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107If promises are binding there must be a reason to do as one promised. The paper is motivated by belief that there is a difficulty in explaining what that reason is. It arises because the reasons that promising creates are content-independent. Similar difficulties arise regarding other content-independent reasons, though their solution need not be the same. Section One introduces an approach to promises, and outlines an account of them that I have presented before. It forms the backdrop for the …Read more
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680The Morality of FreedomOxford University Press. 1986.Ranging over central issues of morals and politics and the nature of freedom and authority, this study examines the role of value-neutrality, rights, equality, ...
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230On the value of distributional equalityIn Stephen De Wijze, Matthew H. Kramer & Ian Carter (eds.), Hillel Steiner and the Anatomy of Justice: Themes and Challenges, Routledge. 2009.The paper returns to the question whether equality in distribution is valuable in itself, or, if you like, whether it is intrinsically valuable. Its bulk is an examination of two familiar arguments against the intrinsic value of distributional equality: the levelling down objection and the objection that equality violates some person-affecting condition, in that its realisation does not improve the lot of people.
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105The central conflict: morality and self-interestIn Roger Crisp & Brad Hooker (eds.), Well-Being and Morality: Essays in Honour of James Griffin, Clarendon Press. pp. 209--238. 2000.Self‐sacrifice does not necessarily involve conflict between morality and self‐interest, and when making sacrifices we do not necessarily harm our self‐interest. While people may reasonably care about their own well‐being, a person's well‐being is not, for that person, a source of value or reasons for action. People act for reasons, i.e. for what appears to them to be adequate reasons, regardless of whether or not they serve their well‐being. Sometimes, the reasons that appear to be conclusive, …Read more
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El Problema de la Naturaleza del DerechoIsonomía. Revista de Teoría y Filosofía Del Derecho 3 (20-21). 1995.
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1When we are ourselvesIn Engaging Reason: On the Theory of Value and Action, Oxford University Press. 2001.
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8On Frankfurt's Explanation of Respect for PeopleIn Sarah Buss & Lee Overton (eds.), Contours of Agency: Essays on Themes From Harry Frankfurt, Mit Press, Bradford Books. 2002.
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148Between authority and interpretation: on the theory of law and practical reason (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2009.Can there be a theory of law? -- Two views of the nature of the theory of law : a partial comparison -- On the nature of law -- The problem of authority : revisiting the service conception -- About morality and the nature of law -- Incorporation by law -- Reasoning with rules -- Why interpret? -- Interpretation without retrieval -- Intention in interpretation -- Interpretation : pluralism and innovation -- On the authority and interpretation of constitutions : some preliminaries -- Postema on la…Read more
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419Reason, Reasons and NormativityIn Russ Shafer-Landau (ed.), Oxford Studies in Metaethics, Volume 5, Oxford University Press. 2010.
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162Two Views of the Nature of the Theory of Law: A Partial Comparison: Joseph RazLegal Theory 4 (3): 249-282. 1998.In Law's Empire Prof. Ronald Dworkin has advanced a new theory of law, complex and intriguing. He calls it law as integrity. But in some ways the more radical and surprising claim he makes is that not only were previous legal philosophers mistaken about the nature of law, they were also mistaken about the nature of the philosophy of law or jurisprudence. Perhaps it is possible to summarize his main contentions on the nature of jurisprudence in three theses: First, jurisprudence is interpretive: …Read more
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200Incorporation by lawLegal Theory 10 (1): 1-17. 2004.My purpose here is to examine the question of how the law can be incorporated within morality and how the existence of the law can impinge on our moral rights and duties, a question (or questions) which is a central aspect of the broad question of the relation between law and morality. My conclusions cast doubts on the incorporation thesis, that is, the view that moral principles can become part of the law of the land by incorporation.
