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49Morality and EmergencyProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 103 (1): 21-37. 2003.Agents sometimes feel free to resort to underhand or brutal measures in coping with an emergency. Because emergencies seem to relax moral inhibitions as well as carrying the risk of great loss of life or injury, it may seem morally urgent to prevent them or curtail them as far as possible. I discuss some cases of private emergency that go against this suggestion. Prevention seems morally urgent primarily in the case of public emergencies. But these are the responsibility of defensibly partisan a…Read more
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49The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 1996.It was as a political thinker that Thomas Hobbes first came to prominence, and it is as a political theorist that he is most studied today. Yet the range of his writings extends well beyond morals and politics. Hobbes had distinctive views in metaphysics and epistemology, and wrote about such subjects as history, law, and religion. He also produced full-scale treatises in physics, optics, and geometry. All of these areas are covered in this Companion, most in considerable detail. The volume also…Read more
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45Bodies and the subjects of ethics and metaphysicsRivista di Storia Della Filosofia 55 (3): 373-383. 2000.Discusses the differences between the metaphysical subject of the Meditations and the subject of Descartes' morale par provision, which is the embodied human being.
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45Self, Society and Kantian ImpersonalityThe Monist 74 (1): 30-42. 1991.What view of the person must prevail in a society that claims to be just? There is supposed to be a Kantian answer to this question, according to which people must regard themselves and their fellows as free, equal and capable to acting rationally. In A Theory of Justice Rawls tries to give content to the idea of free, equal and rational persons, but in such a way, according to certain critics, that social relations between these figures appear impoverished. Sandel, for example, has described a …Read more
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43Morality, consumerism and the internal market in health careJournal of Medical Ethics 23 (2): 71-76. 1997.Unlike the managerially oriented reforms that have brought auditing and accounting into such prominence in the UK National Health Service (NHS), and which seem alien to the culture of the caring professions, consumerist reforms may seem to complement moves towards the acceptance of wide definitions of health, and towards increasing patient autonomy. The empowerment favoured by those who support patient autonomy sounds like the sort of empowerment that is sometimes associated with the patient's c…Read more
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42Mass-marketing frauds are on the increase. Given the amount of monies lost and the psychological impact of MMFs there is an urgent need to develop new and effective methods to prevent more of these crimes. This paper reports the early planning of automated methods our interdisciplinary team are developing to prevent and detect MMF. Importantly, the paper presents the ethical and social constraints involved in such a model and suggests concerns others might also consider when developing automated…Read more
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40Preventive Policing, Surveillance, and European Counter-TerrorismCriminal Justice Ethics 30 (1): 1-22. 2011.A European Union counter-terrorism strategy was devised in 2005.1 Of its four strands—prevent, pursue, protect, and respond—only two have a direct connection with policing. Perhaps surprisingly, th...
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39L'état de nature de Hobbes dans la philosophie anglo-saxonne contemporaine : Gauthier, Hampton et GrayLes Etudes Philosophiques 79 (4): 461. 2006.Les usages que fait Hobbes de l’état de nature sont souvent mal compris par les philosophes anglo-américains contemporains, y compris par des commentateurs distingués comme Gauthier et Hampton. À la différence de Gauthier, je soutiens que Hobbes ne se soucie nullement de naturaliser le fondement de la motivation morale, et je conteste l’interprétation de Hampton qui considère que le contractualisme hobbesien a plus de pertinence pour nous aujourd’hui que le contractualisme kantien. Il existe cer…Read more
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37Experimental philosophy and the history of philosophyBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 26 (5): 829-849. 2018.Contemporary experimental philosophers sometimes use versions of an argument from the history of philosophy to defend the claim that what they do is philosophy. Although experimental philosophers conduct surveys and carry out what appear to be experiments in psychology, making them methodologically different from most analytic philosophers working today, techniques like theirs were not out of the ordinary in the philosophy of the past, early modern philosophy in particular. Or so some of them ar…Read more
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37DescartesOxford University Press. 1987.Rene Descartes had a remarkably short working life, yet his contribution to philosophy and physics have endured to this day. He is perhaps best known for his statement, "Cogito, ergo sum," the cornerstone of his metaphysics. Descartes did not intend the metaphysics to stand apart from his scientific work, which included important investigations into physics, mathematics, and optics. In this book, Sorell shows that Descarates was, above all, an advocate and practitioner of the new mathematical ap…Read more
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36Experimental philosophy and the history of philosophyBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 26 (5): 829-849. 2018.Contemporary experimental philosophers sometimes use versions of an argument from the history of philosophy to defend the claim that what they do is philosophy. Although experimental philosophers conduct surveys and carry out what appear to be experiments in psychology, making them methodologically different from most analytic philosophers working today, techniques like theirs were not out of the ordinary in the philosophy of the past, early modern philosophy in particular. Or so some of them ar…Read more
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36Hobbes and History (edited book)Routledge. 2000.Much of Thomas Hobbes's work can be read as historical commentary, taking up questions in the philosophy of history and the rhetorical possibilities of written history. This collection of scholarly essays explores the relation of Hobbes's work to history as a branch of learning.
