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33Avoiding the voter's paradox democraticallyTheory and Decision 5 (3): 295-311. 1974.This paper is concerned with selecting an appropriate perspective from which to understand and evaluate social-decision procedures. Distinguishing between "agent rationality" and "option-rationality", the author argues that a rational agent may choose a social-decision procedure that is not itself agent-rational (but merely option-rational). The argument puts the voter's paradox in a context allowing evaluation of (a) its general import and (b) practical proposals for avoiding it in particular…Read more
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33Punishment as language: Misleading analogy for desert theorists (review)Law and Philosophy 10 (3). 1991.
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31Teaching Moral Responsibility within OrganizationsBusiness and Professional Ethics Journal 23 (3): 77-91. 2004.
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30Professional AutonomyBusiness Ethics Quarterly 6 (4): 441-460. 1996.Employed professionals (e.g., accountants or engineers)-and those who study them-sometimes claim that their status as employeesdenies them the “autonomy” necessary to be “true professionals.” Is this a conceptual claim or an empirical claim? How might it be proved or disproved? This paper draws on recent work on autonomy to try to answer these questions. In the course of doing that, it identifies three literatures concerned with autonomy and suggests an approach bringing them together in a way l…Read more
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29Replacement as a Problem for the Justification of Preventive DetentionCriminal Justice Ethics 30 (1): 90-97. 2011.What makes Don E. Scheid's article on indefinite detention interesting is that he thinks through many of the moral issues inherent in attempting to prevent certain k...
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28Three Nuclear Disasters and a Hurricane : Some Reflections on Engineering EthicsJournal of Applied Ethics and Philosophy 4 1-10. 2012.The nuclear disaster that Japan suffered at Fukushima in the months following March 11, 2011 has been compared with other major nuclear disasters, especially, Three Mile Island (1979) and Chernobyl (1986). It is more like Chernobyl in severity, the only other 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale; more like Three Mile Island in long-term effects. Yet Fukushima is not just another nuclear disaster. In ways important to engineering ethics, it is much more like Katrina’s destruction of New Orl…Read more
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28The Price of a PersonInternational Journal of Applied Philosophy 30 (1): 105-114. 2016.While we’re inclined to think that a person is “above all price,” we in fact make a lot of decisions that seem to set a price on persons—or, at least, on their life. For example, I was recently involved with setting standards for buildings in areas susceptible to earthquakes. The consensus seemed to be $3/sq. ft. increase in construction cost was reasonable, more than that was not, even though lives could be saved if the standard were higher, assuring the survival of more buildings. Though the F…Read more
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28Ordinary reasonable care is not the minimum for engineersScience and Engineering Ethics 7 (2): 286-290. 2001.
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28The Special Role of Professionals in Business EthicsBusiness and Professional Ethics Journal 7 (2): 51-62. 1988.
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26Report CardsJournal of Mass Media Ethics 19 (3-4): 161-165. 2004.This Article does not have an abstract
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26Professional AutonomyBusiness Ethics Quarterly 6 (4): 441-460. 1996.Employed professionals (e.g., accountants or engineers)-and those who study them-sometimes claim that their status as employeesdenies them the “autonomy” necessary to be “true professionals.” Is this a conceptual claim or an empirical claim? How might it be proved or disproved? This paper draws on recent work on autonomy to try to answer these questions. In the course of doing that, it identifies three literatures concerned with autonomy and suggests an approach bringing them together in a way l…Read more
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23Introduction: Exigent decision-making in engineeringScience and Engineering Ethics 5 (4): 541-567. 1999.
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23Review of Physicians at War: The Dual-Loyalties Challenge (review)Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology 3 (2). 2009.
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22The One-Sided Obligations of JournalismJournal of Mass Media Ethics 19 (3-4): 207-222. 2004.Barger and Barney (2004/this issue) offered a number of reasons for the public, the news media, and journalism to develop special, mutually supportive standards of conduct. However, they imbedded these reasonable suggestions in an argument that claims far more than can be delivered. In explaining what is wrong with their argument, I place journalistic ethics within a general theory of professional ethics.
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17Vocational Teachers, Confidentiality And Professional EthicsInternational Journal of Applied Philosophy 4 (1): 11-20. 1988.
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17Trumping Conflicts of InterestInternational Journal of Applied Philosophy 31 (1): 9-20. 2017.As President, Donald Trumps faces two sorts of conflict of interest. The first are conflicts of interest other Presidents also faced, though Trump’s are “writ large.” These seem—as a practical matter—unavoidable now, hard to escape, not to be much changed by disclosure, and not even much subject to management. The other sort of conflict of interest seems to be without resolution even in principle while Trump remains both President and the person he is. These conflicts of interest are the product…Read more
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15Recidivist Punishments: The Philosopher's View (edited book)Lexington Books. 2011.Much has been written about recidivist punishments, particularly within the area of criminology. However there is a notorious lack of penal philosophical reflection on this issue. This book attempts to fill that gap by presenting the philosopher’s view on this matter as a way of furthering the debate on recidivist punishments
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13Second Thoughts on Multi-CulturalismInternational Journal of Applied Philosophy 11 (1): 29-34. 1996.
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8Engineering as a Global Profession: Technical and Ethical StandardsRowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2021.This book looks to establish worldwide technical and ethical standards of engineering as an occupation. The author is the most senior thinker in this field and has spent much of his career developing this thesis.
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7Justice in the Shadow of Death: Rethinking Capital and Lesser PunishmentsRowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1996.In 1994, Congress established more than sixty new capital crimes with wide public support. Davis argues that, if the U.S. is ever to join the majority of the world in abolishing capital punishment, opponents of the death penalty must make a stronger philosophical case against it. He systematically dissects the arguments in favor of capital punishment and demonstrates why they are philosophically superior to opposing arguments. By connecting the death penalty to a general theory of punishment in …Read more
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