Fordham University
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 2003
Spokane, Washington, United States of America
  • Introduction
    with Joseph Petek
    Process Studies 52 (2): 157-158. 2023.
  •  230
    A primary contribution of this essay is to provide a survey of the human and environmental impacts of livestock production. We will find that the mass consumption of animals is a primary reason why humans are hungry, fat, or sick and is a leading cause behind the depletion and pollution of waterways, the degradation and deforestation of the land, the extinction of species, and the warming of the planet. Recognizing these harms, this essay will consider various solutions being proposed to “shrink…Read more
  •  1
    Notes on Contributors
    with Joseph Petek
    In Brian G. Henning & Joseph Petek (eds.), Whitehead at Harvard, 1924–1925, Edinburgh University Press. pp. 357-360. 2019.
  • Index
    with Joseph Petek
    In Brian G. Henning & Joseph Petek (eds.), Whitehead at Harvard, 1924–1925, Edinburgh University Press. pp. 361-378. 2019.
  •  33
    ABSTRACT My aim in this article is twofold. First, I hope to show that, despite its seeming rehabilitation, metaphysics as systematic, speculative philosophy is no less threatened. Second, I will argue that metaphysics as systematic, speculative philosophy is ultimately revisable. That is, metaphysics is not the aim at a closed system of apodictic truths but, rather, an open-ended, fallibilistic pursuit of ever-more-adequate accounts of reality. Specifically, building on the work of Charles Sand…Read more
  • Preface : a brief history of the critical edition of Whitehead
    In Brian G. Henning & Joseph Petek (eds.), Whitehead at Harvard, 1924–1925, Edinburgh University Press. 2019.
  •  8
    Whitehead at Harvard, 1924–1925 (edited book)
    with Joseph Petek
    Edinburgh University Press. 2019.
    In these newly commissioned essays, leading Whitehead scholars ask a range of important questions about Whitehead's first year of philosophy lectures. Do these lectures challenge or confirm previous understandings of Whitehead's published works? What is revealed about the development of Whitehead's thought in the crucial period after London but before the publication of Science and the Modern World? What should we make of concepts and terms that were introduced in these lectures but were never i…Read more
  •  16
    Climate Change Ethics and the Non-Human World (edited book)
    with Zack Walsh
    Routledge. 2020.
    This book examines from different perspectives the moral significance of non-human members of the biotic community and their omission from climate ethics literature. The complexity of life in an age of rapid climate change demands the development of moral frameworks that recognize and respect the dignity and agency of both human and non-human organisms. Despite decades of careful work in non-anthropocentric approaches to environmental ethics, recent anthologies on climate ethics have largely omi…Read more
  •  10
    Thinking with Whitehead and the American Pragmatists: Experience and Reality (edited book)
    with William T. Myers and Joseph David John
    Lexington Books. 2015.
    Despite there being deep lines of convergence between the philosophies of Alfred North Whitehead, C. S. Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and other classical American philosophers, it remains an open question whether Whitehead is a pragmatist, and conversation between pragmatists and Whitehead scholars have been limited. Indeed, it is difficult to find an anthology of classical American philosophy that includes Whitehead’s writings. These camps began separately, and so they remain. This volume …Read more
  •  16
    Process and Morality
    In Weber (ed.), Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought, De Gruyter. pp. 198-206. 2008.
    Whereas traditional ethical theories limit morality to the relations between human beings, Whitehead seems committed to a fundamentally different model. Yet despite the longstanding consensus among process scholars that Whitehead’s philosophy of organism provides an ideal ground for a rich moral philosophy, particularly one encompassing ecological concerns, there is a relative dearth of scholarship on the topic. What is more, among those who do engage in such scholarship, there seems to be no ag…Read more
  •  30
    Moral Vegetarianism
    Process Studies 45 (2): 236-249. 2016.
    In this article the work of a recent critic of moral vegetarianism (and veganism) is analyzed: Andrew F. Smith. Smith s work is significant for process thinkers who defend moral vegetarianism for various reasons. One of these is that he forces process thinkers to consider in more depth Whitehead’s view of plant ontology; another is that Smith adds insightfully to the conversation within process thought regarding the relationship between claims regarding animal rights and the ecoholistic concerns…Read more
  •  36
    A central concern of nearly every environmental ethic is its desire to extend the scope of direct moral concern beyond human beings to plants, nonhuman animals, and the systems of which they are a part. Although nearly all environmental philosophies have long since rejected modernity’s conception of individuals as isolated and independent substances, few have replaced this worldview with an alternative that is adequate to the organic, processive world in which we find ourselves. In this context,…Read more
  •  28
    Radical Axiology (review)
    Newsletter of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy 33 (101): 42-45. 2005.
  •  9
    Making Morality (review)
    Newsletter of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy 31 (96): 21-23. 2003.
  •  37
    On the Possibility of a Whiteheadian Aesthetics of Morals
    Process Studies 31 (2): 97-114. 2002.
    Process philosophy has traditionally focused predominantly on ontology and cosmology. However, in the closing decades of the twentieth century, the scope of its application broadened significantly to include areas such as theology, physics, biology, psychology, and even education. But, one area that was not so fortunate is ethics. Process philosophy, nonetheless, has the potential to make a unique contribution to the state of ethical theory, which, having the support of a process ontology, could…Read more
  •  40
    Perhaps more than any other aspect of his thought, Alfred North Whitehead’s rejection of the notion of “independent existence” or substance has been taken to define his philosophy of organism. Moreover, it is this rejection of substances which has been the source of some of the most significant objections to Whitehead’s thought. Many commentators often indicate sympathy with Whitehead’s project but ask, if the world is composed exclusively of microscopic events which neither endure nor have hist…Read more
  •  42
    Although debates over carbon taxes and trading schemes, over carbon offsets and compact fluorescents are important, our efforts to address the environmental challenges that we face will fall short unless and until we also set about the difficult work of reconceiving who we are and how we are related to our processive cosmos. What is needed, I argue, are new ways of thinking and acting grounded in new ways of understanding ourselves and our relationship to the world, ways of understanding that re…Read more
  •  39
    Representative Democracy (review)
    Review of Metaphysics 61 (1): 164-166. 2007.
  •  359
    Is There an Ethics of Creativity?
    Chromatikon 2 161-173. 2006.
    Is there an ethics of creativity? Though this question appears innocent enough, it proves surprisingly difficult to answer. A survey of the literature on the topic reveals that process ethics has variously been categorized as or seen as compatible with: moral interest theory, ecological virtue ethics, utilitarianism, Confucian virtue ethics, and even deontology. What can account for such divergent and even contradictory conclusions? On one level we might blame Whitehead, whose sporadic comments …Read more
  •  17
    Radical Axiology (review)
    Newsletter of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy 33 (101): 42-45. 2005.
  •  20
    Making Morality (review)
    Newsletter of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy 31 (96): 21-23. 2003.