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8Animal Rights: a Reply to Frey's Animal RightsAnalysis 38. 1978.In his paper, "animal rights" ("analysis" 37.4), R g frey claims to refute "the most important argument" for the view that animals have rights. We show that no prominent defender of the rights of animals has argued, Or should argue, In the way that frey suggests. Furthermore, We show that there is a plausible argument for the view that animals have rights that is left undiscussed by frey
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4Reflections (1 of 4): Discourse and moral responsibility in biotechnical communicationScience and Engineering Ethics 6 (2): 265-273. 2000.
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21Reflecting on Nature introduces readers to the fields of environmental philosophy and environmental ethics, offering both classic and current readings that focus on key themes - images of nature, ethics, justice, animals, food, climate, biodiversity, aesthetics and wilderness. It helps students to focus on fundamental issues within environmental philosophy and offers succinct readings that explore the central tensions and problems within environmental philosophy
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33The importance of being conceptualJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 45 (2): 117-123. 1986.
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54Book Review:Common-Sense Morality and Consequentialism. Michael Slote (review)Ethics 98 (1): 168-. 1987.
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85David Lewis on ConventionCanadian Journal of Philosophy 5 (1). 1975.In this paper I show that the definition of convention offered by david lewis in his book "convention: a philosophical study" fails to shed much light on "our common, Established concept of convention." first I set out lewis' definition of convention. I then show, Via counterexample, That satisfaction of lewis' definition is not a necessary condition for something to be a convention. I also show via counterexample that it is doubtful that satisfaction of lewis' definition is a sufficient conditi…Read more
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110Sober and Wilson on psychological altruism (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 65 (3). 2002.In their marvelous book, Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior, Sober and Wilson identify two distinct problems of altruism.’ The problem of Evolutionary Altruism (EA) “is to show how behaviors that benefit others at the expense of self can evolve;” (17) group selection is the key to the solution of this problem. The problem of Psychological Altruism (PA) is to determine whether people “have altruistic desires that are psychologically ultimate.” (201) After carefully c…Read more
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541When Utilitarians Should Be Virtue TheoristsUtilitas 19 (2): 160. 2007.The contrast typically made between utilitarianism and virtue theory is overdrawn. Utilitarianism is a universal emulator: it implies that we should lie, cheat, steal, even appropriate Aristotle, when that is what brings about the best outcomes. In some cases and in some worlds it is best for us to focus as precisely as possible on individual acts. In other cases and worlds it is best for us to be concerned with character traits. Global environmental change leads to concerns about character beca…Read more
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60On Aims and Methods of Cognitive EthologyPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1992 110-124. 1992.In 1963 Niko Tinbergen published a paper, "On Aims and Methods of Ethology," dedicated to his friend Konrad Lorenz. Here Tinbergen defines ethology as "the biological study of behavior," and seeks to demonstrate "the close affinity between Ethology and the rest of Biology." Tinbergen identifies four major areas of ethology: causation, survival value, evolution, and ontogeny. Our goal is to attempt for cognitive ethology what Tinbergen succeeded in doing for ethology: to clarify its aims and meth…Read more
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New York UniversityDepartment of Philosophy
Animal Studies Initiative, Environmental Studies ProgramOther faculty (Postdoc, Visiting, etc)