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70Just war, noncombatant immunity, and the concept of supreme emergencyJournal of Military Ethics 11 (4): 273-286. 2012.The supreme emergency exemption proposed by Michael Walzer has engendered controversy because it permits violations of the jus in bello principle of discrimination when a state is faced with imminent defeat at the hands of a very evil enemy. Traditionalists among just war theorists believe that noncombatants should never be deliberately targeted in war whether or not there is a supreme emergency. Pacifists on the other hand reject war as immoral even in a supreme emergency. Unlike Walzer, neithe…Read more
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74A not-so-simple view of intentional actionPacific Philosophical Quarterly 80 (1). 1999.The Simple View (SV) holds that for someone to intentionally A, he must intend to A. Critics of SV point to intentional actions which, due to belief-conditions or consistency constraints, agents cannot intend. By recognizing species of intention which vary according to the agent's confidence in acting, I argue that the stringency of consistency constraints depends on the agent's confidence. A more sophisticated SV holds that the species of intending is related to the degree of intentionality of …Read more
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54A Reappraisal of the Doctrine of Doing and AllowingIn Joseph Keim Campbell, Michael O'Rourke & Harry S. Silverstein (eds.), Action, Ethics, and Responsibility, Mit Press. pp. 25-45. 2010.Warren Quinn and Philippa Foot have given versions of the Doctrine of Doing and Allowing justifying a moral distinction between doing something to bring about harm, and doing nothing to prevent harm. They argue that it is justified to allow one person to die so that one can save a larger number of people, but not to kill one person to achieve the same purpose. In this chapter, I show that the examples typically used to support the DDA do not in fact do so. Contrary to the deontological ethics…Read more
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25The Ethics of War and Law Enforcement in Defending Against TerrorismSocial Philosophy Today 28 101-114. 2012.There are two contrasting paradigms for dealing with terrorists: war and law enforcement. In this paper, I first discuss how the just war theory assesses the military response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. I argue that the ethical problems with the U.S. attack on Afghanistan in response to 9/11 concern principles of jus ad bellum besides just cause. I show that the principles of right intention, last resort, proportionality and likelihood of success were violated. Furthermo…Read more
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149Non-Intentional ActionsAmerican Philosophical Quarterly 32 (2). 1995.The aim of the paper is to show that there are actions which are non-intentional. An account is first given which links intentional and unintentional action to acting for a reason, or appropriate causation by an intention. Mannerisms and habitual actions are then presented as examples of behavior which are actions, but which are not done in the course of acting for a reason. This account has advantages over that of Hursthouse's "arational actions," which are allegedly intentional actions done fo…Read more
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44Editor's Introduction: War, Peace, and EthicsPhilosophy in the Contemporary World 19 (2): 1-3. 2012.This is an introduction to a special volume of the journal, Philosophy in the Contemporary World, on "War, Peace, and Ethics" which contains ten original essays on a wide range of topics.
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19Review of "Who’s Afraid of Human Cloning?" (review)Bioethics 13 440-443. 1999.This is a book review of "Who’s Afraid of Human Cloning?" by Gregory Pence.
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63The Concept of Human Dignity in the Ethics of Genetic ResearchBioethics 29 (4): 274-282. 2014.Despite criticism that dignity is a vague and slippery concept, a number of international guidelines on bioethics have cautioned against research that is contrary to human dignity, with reference specifically to genetic technology. What is the connection between genetic research and human dignity? In this article, I investigate the concept of human dignity in its various historical forms, and examine its status as a moral concept. Unlike Kant's ideal concept of human dignity, the empirical or re…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Action |
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Areas of Interest
Social and Political Philosophy |
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |