-
42Genes and social justice: A Rawlsian reply to MooreBioethics 16 (1). 2002.In this article I critically examine Adam Moore’s claim that the threshold for overriding intangible property rights and privacy rights is higher, in relation to genetic enhancement techniques and sensitive personal information, than is commonly suggested. I argue that Moore fails to see how important advances in genetic research are to social justice. Once this point is emphasised one sees that the issue of how formidable overriding these rights are is open to much debate. There are strong reas…Read more
-
74Distributive justice concerns the fair distribution of the benefits and burdens of social cooperation. Opposition to higher rates of taxation, or even existing levels of taxation, are often made on grounds that such taxes are unfair burdens. This fairness argument can be given a number of further, more specific, formulations. Libertarians like Robert Nozick, for example, argue that taxation of income is unfair because it violates individual rights. Libertarians invoke an entitlement argument whi…Read more
-
122In “Institutions and the Demands of Justice,” Liam Murphy ~1999! makes a distinction between two approaches to normative political theory. He labels these two positions “dualism” and “monism.” The former maintains that “the two practical problems of institutional design and personal conduct require, at the fundamental level, two different kinds of practical principle” ~1999: 254!. The most influential proponent of dualism is John Rawls. In A Theory of Justice Rawls defends his theory of “justice…Read more
-
44Normative Theorizing about GeneticsCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 22 (4): 408-419. 2013.
-
446Commentary on Part 3: International political and economic structuresLes ateliers de l'éthique/The Ethics Forum 8 (2): 41-52. 2013.Mathias Risse’s On Global Justice is a unique and important contribution to the growing literature on global justice. Risse’s approach to a variety of topics, ranging from domestic justice and common ownership of the earth, to immigration, human rights, climate change, and labour rights, is one that conceives of global justice as a philosophical problem. In this commentary I focus on a number of reservations I have about approaching global justice as a philosophical rather than an inherently pra…Read more
-
150A challenge to Brink's metaphysical egoismRes Publica 9 (3): 243-256. 2003.Those who subscribe to a prudential conception of practical reason do not believe that there is a conflict between other-regarding and self-regarding norms as the former are held to be founded on the latter. Moral conduct, they maintain, is always rationally justifiable. The reasons we should fulfil the demands of other-regarding norms are the same as those we have for fulfilling self-regarding norms. David Brink has put forth an interesting and novel account of this approach to practical reason…Read more
-
25Empirical ethics and the duty to extend the “biological warranty period”Social Philosophy and Policy 30 (1-2): 480-503. 2013.The world's aging populations face novel health challenges never experienced before in human history. The moral landscape thus needs to adapt to reflect this novel empirical reality. In this paper I take for granted one basic moral principle advanced by Peter Singer and explore the implications that empirical considerations from demography, evolutionary biology, and biogerontology have for the way we conceive of fulfilling this principle at the operational level. After bringing to the fore a num…Read more
-
152Virtue Ethics and Prenatal Genetic EnhancementStudies in Ethics, Law, and Technology 1 (1). 2007.In this paper I argue that the virtue ethics tradition can enhance the moral discourse on the ethics of prenatal genetic enhancements in distinctive and valuable ways. Virtue ethics prescribes we adopt a much more provisional stance on the issue of the moral permissibility of prenatal genetic enhancements. A stance that places great care on differentiating between the different stakes involved with developing different phenotypes in our children and the different possible means (environmental vs…Read more
-
91Public Reason, Neutrality and Civic VirtuesRatio Juris 12 (1): 11-25. 1999.In this paper I argue that political liberalism is not the “minimalist liberalism” characterised by Michael Sandel and that it does not support the vision of public life characteristic of the procedural republic. I defend this claim by developing two points. The first concerns Rawls's account of public reason. Drawing from examples in Canadian free speech jurisprudence I show how restrictions on commercial advertising, obscenity and hate propaganda can be justified by political values. Secondly,…Read more
-
5Making Deliberative Democracy a more practical idealEuropean Journal of Political Theory 4 (2): 200-208. 2004.
-
195Book Review: Making Deliberative Democracy a More Practical Political Ideal (review)European Journal of Political Theory 4 (2): 200-208. 2005.
