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96Ink, Art and Expression: Philosophical Questions about TattoosPhilosophy Compass 10 (11): 739-753. 2015.This essay offers an overview of the reasons why tattoos are philosophically interesting. Considered here will be a partial survey of potential areas of philosophical interest with respect to tattoos, fortified by a little historical context. Claims about the ethical significance of tattoos and about the significance of tattoos for self-expression and as expressions of identity will be canvassed in the first two sections, as will questions about what they express or signify, how they might do so…Read more
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20Comment on James Rocha, “Forced to Listen to the Heart”Southwest Philosophy Review 30 (2): 51-54. 2014.
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52Comment on “Standing Conditions and Blame” by Amy McKiernanSouthwest Philosophy Review 32 (2): 49-52. 2016.
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62Form Affects Content: Reading Jane AustenPhilosophy and Literature 32 (2): 315-329. 2008.What does it mean to hold that the significant aspects of a literary passage cannot be captured in a paraphrase? Does a change in the description of an act "risk producing a different act" from the one described? Using Jane Austen as an example, we'll consider whether her use of metaphor and symbol really amounts to calling someone a prick, whether her narrative voice changes what it is that is expressed, and whether comedy can hold just as much significance as tragedy without all the heavy brea…Read more
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20Rights of Passage: The Ethics of Disability Passing and Repercussions for IdentityRes Philosophica 93 (4): 951-969. 2016.This article responds to two ethical conundrums associated with the practice of disability passing. One of these problems is the question of whether or not passing as abled is morally wrong in that it constitutes deception. The other, related difficulty arises from the tendency of the able-bodied in contemporary society to reinforce the activity of passing despite its frequent condemnation as a form of pretense or fraud. We draw upon recent scholarship on transgender and disability passing to cr…Read more
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11Tattoos Can Sometimes Be Art: A Modest Embellishment of Stephen Davies’s AdornmentJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 79 (4): 499-503. 2021.Stephen Davies offers a compelling account of adornment as a form of aesthetic enhancement that aims either to intensify or to contribute to beauty and sublimit.
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3When Complementarianism becomes Gender Apartheid: Feminist Philosophers’ Objections to the Christian RightSouthwest Philosophy Review 30 (1): 195-203. 2014.
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1Literature, Ethical Thought Experiments, and Moral KnowledgeSouthwest Philosophy Review 29 (1): 195-209. 2013.
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Fetal Pain Legislation and the Abortion Debate Presidential AddressSouthwest Philosophy Review 28 (1): 1-13. 2012.
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27When Complementarianism becomes Gender Apartheid: Feminist Philosophers’ Objections to the Christian RightSouthwest Philosophy Review 30 (1): 195-203. 2014.
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161Ideal Presence: How Kames Solved the Problem of Fiction and EmotionJournal of Scottish Philosophy 9 (1): 115-133. 2011.The problem of fiction and emotion is the problem of how we can be moved by the contemplation of fictional events and the plight of fictional characters when we know that the former have not occurred and the latter do not exist. I will give a general sketch of the philosophical treatment of the issue in the present day, and then turn to the eighteenth century for a solution as effective as the best that are presently on offer. The solution is to be found in the account of ideal presence given by…Read more
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15Kames on Ideal PresenceSouthwest Philosophy Review 26 (1): 17-25. 2010.The problem of fiction and emotion is the problem of how we can be moved by the contemplation of fi ctional events and the plight of fictional characters when we know that the former have not occurred and the latter do not exist. I will give a general sketch of the philosophical treatment of the issue in the present day, and then turn to the eighteenth century for a solution as effective as the best that are presently on offer. The solution is to be found in the account of ideal presence given b…Read more
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13Jane Austen's Emma: Philosophical Perspectives (edited book)Oup Usa. 2018.What has Emma Woodhouse to say to a discipline like philosophy? The minutia of daily living on which Jane Austen's Emma concentrates our attention permit a closer look at human emotions and motives. Emma shows how friendships can affect one's ways of dealing with the world, how shame can reconfigure self-understanding. That is, Emma leads us to think philosophically.
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33Kames on Ideal PresenceSouthwest Philosophy Review 26 (1): 17-25. 2010.The problem of fiction and emotion is the problem of how we can be moved by the contemplation of fi ctional events and the plight of fictional characters when we know that the former have not occurred and the latter do not exist. I will give a general sketch of the philosophical treatment of the issue in the present day, and then turn to the eighteenth century for a solution as effective as the best that are presently on offer. The solution is to be found in the account of ideal presence given b…Read more
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75Comedy and Tragedy as Two Sides of the Same Coin: Reversal and Incongruity as Sources of InsightJournal of Aesthetic Education 52 (2): 81. 2018.In Umberto Eco’s classic novel The Name of the Rose, we are introduced to a decidedly Platonic fear of laughter. According to the blind librarian Jorge de Burgos, “[l]aughter is weakness, corruption, the foolishness of our flesh. It is the peasant’s entertainment, the drunkard’s license;... laughter remains base, a defense for the simple, a mystery desecrated for the plebeians.”1 Laughter could not accompany insight or clarity or revelation. By destroying the last known copy of the second part o…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Value Theory |
Aesthetics |
Applied Ethics |
Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality |
Areas of Interest
Value Theory |
Aesthetics |
Applied Ethics |
Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality |