how flexible markets (and evolving systems of property rights) r…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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65Review of Dale Jamieson, ed. A Companion to Environmental Philosophy (review)Environmental Ethics 25 (1): 99-104. 2003.
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59Review of John Christman: The Myth of Property: Toward an Egalitarian Theory of Ownership (review)Ethics 106 (1): 200-202. 1995.
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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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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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54Review of Jon Elster: The Cement of Society: A Survey of Social Order (review)Ethics 101 (3): 653-655. 1991.
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52What Nozick did for decision theoryIn Person, polis, planet: essays in applied philosophy, Oxford University Press. pp. 282-294. 2008.
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51When justice mattersEthics 117 (3): 433-459. 2007.Reasonable people disagree about what is just. Why? This itself is an item over which reasonable people disagree. Our analyses of justice (like our analyses of knowledge, free will, meaning, etc.) all have counterexamples. Why? In part, the problem lies in the nature of theorizing itself. A truism in philosophy of science: for any set of data, an infinite number of theories will fit the facts. So, even if we agree on particular cases, we still, in all likelihood, disagree on how to pull those ju…Read more
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47Natural 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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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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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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41Islands in a Sea of Obligation: Limits of the Duty to RescueLaw and Philosophy 19 (6): 683-705. 2000.
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39A Survey of Ecological Economics, Rajaram Krishnan, Jonathan M. Harris and Neva R. Goodwin . Island Press, 1995, 384 + xxxix Pages (review)Economics and Philosophy 15 (1): 152. 1999.
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36Pettit's 'free riding and foul dealing'Australasian Journal of Philosophy 66 (2). 1988.This Article does not have an abstract
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34The 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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33Rational 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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32The Virtues of Justice1In Kevin Timpe & Craig Boyd (eds.), Virtues and Their Vices, Oxford University Press. pp. 59. 2014.
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32Life, 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.'.
Tucson, Arizona, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |