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420Errors and the Phenomology of ValueIn Thomas L. Carson & Paul K. Moser (eds.), Morality and the good life, Oxford University Press. pp. 324--337. 1997.
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229Truth (edited book)Oxford University Press. 1999.This volume is designed to set out some of the central issues in the theory of truth. It draws together, for the first time, the debates between philosophers who favor 'robust' or 'substantive' theories of truth, and those other, 'deflationist' or minimalists, who deny that such theories can be given. The editors provide a substantial introduction, in which they look at how the debates relate to further issues, such as the Liar paradox and formal truth theories.
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42. Liriope’s SonIn Mirror, Mirror: The Uses and Abuses of Self-Love, Princeton University Press. pp. 35-43. 2014.
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56Williams, Smith, and the Peculiarity of PiacularityJournal of the American Philosophical Association 1 (2): 217--232. 2015.
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241Critical notice of Frank Jackson, from metaphysics to ethics: A defence of conceptual analysisAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 78 (1). 2000.(2000). Critical notice of Frank Jackson, from metaphysics to ethics: A defence of conceptual analysis. Australasian Journal of Philosophy: Vol. 78, No. 1, pp. 119-124. doi: 10.1080/00048400012349401
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88Success SemanticsIn Hallvard Lillehammer & D. H. Mellor (eds.), Ramsey's Legacy, Oxford University Press. 2005.
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117Interview - Simon BlackburnThe Philosophers' Magazine 40 (40): 38-39. 2008.Cambridge professor Simon Blackburn is best known to the general public as the author of several books of popular philosophy such as ink, Being Good andTruth: a Guide for the Perplexed. Academic philosophers also know him as the author of one of the most important books of contemporary moral philosophy, Ruling Passions, and as a former editor of the leading journal Mind.
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Wittgenstein and MinimalismIn B. Garrett & K. Mulligan (eds.), Themes From Wittgenstein, Anu Working Papers in Philosophy 4. pp. 1--14. 1993.
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302Being Good: A Short Introduction to EthicsOxford University Press. 2001.This is a very short introduction to ethics. It divides into three parts: first, introducing and discussing reasons for skepticism about ethics; second introducing themes of birth, death, happiness, desire and freedom to show how deeply our lives are interwoven with ethics; third, introducing attempts to found ethics, due to Aristotle, Kant, and the contractarian tradition.
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91The idea behind expressivism as a philosophy of ethics faces a number of different challenges, and has a number of different choices to make as it tries to meet them. Perhaps the first is to specify what is the primitive of the theory, which will be something that is expressed, and is usually identified as a state of mind. Later in this paper, I shall suggest caution about this, but for the moment we can go along with it. Emotion was one suggestion, prescriptions are another, desires of various …Read more
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8016 How to be an Ethical AntirealistIn Paul K. Moser & J. D. Trout (eds.), Contemporary Materialism: A Reader, Routledge. pp. 357. 1995.
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99Précis of ruling passions (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 65 (1). 2002.Ruling Passions is about human nature. It is an invitation to see human nature a certain way. It defends this way of looking at ourselves against competitors, including rational choice theory, modern Kantianism, various applications of evolutionary psychology, views that enchant our natures, and those that disenchant them in the direction of relativism or nihilism. It is a story centred upon a view of human ethical nature, which it places amongst other facets of human nature, as just one of the …Read more
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423Ruling Passions: A Theory of Practical ReasoningOxford University Press UK. 1998.Simon Blackburn puts forward a compelling original philosophy of human motivation and morality. He maintains that we cannot get clear about ethics until we get clear about human nature. So these are the sorts of questions he addresses: Why do we behave as we do? Can we improve? Is our ethics at war with our passions, or is it an upshot of those passions? Blackburn seeks the answers in an exploration of guilt, shame, disgust, and other moral emotions; he draws also on game theory and cognitive sc…Read more
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17How can we tell whether a commitment has a truth conditionIn Charles Travis (ed.), Meaning and interpretation, Blackwell. pp. 201--232. 1986.
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109Normativity à la modeThe Journal of Ethics 5 (2): 139-153. 2001.This paper sets out to raise questions about the metaphor of the spaceof reasons. It argues that a proper appreciation of Wittgensteinundermines the metaphysical or dualistic way of taking the metaphor thatis supposed to prevent the naturalization of reason.
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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
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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
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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”.
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3Dilemmas: Dithering, Plumping, and GriefIn H. E. Mason (ed.), Moral Dilemmas and Moral Theory, Oxford University Press. pp. 127. 1996.
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University of North Carolina, Chapel HillDistinguished Research Professor (Part-time)
Cambridge, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland