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30Genealogy beyond DebunkingMidwest Studies in Philosophy 47 171-194. 2023.Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morality (GM) is often interpreted as providing a debunking argument of some kind. I consider different versions of such arguments and suggest that they face important challenges. Moving beyond debunking interpretations of GM, I consider Nietzsche’s claim that his genealogy should be used to assess the “value” of moral values. After explaining how to understand this claim, I consider different ways that history might be used to assess the value of beliefs, practic…Read more
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44Moral Psychology with Nietzsche, by Brian Leiter. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019, 224 pp., ISBN: 9780199696505, Hardcover $65.00 (review)European Journal of Philosophy 29 (1): 260-265. 2021.European Journal of Philosophy, EarlyView.
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32The Epistemic Life of Groups, MichaelBrady and MirandaFricker (Eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press (eds.) 2016, vi + 255 pp ISBN 978–0–19‐875964‐5, £45.00 (review)European Journal of Philosophy 26 (2): 897-900. 2018.
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69Deliberation through Misrepresentation? Inchoate Speech and the Division of Interpretive LaborJournal of Political Philosophy 29 (4): 496-518. 2021.Journal of Political Philosophy, EarlyView.
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106Explanation and ManipulationNoûs 51 (3): 484-520. 2017.I argue that manipulationist theories of causation fail as accounts of causal structure, and thereby as theories of “actual causation” and causal explanation. I focus on two kinds of problem cases, which I call “Perceived Abnormality Cases” and “Ontological Dependence Cases.” The cases illustrate that basic facts about social systems—that individuals are sensitive to perceived abnormal conditions and that certain actions metaphysically depend on institutional rules—pose a challenge for manipulat…Read more
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81Nietzsche, Genealogy, and Historical IndividualsJournal of Nietzsche Studies 46 (1): 99-109. 2015.ABSTRACT In On the Genealogy of Morality, Nietzsche sets out to answer the question of the value of morality by looking at the conditions under which it developed. However, there is a puzzle about why historical investigation should be required for assessing our moral practices, especially if the defining features of those practices have changed over time. The puzzle is that if morality is “historical,” then the features that will be revealed by historical investigation are ones that—ex hypothes…Read more
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22There has been much recent work in philosophy of science on idealization – the way inaccurate representations can be used to understand a target system. My dissertation concerns a particular sort of idealization that is familiar but often overlooked: rational reconstruction. Rational reconstructions are “cleaned-up” – more coherent and accurate – versions of an individual’s or a group’s attitudes. They are the kind of idealized model that facilitates a crucial aim of the interpretive sciences, t…Read more
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93Williams and Nietzsche on the Significance of History for Moral PhilosophyJournal of Nietzsche Studies 45 (2): 147-168. 2014.It is a truism that our current common sense morality is the product of a complicated historical development. Whether and in what way classic questions of moral philosophy need to be informed by this history is, however, a matter of controversy.Some recent work in meta-ethics has taken the broad contours of morality’s history as important for answering questions about the existence of moral facts and the justifications of our beliefs about such facts. For instance, moral diversity and the histor…Read more
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40Genealogy and the Structure of InterpretationJournal of Nietzsche Studies 46 (2): 239-247. 2015.ABSTRACT In this article, I consider how Nietzsche's history of morality in On the Genealogy of Morality is relevant to his critique of morality. I argue that, on Nietzsche's view, morality's history is a guide to whether and where we should expect to find coherence in our current moral practice. It helps us “structure our interpretation” of morality. History is relevant to critique because it reveals that morality is unlikely to have the kind of coherence required by many of its defenders. Afte…Read more
Oxford, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Social and Political Philosophy |
Philosophy of Social Science |
19th Century German Philosophy |