-
How (Not) to Talk about, and to, Trans WomenIn Bob Fischer (ed.), College Ethics A Reader on Moral Issues that Affect You (2nd Ed), Oxford University Press. pp. 238-245. 2020.
-
2Phenomenal SocialismPhilosophies 9 (3): 63. 2024.Phenomenal socialism says that what we actually, directly, literally perceive is only or primarily instances of high-level phenomenal properties; this paper argues for phenomenal socialism in the weaker, primarily version. Phenomenal socialism is the philosophy of perception that goes with recognitionalism, which is the metaethics that goes with epiphanies. The first part states the recognitionalist manifesto. The second part situates this manifesto relative to some more global concerns, about n…Read more
-
17A philosopher looks at friendshipCambridge University Press. 2024.While for centuries friendship has fascinated and puzzled philosophers, they haven't always been able to fit it into their theories. The author explores friendship as something hard to deal with in the neat and tidy ways of philosophical theory - but nevertheless as one of the central goods of human experience.
-
92Values and virtues: Aristotelianism in contemporary ethics (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2006.After 25 centuries, Aristotle's influence on our society's moral thinking remains profound and he continues to be a very important contributor to contemporary debates in philosophical ethics. This collection showcases some of the best new writing on the Aristotelian notion of virtue of character, which remains central to much of the most interesting work in ethical theory.
-
9Utrum Sit Una Tantum Vera Enumeratio Virtutum MoraliumIn Michel Croce & Maria Silvia Vaccarezza (eds.), Connecting Virtues, Wiley. 2018.There have only been three articles in mainstream philosophy journals going back at least to the 1970s on generosity. This paper hopes to draw attention to this neglected virtue. By building on what work has already been done, and trying to advance that discussion along several different dimensions, it hopes that others will take a closer look at this important and surprisingly complex virtue. More specifically, it formulates three important necessary conditions for what is involved in possessin…Read more
-
73Review: The Spiritual Dimension: Religion, Philosophy, and Human Value (review)Mind 116 (463): 743-746. 2007.
-
Index of namesIn Timothy D. J. Chappell & Sophie Grace Chappell (eds.), Philosophy of the Environment, Edinburgh University Press. pp. 193-194. 2020.
-
110Why Ethics is HardJournal of Moral Philosophy 11 (4): 704-726. 2014.I argue that one central resource for ethical thinking, seriously under-explored in contemporary anglophone philosophy, is moral phenomenology, the exploration of the texture and quality of moral experience. Perhaps a barrier that has prevented people from using this resource is that it’s hard to talk about experience. But such knowledge can be communicated, e.g. by poetry and drama. In having such experiences, either in real life or at second-hand through art, we can gain moral knowledge, rathe…Read more
-
64Sex selection for non-medical reasons: Advisory Report of the Standing Committee on Medical Ethics and Health Law of the Health Council of the NetherlandsJournal of Medical Ethics 23 (2): 120-121. 1997.
-
31Reflections on How We Live, by AnnetteBaier. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, ix + 275 pp. ISBN 978‐0‐19‐957036‐2 hb £26.00 (review)European Journal of Philosophy 20 (3): 502-507. 2012.
-
65Persons as Goods: Response to Patrick LeeChristian Bioethics 10 (1): 69-78. 2004.Developing a British perspective on the abortion debate, I take up some ideas from Patrick Lee’s fine paper, and pursue, in particular, the idea of individual humans as goods in themselves. I argue that this notion helps us to avoid the familiar mistake of making moral value impersonal. It also shows us the way out of consequentialism. Since the most philosophically viable notion of the person, the individual human, is (as Lee argues) a notion of an individual substance that is there from concep…Read more
-
17Only Connect, or, How to Get Out of Our HeadsBradley Studies 5 (2): 167-176. 1999.Consider the following two passages. I apologise for their length, but this is necessary to bring out what I want to bring out.
-
81Infinity Goes Up On Trial: Must Immortality Be Meaningless?European Journal of Philosophy 17 (1): 30-44. 2009.Critically debates the distinction of different types of boredom and its impact on Williams’s argument, as well as the question of why personal identity should be threatened by eternally having new ground projects.
-
2Introduction: Respecting nature environmental thinking in the light of philosophical theoryIn Timothy D. J. Chappell & Sophie Grace Chappell (eds.), Philosophy of the Environment, Edinburgh University Press. pp. 1-18. 2020.
-
72Improving Nature? The Science and Ethics of Genetic Engineering (review)Journal of Medical Ethics 23 (5): 329-331. 1997.
-
233Infinity goes up on trial: Must immortality be meaningless?European Journal of Philosophy 17 (1): 30-44. 2007.
-
16 how to base ethics on biologyIn Timothy D. J. Chappell & Sophie Grace Chappell (eds.), Philosophy of the Environment, Edinburgh University Press. pp. 102-116. 2020.
-
8Ethics and Intrinsic Values, by Roderick ChisholmJournal of the British Society for Phenomenology 35 (3): 329-332. 2004.
-
Utrum sit una tantum vera enumeratio virtutum moraliumIn Michel Croce & Maria Silvia Vaccarezza (eds.), Connecting Virtues: Advances in Ethics, Epistemology, and Political Philosophy, Wiley-blackwell. 2018.
-
Roles and reasonsIn Tim Dare & Christine Swanton (eds.), Perspectives in Role Ethics: Virtues, Reasons, and Obligation, Routledge. 2019.
-
44Epiphanies: An Ethics of ExperienceOxford University Press. 2022.Epiphanies is a philosophical exploration of epiphanies, peak experiences, 'wow moments', or ecstasies as they are sometimes called. What are epiphanies, and why do so many people so frequently experience them? Are they just transient phenomena in our brains, or are they the revelations of objective value that they very often seem to be? What do they tell us about the world, and about ourselves? How, if at all, do epiphanies fit in with our moral systems and our theories of how to live? And how …Read more
-
Inwardness in EthicsIn Silvia Caprioglio Panizza & Mark Hopwood (eds.), The Murdochian Mind, Routledge. 2022.I begin with a summary statement of what I call “the Manifesto”, which is a succinct expression of an entire, and extremely influential, ideology of philosophical ethics: the one that I call “systematic moral theory”, and have been writing against for a decade now. My paper is about why Iris Murdoch rejects the Manifesto; and why anyone should. Murdoch quotes with approval Paul Valéry’s “A difficulty is a light; an insuperable difficulty is a sun.” It sounds paradoxical to suggest that philosoph…Read more
-
25Needs, Values, Truth: Essays in the philosophy of value by David Wiggins (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987). 1Philosophy 97 (3): 397-402. 2022.
-
114Transgender and adoption: An analogyThink 20 (59): 25-30. 2021.Maybe we should think of it like this: trans women/men are to women/men as adoptive parents are to parents. There are disanalogies of course, and the morality of adoption is a large issue in itself which I can't do full justice to here. Still, the analogies are, I think, important and instructive.
Areas of Interest
1 more
Normative Ethics |
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |
Epistemology |
Philosophy of Mind |
Philosophy of Religion |
Applied Ethics |