• Hospitality, Ethics, and Multiculturalism
    Philosophia 40 (1). 2012.
    How is multiculturalism possible in what we call the “postmodern age”? Postmodernity challenges our norms and conventions, our theories of human nature, our grand narratives, and—in general—any essentialist or foundationalist approach. And so it would seem to challenge any attempt to engage in dialogue across cultures or in any way that proposes to be independent of context.One response to this is to focus not on theories but on practices. In particular, I want to focus on the practice of hospit…Read more
  •  4
    Catholicism, Freedom of Conscience, and Democracy
    Maritain Studies/Etudes Maritainiennes 25 3-19. 2009.
    In this paper I focus on one of the fundamental democratic freedoms – freedom of conscience – and see to what extent Catholicism is compatible or consistent with it and, by extension, with democracy in civil or political institutions. I draw primarily on recent ecclesial statements on the issue, but also on the philosophical views of Jacques Maritain. First, I outline briefly the view of democracy and freedom of conscience that putatively undergirds modern democratic societies, as well as the un…Read more
  • Rationality and the Humanities and Social Sciences
    Indian Philosophical Quarterly 21 (3): 257. 1994.
  •  3
    Migrating Texts and Traditions (edited book)
    University of Ottawa Press. 2012.
    This volume examines the phenomenon of the migration of philosophical texts and traditions into other cultures, identifies places where it may have succeeded, but also where it has not, and discusses what is presupposed in introducing a text or a tradition into another intellectual culture. -- Book Jacket.
  • Ethical theory today is dominated by utilitarianism and by deontological theories . We also find, though to a much lesser extent, virtue ethics, feminist 'care' theories , social contract theories, and rights-based theories. But often missing from the discussion-and from most ethics textbooks-is natural law theory. Natural law theory has a long history, starting with the Stoics. It is influential outside of the Anglo-American world , and it has its powerful defenders today . But nevertheless it …Read more
  •  31
    Empiricism, fideism and the nature of religious belief
    with Colin O’Connell
    Sophia 31 (3): 1-15. 1992.
    Earlier versions of this paper were read to the Departments of Philosophy at the University of New Brunswick and at Saint Francis Xavier University and to the Canadian Societh for the Study of Religion at Queen’s University, Kingston. The authors wish to thank the participants for their comments
  •  16
    Rethinking the Role of Philosophy in the Global Age (edited book)
    with Pham Van Duc
    Council for Research in Values and Philosophy. 2009.
  •  6
    Bibliography
    In Bernard Bosanquet and the Legacy of British Idealism, University of Toronto Press. pp. 297-308. 2005.
  •  49
    Political Obligation in a Liberal State (review)
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 66 (1): 102-105. 1992.
  • Today's ethical theory , both utilitarian and non-ontological theories dominated. However, we found that many of its subsequent development in the evolution of those who encourage virtue ethics, feminist care theory, social contract theory and the theory of rights-based build. But usually lacking in this discussion - the teaching of ethics by the majority of it seems - is the natural law theory. Natural law theory has its very long history, starting from the Stoic school, it had occupied in the …Read more
  • Jacques Maritain and freedom of conscience
    Journal of Dharma 31 (1): 29-43. 2006.
  •  25
    Ecological Citizenship and Green Burial in China
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 29 (6): 985-1001. 2016.
    In 2012, China officially declared, as a national strategy of governance, the development of ecological consciousness, the promotion of what has been called “eco-civilization,” and the development of “ecological citizens.” In this paper, we argue that the concept of green burial reflects a number of the values underlying “eco-civilization” and ecological citizenship: respect for nature, respect for humanity, and the ecologically-sensitive rational awareness of the “harmony between nature and hum…Read more
  •  44
    Human Rights and Cultural Diversity
    International Journal of Applied Philosophy 12 (1): 117-132. 1998.
    In this paper, I discuss some challenges to the discourse of universal human rights made by those who insist that the existence of pluralism and cultural diversity count against it. I focus on arguments made in a recent article by Vinay Lal but also address several other criticisms of universal human rights-arguments hinted at, but not elaborated, by Lal. I maintain that these challenges frequently fail to distinguish the discourse of human rights from its adoption by certain states to advance f…Read more
  • Cultural Integrity and Liberty Rights
    Indian Philosophical Quarterly 30 (4): 479-494. 2003.
  •  53
    R.F.A. Hoernlé and Idealist Liberalism in South Africa1
    South African Journal of Philosophy 29 (2): 178-194. 2010.
    This paper describes the ‘idealist liberalism’ of R.F.A. Hoernlé (1880-1843), who taught in Britain, the United States, but also at the South African College and at the University of the Witwatersrand. I argue that this liberalism was strongly influenced by the British idealism of Bernard Bosanquet and T.H. Green, but also by key features of Hoernlé's South African experience. Hoernlé's idealist liberalism, I maintain, not only offered a response to the challenges of living in a multi-ethnic and…Read more
  • On Being Human
    Maritain Studies/Etudes Maritainiennes 19 3-20. 2002.
  •  3
    Intercultural Dialogue and Human Rights (edited book)
    with Luigi Bonanate and Roberto Papini
    Council for Research in Values and Philosophy. 2011.
  •  39
    (1996). Is later British idealist political theory fundamentally conservative? 1. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the study of European Ideas, pp. 403-408.
  •  43
    Wittgenstein (review)
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 71 (1): 126-130. 1997.
  • Globalization, philosophy, and the model of ecumenism
    South Pacific Journal of Philosophy and Culture 4. 2000.
  •  4
    Since the time of the Enlightenment in Western Europe, discussions of faith and reason have often pitted the believer against the skeptic, the theist against the atheist, and the person of one faith against the person of no professed faith. But the relation of reason to faith has been a matter of debate among believers as well. There are those who hold that religious faith can be proven or supported by rational argument. Others say that to try to give reasons and arguments does violence to relig…Read more
  •  2
  •  9
    Modern political thought from Hobbes to Maritain (edited book)
    The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy. 2012.
  •  1
    Jacques Maritain and the Nature of Religious Belief
    Maritain Studies/Etudes Maritainiennes 10 142-155. 1994.