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600Responsibility and the Negligence StandardOxford Journal of Legal Studies 30 (1): 1-18. 2010.The paper has dual aim: to analyse the structure of negligence, and to use it to offer an explanation of responsibility (for actions, omissions, consequences) in terms of the relations which must exist between the action (omission, etc.) and the agents powers of rational agency if the agent is responsible for the action. The discussion involves reflections on the relations between the law and the morality of negligence, the difference between negligence and strict liability, the role of excuses …Read more
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120Darwall on rational careUtilitas 18 (4): 400-414. 2006.Stephen Darwall's understanding of what kind of life is a good life, good for the person whose life it is, belongs in the same family as, among others, Scanlon's and mine. It is a family of views about well-being which descends from Aristotle, and Darwall has much of interest to say about the good life, and particularly about Aristotle's views on the subject. Many of the observations central to his position seem to me cogent, and are shared by other writers. These include three important proposi…Read more
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119The practice of valueOxford University Press. 2003.The Practice of Value explores the nature of value and its relation to the social and historical conditions under which human agents live. At the core of the book are the Tanner Lectures delivered at Berkeley in 2001 by Joseph Raz, who has been one of the leading figures in moral and legal philosophy since the 1970's. Raz argues that values depend importantly on social practices, but that we can make sense of this dependence without falling back on cultural relativism. In response, three eminent…Read more
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79Postema on Law's Autonomy and Public Practical Reasons: A Critical Comment: Joseph RazLegal Theory 4 (1): 1-20. 1998.Postema's article discusses, lucidly and probingly, a central jurisprudential idea, which he calls the autonomy thesis. In its general form it is shared by many writers who otherwise support divergent accounts of the nature of law. It is, according to Postema, a thesis that is meant to account for a core idea, that the law's “defining aim is to … unify public political judgment and coordinate social interaction.” In some form or another this core idea is probably supported by Postema himself. Ho…Read more
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15The contemporary perception of the centrality of rights exemplifies both the influence of Locke and the way our moral ideas have been affected by our political principles. Locke is a key figure in the rise of" rights" to a place of preeminence in liberal culture. 2 Natural law, having been traditionally understood as the doctrine of people's duties (review)Law and Philosophy 8 3-21. 1989.
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432Facing diversity: The case of epistemic abstinencePhilosophy and Public Affairs 19 (1): 3-46. 1990.
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9On the authority and interpretation of Constitutions: some preliminariesIn Larry Alexander (ed.), Constitutionalism: philosophical foundations, Cambridge University Press. pp. 152--153. 1998.
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607The authority of law: essays on law and moralityOxford University Press. 1979.Legitimate authority -- The claims of law -- Legal positivism and the sources of law -- Legal reasons, sources, and gaps -- The identity of legal systems -- The institutional nature of law -- Kelsen's theory of the basic norm -- Legal validity -- The functions of law -- Law and value in adjudication -- The rule of law and its virtue -- The obligation to obey the law -- Respect for law -- A right to dissent? : civil disobedience -- A right to dissent? : conscientious objection --The purity of the…Read more
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88Death in Our LifeJournal of Applied Philosophy 30 (1): 1-11. 2013.This paper examines a central aspect of the relations between duration and quality of life by considering the moral right to voluntary euthanasia, and some aspects of the moral case for a legal right to euthanasia. Would widespread acceptance of a right to voluntary euthanasia lead to widespread changes in attitudes to life and death? Many of its advocates deny that, seeing it as a narrow right enabling people to avoid ending their life in great pain or total dependence, or a vegetative state. I…Read more
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126Why Interpret?Ratio Juris 9 (4): 349-363. 1996.My article is about legal interpretation, but not about the question: how to interpret the law. Rather its aim is to make us consider seriously the question: Why is interpretation central to legal practices? After all not all normative practices assign interpretation such a central role. In this regard the law contrasts with morality. The reason for the contrast has to do with the status of sources in the law. There are no “moral sources” while legal sources are central to the law. Legal interpr…Read more
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70Mixing ValuesAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 65 (1). 1991.Discussion of the possibilities of comparing values of radically different kinds, and values that are essentially constituted by other simpler values
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33Speaking with one voice : On Dworkinian integrity and coherenceIn Ronald Dworkin & Justine Burley (eds.), Dworkin and His Critics: With Replies by Dworkin, Blackwell. pp. 285--290. 2004.
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146Agency and luckIn Ulrike Heuer & Gerald Lang (eds.), Luck, Value, and Commitment: Themes From the Ethics of Bernard Williams, Oxford University Press, Usa. 2012.
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2Liberty and TrustIn Robert George (ed.), Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality: Contemporary Essays, Oxford University Press. 2001.
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Columbia UniversityProfessor (Part-time)
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King's College LondonProfessor (Part-time)
London, London, City of, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Meta-Ethics |
Philosophy of Law |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Value Theory, Misc |