•  173
    Depression and motivation
    Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 12 (4): 615-635. 2013.
    Among the characteristic features of depression is a diminishment in or lack of action and motivation. In this paper, I consider a dominant philosophical account which purports to explain this lack of action or motivation. This approach comes in different versions but a common theme is, I argue, an over reliance on psychologistic assumptions about action–explanation and the nature of motivation. As a corrective I consider an alternative view that gives a prominent place to the body in motivation…Read more
  •  108
    Particularism, perception and judgement
    Acta Analytica 21 (2): 12-29. 2006.
    According to the most detailed articulation and defence of moral particularism, it is a metaphysical doctrine about the nature of reasons. This paper addresses aspects of particularist epistemology. In rejecting the existence and efficacy of principles in moral thinking and reasoning particularists typically appeal to a theory of moral knowledge which operates with a ‘perceptual’ metaphor. This is problematic. Holism about valence can give rise to a moral epistemology that is a metaethical varie…Read more
  •  62
    Analogy in moral deliberation: the role of imagination and theory in ethics
    Journal of Medical Ethics 28 (4): 244-248. 2002.
    This paper develops themes addressed in an article by Eric Wiland in the Journal of Medical Ethics 2000;26:466–8, where he aims to contribute to the debate concerning the moral status of abortion, and to emphasise the importance of analogies in moral argument. In the present paper I try to secure more firmly a novel understanding of why analogy is an essential component in the attempt to justify moral beliefs. I seek to show how analogical argument both encapsulates and exercises the notions of …Read more
  •  57
    Book review of Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s The Roots of Morality: Pennsylvania University Press, 2008 (review)
    Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 10 (3): 419-422. 2011.
    Book review of Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s The Roots of Morality Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-4 DOI 10.1007/s11097-011-9206-2 Authors Benedict Smith, Department of Philosophy, Durham University, 50 Old Elvet, Durham, DH1 3HN UK Journal Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences Online ISSN 1572-8676 Print ISSN 1568-7759.
  •  50
    Traditional Moral Knowledge and Experience of the World
    Analyse & Kritik 30 (1): 139-155. 2008.
    MacIntyre shares with others, such as John McDowell, a broad commitment in moral epistemology to the centrality of tradition and both regard forms of enculturation as conditions of moral knowledge. Although MacIntyre is critical of the thought that moral reasons are available only to those whose experience of the world is conceptually articulated, he is sympathetic to the idea that the development of sub jectivity involves the capacity to appreciate external moral demands. This paper critically …Read more
  •  46
    Naturalism, Experience, and Hume’s ‘Science of Human Nature’
    International Journal of Philosophical Studies 24 (3): 310-323. 2016.
    A standard interpretation of Hume’s naturalism is that it paved the way for a scientistic and ‘disenchanted’ conception of the world. My aim in this paper is to show that this is a restrictive reading of Hume, and it obscures a different and profitable interpretation of what Humean naturalism amounts to. The standard interpretation implies that Hume’s ‘science of human nature’ was a reductive investigation into our psychology. But, as Hume explains, the subject matter of this science is not rest…Read more
  •  40
    What Mystery of Moral Experience?
    Journal of Value Inquiry 46 (2): 197-207. 2012.
  •  32
    Knowledge and the Justification of Values in Values-Based Medicine
    Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 15 (2): 97-105. 2008.
    This paper critically evaluates central themes of values-based medicine (VBM). First, I discuss the 'non-descriptivist' conception of value judgments at the heart of VBM. According to it, no inferences can rationally be drawn from factual criteria to value judgments and the inferences that are naturally formed are a matter of human psychology. I argue, however, that it is an essential feature of value judgments that they are themselves subject to normative assessment. This implies an important r…Read more
  •  20
    Reasons, Responsibility, and Fiction
    Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 13 (2): 161-166. 2006.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reasons, Responsibility, and FictionBenedict Smith (bio)Keywordsresponsibility, reflection, reasons, fictionCartwright's article considers two candidate theories of responsibility and examines their relative adequacy by assessing them in light of our reactions to a dramatic and horrifying set of circumstances. Cartwright initiates the dialectic by noting how our intuitions are in conflict. For instance, although we are instantly horr…Read more
  •  18
    Possible Worlds and Moral Philosophy
    Teorema: International Journal of Philosophy 20 (3): 41-50. 2001.
  •  12
    By explicitly addressing moral knowledge from a particularists perspective, this book can engage with an established and vibrant area of moral philosophy whilst making a distinctive and productive contribution to a relatively neglected dimension of it.
  •  9
    Hume on Belief and Vindicatory Explanations
    Philosophy 94 (2): 313-337. 2019.
    Hume's account of belief is understood to be inspired by allegedly incompatible motivations, one descriptive and expressing Hume's naturalism, the other normative and expressing Hume's epistemological aims. This understanding assumes a particular way in which these elements are distinct: an assumption that I dispute. I suggest that the explanatory-naturalistic aspects of Hume's account of belief are not incompatible with the normative-epistemological aspects. Rather, at least for some central ca…Read more
  • Reasons pre-service students choose to teach secondary social studies/social science
    with Kay E. Weller
    Journal of Social Studies Research 23 (2): 1-10. 1999.
  • Reasons Pre-service Teachers Choose Secondary Social Studies at Three Mid-West Institutions
    with Thomas G. Connors, Melinda Schoenfeldt, and Kay E. Weller
    Journal of Social Studies Research 24 (2): 39-48. 2000.
  • Negative Stereotyping In The Early American Geographies
    with J. W. Vining
    Journal of Social Studies Research 26 (1): 23-39. 2002.