•  244
    Should 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.
  •  180
    Issues 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.
  •  164
    Climate Change: Against Despair
    Ethics 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
  •  159
    Runaway climate change: A justice-based case for precautions
    Journal 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
  •  105
    Should We Tolerate Climate Change Denial?
    Midwest Studies in Philosophy 40 (1): 205-216. 2016.
  •  90
    Basic income, self-respect and reciprocity
    Journal 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
  •  81
    Introduction: Beyond toleration?
    with Dario Castiglione
    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
  •  79
    The 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.
  •  66
    The Justice and Legitimacy of Geoengineering
    Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 23 (5): 557-563. 2020.
  •  63
    Democracy, Equality and Toleration
    The 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
  •  61
    Exclusion rules and self-respect
    Journal of Value Inquiry 34 (4): 491-505. 2000.
  •  58
    This is ethical theory * by Jan Narveson
    Analysis 71 (2): 397-399. 2011.
    (No abstract is available for this citation)
  •  56
    Endangering humanity: an international crime?
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 47 (2-3): 395-415. 2017.
    In the Anthropocene, human beings are capable of bringing about globally catastrophic outcomes that could damage conditions for present and future human life on Earth in unprecedented ways. This paper argues that the scale and severity of these dangers justifies a new international criminal offence of ‘postericide’ that would protect present and future people against wrongfully created dangers of near extinction. Postericide is committed by intentional or reckless systematic conduct that is fit …Read more
  •  48
    Climate change justice: getting motivated in the last chance saloon
    Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 14 (2): 195-213. 2011.
    A key reason for pessimism with respect to greenhouse gas emissions reduction relates to the ?motivation problem?, whereby those who could make the biggest difference prima facie have the least incentive to act because they are most able to adapt: how can we motivate such people (and thereby everyone else) to accept, indeed to initiate, the changes to their lifestyles that are required for effective emissions reductions? This paper offers an account inspired by Rawls of the good of membership of…Read more
  •  40
    Vertical Toleration as a Liberal Idea
    Social 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
  •  37
    Self-respect and the stepford wives
    Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 97 (3). 1997.
  •  25
    Introduction: Climate change and liberal priorities
    Critical 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
  •  23
    Cosmopolitan hope
    In Gillian Brock & Harry Brighouse (eds.), The Political Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism, Cambridge University Press. pp. 243--249. 2005.
  •  23
    The Panglossian politics of the geoclique
    Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 23 (5): 584-599. 2020.
  •  22
    Climate 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
  •  20
  •  20
    Desire-frustration and moral sympathy
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 80 (4). 2002.
    This Article does not have an abstract
  •  12
    Why should we be tolerant? What does it mean to ‘live and let live’? What ought to be tolerated and what not? Catriona McKinnon presents a comprehensive, yet accessible introduction to toleration in her new book. Divided into two parts, the first clearly introduces and assesses the major theoretical accounts of toleration, examining it in light of challenges from scepticism, value pluralism and reasonableness. The second part applies the theories of toleration to contemporary debates such as fem…Read more
  •  9
    Toleration, Neutrality and Democracy (edited book)
    with Dario Castiglione
    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
  •  7
    Graduate Paper from the Joint Session 1996: Self-Respect and the Stepford Wives
    Proceedings 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
  •  3
    Graduate Paper from the Joint Session 1996: Self-Respect and the Stepford Wives
    Proceedings 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