-
16Introduction to Contemporary Political TheorySAGE. 2004.Colin Farrelly's central objective in writing this introductory text is to demonstrate to students the practical relevance of contemporary theoretical debates to everyday issues in policy creation and implementation and politics.
-
35Genetic Intervention and the New Frontiers of JusticeDialogue 41 (1): 139-. 2002.Recent advances in genetic research pose many complex problems for moral and political philosophers. On the one hand, these advances promise great things. Genetic enhancement techniques might allow us to prevent or cure a variety of debilitating diseases. But on the other hand, talk about intervening in people's genetic make-up conjures up memories of the sinister episodes of past eugenic movements. Such movements violated the most basic principles of justice. How can society capitalize on the b…Read more
-
107What will the demands of distributive justice be in the postgenetic revolutionary world? Will genetic inheritance be regarded as socially distributed goods? This may seem a more reasonable position to assert as biotechnology progresses further toward human genetic manipulation
-
106The genetic difference principleAmerican Journal of Bioethics 4 (2). 2004.In the newly emerging debates about genetics and justice three distinct principles have begun to emerge concerning what the distributive aim of genetic interventions should be. These principles are: genetic equality, a genetic decent minimum, and the genetic difference principle. In this paper, I examine the rationale of each of these principles and argue that genetic equality and a genetic decent minimum are ill-equipped to tackle what I call the currency problem and the problem of weight. The …Read more
-
159Patriarchy and Historical MaterialismHypatia 26 (1): 1-21. 2011.Why does the world have the pattern of patriarchy it currently possesses? Why have patriarchal practices and institutions evolved and changed in the ways they have tended to over time in human societies? This paper explores these general questions by integrating a feminist analysis of patriarchy with the central insights of the functionalist interpretation of historical materialism advanced by G. A. Cohen. The paper has two central aspirations: first, to help narrow the divide between analytical…Read more
-
24Contemporary Political Theory: A ReaderSAGE. 2004.Contemporary Political Theory: A Reader provides an accessible introduction to the key works of major contemporary political theorists. Key theorists and writers include John Rawls, Robert Nozick, Michael Walzer, Michael Sandel, Susan Okin, Will Kymlicka, Iris Marion Young, Charles Taylor, Nancy Fraser and John Dryzek.
-
3John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 21 (6): 437-439. 2001.
-
3An introduction to aretaic theories of lawIn Colin Patrick Farrelly & Lawrence Solum (eds.), Virtue jurisprudence, Palgrave-macmillan. 2008.
-
101Historical materialism and superveniencePhilosophy of the Social Sciences 35 (4): 420-446. 2005.In this article I put forth a new interpretation of historical materialism titled the supervenient interpretation . Drawing on the insights of analytical Marxism and utilizing the concept of supervenience, I advance two central claims. First, that Marx's synchronic materialism maintains that the superstructure supervenes naturally on the economic structure. Second, that diachronic materialism maintains that the relations of production supervene naturally on the forces of production. Taken togeth…Read more
-
83. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-
151Deliberative democracy and nanotechnologyNanoethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Nanotechnology. forthcoming.
-
1"mind The Gap": Beneficence And SenescencePublic Affairs Quarterly 24 (2): 115-130. 2010.Over the past four decades, philosophers have tackled a broad range of topical issues in applied ethics and political theory. These range from abortion and animal rights to multiculturalism, and the distribution of wealth and income.1 There now exists a plethora of normative theories and principles that moral and political philosophers can invoke to tackle a diverse range of practical issues. Yet, oddly, science and science policy remain relatively marginalized topics in moral and political phil…Read more
-
22Civic liberalism and the 'dialogical model'of judicial reviewIn Colin Patrick Farrelly & Lawrence Solum (eds.), Virtue jurisprudence, Palgrave-macmillan. 2008.
-
111Justice and a citizens' basic incomeJournal of Applied Philosophy 16 (3). 1999.Is it possible for a society with a market economy to be just? Unlike Marxists, egalitarian liberals believe that there are some conceivable circumstances where such a society could fulfil the requirements of social justice. A market society need not be exploitative. One proposal that has recently received much attention among political theorists is the suggestion that citizens should receive a basic income. Philippe Van Parijs's Real Freedom for All: What (if anything) can justify capitalism? p…Read more
-
Queen's UniversityRegular Faculty
Kingston, Ontario, Canada