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35The Cambridge Companion to HobbesPhilosophical Review 107 (3): 491. 1998.The aim of this volume is to "serve as a reference work for students and nonspecialists" and to provide "the most convenient, accessible guide to Hobbes available." As with any such anthology, the quality of the individual contributions and the degree to which they contribute to these goals vary somewhat from paper to paper. But on the whole, the work succeeds admirably and constitutes a valuable resource for those interested in learning more about the great English philosopher. Space does not p…Read more
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35Deepfakes and Political Misinformation in U.S. ElectionsTechné Research in Philosophy and Technology 27 (3): 363-386. 2023.Audio and video footage produced with the help of AI can show politicians doing discreditable things that they have not actually done. This is deepfaked material. Deepfakes are sometimes claimed to have special powers to harm the people depicted and their audiences—powers that more traditional forms of faked imagery and sound footage lack. According to some philosophers, deepfakes are particularly “believable,” and widely available technology will soon make deepfakes proliferate. I first give re…Read more
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33Law and equity in HobbesCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 19 (1): 29-46. 2016.Equity is clearly central to Hobbes’s theory of the laws of nature, and it has an important place in his doctrine of the duties and exercise of sovereignty. It is also prominent in his general theory of law, especially as it is articulated in the late Dialogue between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Laws of England. Still, it is not more central to Hobbes’s ethics, politics and legal philosophy than his concept of justice, or even as central. On the contrary, his theory of justice is p…Read more
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33Insight and Inference: Descartes's Founding Principle and Modern Philosophy (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 38 (1): 122-123. 2000.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Insight and Inference: Descartes's Founding Principle and Modern PhilosophyTom SorellMurray Miles. Insight and Inference: Descartes's Founding Principle and Modern Philosophy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999. Pp. xviii + 564. Cloth, $120.00.This book reopens the question of the correct interpretation of 'cogito, ergo sum,' and considers the significance of Descartes's first principle for Western philosophy up t…Read more
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33Harman's paradoxMind 90 (360): 557-575. 1981.Harman has devised examples which suggest that not only justified true belief, but also knowledge, can co-exist with defeating evidence. Briefly, further evidence can be evidence against what one knows. If that is right, the presence or absence of defeating evidence cannot make the difference between non-knowledge and knowledge. So defeasibilism seems to fail-provided there is such a thing as knowing a truth there is further evidence against. And about that there is an air of paradox. Is it tru…Read more
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31Cholera and Nothing MorePublic Health Ethics 3 (1): 60-62. 2010.Specialised services for urgent public health demands are justifiable even in countries where general medical need is great, medical services are in short supply, and those offering specialised public health services can meet some general medical need.
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30Reviews : Robert B. Pippin, Modernism as a Philosophical Problem. Oxford: Blackwell, 1991. £35.00, paper £11.95, viii + 218 pp (review)History of the Human Sciences 5 (4): 75-81. 1992.
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30Online Grooming and Preventive JusticeCriminal Law and Philosophy 11 (4): 705-724. 2017.In England and Wales, Section 15 of the Sexual Offences Act criminalizes the act of meeting a child—someone under 16—after grooming. The question to be pursued in this paper is whether grooming—I confine myself to online grooming—is justly criminalized. I shall argue that it is. One line of thought will be indirect. I shall first try to rebut a general argument against the criminalization of acts that are preparatory to the commission of serious offences. Grooming is one such act, but there are …Read more
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30Hobbes's persuasive civil sciencePhilosophical Quarterly 40 (160): 342-351. 1990.This article concentrates on Hobbes's inference from the passions to the inevitability of war in the state of nature, asking how this could be expected to persuade. The inference gets some support from experience but also from its position in a certain kind of science.
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30Experimental philosophy and the history of philosophyBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 26 (5): 829-849. 2018.Contemporary experimental philosophers sometimes use versions of an argument from the history of philosophy to defend the claim that what they do is philosophy. Although experimental philosophers conduct surveys and carry out what appear to be experiments in psychology, making them methodologically different from most analytic philosophers working today, techniques like theirs were not out of the ordinary in the philosophy of the past, early modern philosophy in particular. Or so some of them ar…Read more
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29Hobbes's Objections and Hobbes's SystemIn Roger Ariew & Marjorie Glicksman Grene (eds.), Descartes and His Contemporaries: Meditations, Objections, and Replies, University of Chicago Press. pp. 83--96. 1995.This paper surveys the many misunderstandings of Descartes Meditations in Hobbes' objections --the third set--issued in 1641. Some of the understanding can be traced to different understandings of philosophy or science, as well as differences over the importance epistemological scepticism.
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27On special protections for rescuers and helpersCriminal Law and Philosophy 1 (2): 215-222. 2007.There is something intuitively correct about singling out emergency workers for legal protection, and for criminalizing not just assault, but obstruction. Moreover, at least one sophisticated theory of right and wrong â Scanlonâsâindicates some deep reasons for endorsing these intuitions. After applying Scanlonâs theory in the relevant way, I want to argue that the same grounds it provides for recent Scottish legislation and UK sentencing guidelines can also be given for punishing more s…Read more
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26Moral Theory and AnomalyWiley-Blackwell. 2000._Moral Theory and Anomaly_ considers and rejects the claim that moral theory is too utopian to apply properly to worldly pursuits like political office holding and business, and too patriarchal and speciesist to generate a theory of justice applicable to women and the non-human natural world
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25Discussion: The good of theory: a reply to KalerBusiness Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility 9 (1): 51-57. 2000.
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25Organized Crime and Preventive JusticeEthical Theory and Moral Practice 21 (1): 137-153. 2018.By comparison with the prevention of terrorism, the prevention of acts of organized crime might be thought easier to conceptualize precisely and less controversial to legislate against and police. This impression is correct up to a point, because it is possible to arrive at some general characteristics of organized crime, and because legislation against it is not obviously bedeviled by the risk of violating civil or political rights, as in the case of terrorism. But there is a significant residu…Read more
University of Oxford
DPhil, 1978
Areas of Specialization
Value Theory |
History of Western Philosophy |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Other Academic Areas |