-
557Think: a compelling introduction to philosophyOxford University Press. 1999.Here at last is a coherent, unintimidating introduction to the challenging and fascinating landscape of Western philosophy. Written expressly for "anyone who believes there are big questions out there, but does not know how to approach them," Think provides a sound framework for exploring the most basic themes of philosophy, and for understanding how major philosophers have tackled the questions that have pressed themselves most forcefully on human consciousness. Simon Blackburn, author of the b…Read more
-
77Making ends meetPhilosophical Books 27 (4): 193-203. 1986.Williams’s arguments against the morality system are given canonical form in Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, chapter 10, where he undertakes to describe this particular form of ethical thinking and explain “why we would be better off without it”.
-
79Some years ago, without realizing what it might mean, I accepted a dinner invitation from a Jewish colleague for dinner on Friday night. I should say that my colleague had never appeared particularly orthodox, and he would have known that I am an atheist. However, in the course of the meal, some kind of observance was put in train, and it turned out I was expected to play along—put on a hat, or some such. I demurred, saying that I felt uncomfortable doing something that might be the expression o…Read more
-
59Julius Caesar and George Berkeley Play LeapfrogIn Cynthia Macdonald & Graham Macdonald (eds.), Mcdowell and His Critics, Blackwell. pp. 6--203. 2006.
-
3Dilemmas: Dithering, Plumping, and GriefIn H. E. Mason (ed.), Moral Dilemmas and Moral Theory, Oxford University Press. pp. 127. 1996.
-
40The Emergence of Probability By Ian Hacking Cambridge University Press, 1975, 209 pp., £5.50 (review)Philosophy 51 (198): 476-. 1976.
-
15Platos Republic: A BiographyAtlantic Monthly Press. 2006.Plato is perhaps the most significant philosopher who has ever lived and The Republic , composed in Athens in about 375 BC, is widely regarded as his most famous dialogue. Its discussion of the perfect city — and the perfect mind — laid the foundations for Western culture and, for over two thousand years, has been the cornerstone of Western philosophy. As the distinguished Cambridge professor Simon Blackburn points out, it has probably sustained more commentary, and been subject to more radical …Read more
-
101Comments on Gibbard’s Thinking How to Live (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 72 (3). 2006.University of Cambridge.
-
77Humanity's natural facePhilosophical Explorations 3 (3). 2000.In my article I summarize a 'Humean' view of deliberation, and in particular deliberation with an ethical aspect. I regard Hume as having paved the way for a 'naturalistic' account of these things, avoiding Kantian fantasies of agency that dominate much current work. Contrary to what is often supposed, the Humean story gives a satisfactory account of dutiful or principled motivations, and a rich account of the ways in which different aspects of character are selected as 'useful or agreeable to o…Read more
-
11The Presidential Address: The Steps from Doing to SayingProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 110 (1pt1). 2010.In this paper I consider recent developments in neo-pragmatism, and in particular the degree of convergence between such approaches and those placing greater emphasis on truth and truth-makers. I urge that although a global pragmatism has its merits, it by no means closes the space for a more Wittgensteinian, finer-grained, approach to the diversity of functions served by modal, causal, moral, or other modes of thought
-
3Playing Hume's HandIn D. Z. Phillips & Timothy Tessin (eds.), Religion and Hume's Legacy, St. Martin's Press, Scholarly and Reference Division. 1999.
-
110A very short essay on religionThink 11 (32): 33-36. 2012.My impression is that the fire-breathing atheists about whom we hear so much – the celebrated quartet of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Dan Dennett – think of religious commitments in terms of mistaken or at least hopelessly improbable and therefore irrational ontology. Believers think that something exists, but the overwhelmingly probable truth is that it does not. I may be wrong that this is what they think, but whether they do so or not, I am sure others do. Yet this i…Read more
-
2Goodman's paradoxIn Peter Achinstein (ed.), Studies in the philosophy of science, Published By Basil Blackwell With the Cooperation of the University of Pittsburg. pp. 128--42. 1969.
-
2The flight to realityIn Rosalind Hursthouse, Gavin Lawrence & Warren Quinn (eds.), Virtues and Reasons: Philippa Foot and Moral Theory: Essays in Honour of Philippa Foot, Clarendon Press. pp. 35--56. 1995.
-
742Moral Relativism and Moral ObjectivityPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 58 (1): 195-198. 1998.
-
87. TemptationIn Mirror, Mirror: The Uses and Abuses of Self-Love, Princeton University Press. pp. 132-162. 2014.
-
76Lust: The Seven Deadly SinsOup Usa. 2004.Lust, says Simon Blackburn, is furtive, headlong, always sizing up opportunities. It is a trail of clothing in the hallway, the trashy cousin of love. But be that as it may, the aim of this delightful book is to rescue lust "from the denunciations of old men of the deserts, to deliver it from the pallid and envious confessor and the stocks and pillories of the Puritans, to drag it from the category of sin to that of virtue." Blackburn, author of such popular philosophy books as Think and Being G…Read more
-
262Ethics: a very short introductionOxford University Press. 2001.In this clear introduction to ethics Simon Blackburn tackles the major moral questions surrounding birth, death, happiness, desire and freedom, showing us how ...
-
-
University of North Carolina, Chapel HillDistinguished Research Professor (Part-time)
Cambridge, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland