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165Climate Change: Against DespairEthics and the Environment 19 (1): 31. 2014.In the face of accelerating climate change and the parlous state of its politics, despair is tempting. This paper analyses two manifestations of despair about climate change related to (1) the inefficacy of personal emissions reductions, and (2) the inability to make a difference to climate change through personal emissions reductions. On the back of an analysis of despair as a loss of hope, the paper argues that the judgements grounding each form of despair are unsound. The paper concludes with…Read more
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3Graduate Paper from the Joint Session 1996: Self-Respect and the Stepford WivesProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 97 (1): 325-330. 1997.Catriona McKinnon; Graduate Paper from the Joint Session 1996: Self-Respect and the Stepford Wives, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 97, Issue 1
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22Climate change creates unprecedented problems of intergenerational justice. What do members of the current generation owe to future generations in virtue of the contribution they are making to climate change? Providing important new insights within the theoretical framework of political liberalism, Climate Change and Future Justice presents arguments in three key areas: Mitigation: the current generation ought to adopt a strong precautionary principle in formulating climate change policy in orde…Read more
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9Toleration, Neutrality and Democracy (edited book)Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2003.This book brings together a group of international scholars, many of whom have already contributed to the debate on toleration, and who are offering fresh thoughts and approaches to it. The essays of this collection are written from a variety of perspectives: historical, analytical, normative, and legal. Yet, all authors share a concern with the sharpening of our understanding of the reasons for toleration as well as with making them relevant to the way in which we live with others in our modern…Read more
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1The Ethics of "Geoengineering" the Global Climate: Justice, Legitimacy and Governance (edited book)Routledge. 2020.In the face of limited time and escalating impacts, some scientists and politicians are talking about attempting "grand technological interventions" into the Earth’s basic physical and biological systems ("geoengineering") to combat global warming. Early ideas include spraying particles into the stratosphere to block some incoming sunlight, or "enhancing" natural biological systems to withdraw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a higher rate. Such technologies are highly speculative and scien…Read more
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66The Justice and Legitimacy of GeoengineeringCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 23 (5): 557-563. 2020.
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23The Panglossian politics of the geocliqueCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 23 (5): 584-599. 2020.
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58This is ethical theory * by Jan NarvesonAnalysis 71 (2): 397-399. 2011.(No abstract is available for this citation)
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20Desire-frustration and moral sympathyAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 80 (4). 2002.This Article does not have an abstract
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79The Ethics of Climate Governance (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2015.A major collection of innovative new work by emerging and established scholars on the critical topic of ethics for climate governance, offering a wholly original proposal for reform to climate governance.
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2Toleration as Recognition (review)Philosophical Quarterly 55 (219): 378-380. 2005.In this 2002 book, Anna Elisabetta Galeotti examines the most intractable problems which toleration encounters and argues that what is really at stake is not religious or moral disagreement but the unequal status of different social groups. Liberal theories of toleration fail to grasp this and consequently come up with normative solutions that are inadequate when confronted with controversial cases. Galeotti proposes, as an alternative, toleration as recognition, which addresses the problem of a…Read more
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40Vertical Toleration as a Liberal IdeaSocial Theory and Practice 39 (1): 1-18. 2013.This paper argues that the direct, vertical toleration of certain types of citizen by the Rawlsian liberal state is appropriate and required in circumstances in which these types of citizen pose a threat to the stability of the state. By countering the claim that vertical toleration is redundant given a commitment to the Rawlsian version of the liberal democratic ideal, and by articulating a version of that ideal that shows this claim to be false, the paper reaffirms the centrality of vertical t…Read more
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7Graduate Paper from the Joint Session 1996: Self-Respect and the Stepford WivesProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 97 (1): 325-330. 1997.Catriona McKinnon; Graduate Paper from the Joint Session 1996: Self-Respect and the Stepford Wives, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 97, Issue 1
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25Introduction: Climate change and liberal prioritiesCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 14 (2): 91-97. 2011.Is liberalism adaptable enough to the ecological agenda to deal satisfactorily with the challenges of anthropogenic climate change while leaving its normative foundations intact? Compatibilists answer yes; incompatibilists say no. Comparing such answers, this article argues that it is not discrete liberal principles which impede adapatability, so much as the constructivist model (exemplified in Rawls) of what counts as a valid normative principle. Constructivism has both normative and ontologica…Read more
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23Cosmopolitan hopeIn Gillian Brock & Harry Brighouse (eds.), The Political Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism, Cambridge University Press. pp. 243--249. 2005.
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244Should we tolerate holocaust denial?Res Publica 13 (1): 9-28. 2006.Holocaust denial (HD) is the activity of denying the occurrence of key events and processes which constitute the Holocaust. Should it be tolerated? HD brings into particularly sharp focus many difficult questions faced by defenders of content-neutral liberal principles protecting freedom of expression. I argue that there are insufficient grounds for the legal prohibition of HD, but that society has the right and the duty to expel and exclude deniers from the Academy.
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81Introduction: Beyond toleration?Res Publica 7 (3): 223-230. 2001.Although tolerance is widely regarded as a virtue of both individuals and groups that modern democratic and multiculturalist societies cannot do without, there is still much disagreement among political thinkers as to what tolerance demands, or what can be done to create and sustain a culture of tolerance. The philosophical literature on toleration contains three main strands. (1) An agreement that a tolerant society is more than a modus vivendi; (2) discussion of the proper object(s) of tolerat…Read more
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159Runaway climate change: A justice-based case for precautionsJournal of Social Philosophy 40 (2): 187-203. 2009.From the paper's conclusion: "In conclusion, I have distinguished between two Rawlsian arguments for the SPP [strong precautionary principle] with respect to CCCs [climate change catastrophes]. Although both are persuasive, ultimately the “unbear-able strains” argument provides the most powerful categorical grounds for takingprecautionary action against CCCs. Overall, I have argued that the nature of CCCs requires us to take drastic precautions against further CC that could lead us to passthe ti…Read more
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64Democracy, Equality and TolerationThe Journal of Ethics 11 (2): 125-146. 2007.In this paper I comment on a recent “letter” by Burleigh Wilkins addressed to nascent egalitarian democracies which offers advice on the achievement of religious toleration. I argue that while Wilkins’ advice is sound as far as it goes, it is nevertheless underdeveloped insofar as his letter fails to distinguish two competing conceptions of toleration – liberal-pluralist and republican-secularist – both of which are consistent with the advice he offers, but each of which yields very different po…Read more
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180Issues in Political Theory (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2008.This is a unique political theory textbook that invites students to apply the concepts they encounter to real world politics. Each chapter includes a 2,000 word case study to highlight the theories that have been discussed.
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90Basic income, self-respect and reciprocityJournal of Applied Philosophy 20 (2). 2003.Why should I let the toad work Squat on my life? Can’t I use my wit as a pitchfork And drive the brute off? Six days of the week it soils With its sickening poison — Just for paying a few bills! That's out of proportion. From Philip Larkin, ‘Toads’. ABSTRACT This paper mounts a Rawlsian argument for unconditional basic income on the grounds that it maximins the distribution of income and wealth understood as a social basis of self‐respect. The most important objection to this argument available …Read more
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University of ReadingRegular Faculty