•  34
    The Predicament That Wasn’t: A Reply to Benatar
    Philosophical Papers 49 (3): 457-484. 2020.
    In his recent book The Human Predicament, David Benatar describes the human condition as a tragic predicament, and the upshot is that we ought to refrain from having children and adopt an attitude...
  •  5
    Beyond Gray Hair and Wrinkles
    The Philosophers' Magazine 91 84-88. 2020.
  •  66
    Living well
    Think 13 (38): 13-23. 2014.
    What is living well? We describe two contrasting lives and ask whether one is better lived than the other. Many philosophers, among them Susan Wolf, Richard Kraut and Stephen Darwall would say so. We criticize their position, which views certain activities as intrinsically more worthy than others. Instead, we conclude that persons are living well if they act morally and find long-term satisfaction, regardless of the pursuits they choose
  •  48
    Hedonism and the Good Life
    Journal of Value Inquiry 54 (1): 21-40. 2020.
  •  6
    The Myth of the Moral Brain (review)
    The European Legacy 24 (2): 251-253. 2018.
  •  28
    Happiness and Goodness: Philosophical Refl ections on Living Well
    with Steven M. Cahn and Robert Talisse
    Cambridge University Press. 2015.
    How should we evaluate the success of each person's life? Countering the prevalent philosophical perspective on the subject, Steven M. Cahn and Christine Vitrano defend the view that our well-being is dependent not on particular activities, accomplishments, or awards but on finding personal satisfaction while treating others with due concern. The authors suggest that moral behavior is not necessary for happiness and does not ensure it. Yet they also argue that morality and happiness are needed f…Read more
  •  6
    Midlife: A Philosophy Guide (review)
    The Philosophers' Magazine 81 115-116. 2018.
  •  32
    The value of unhappiness
    Think 15 (44): 29-40. 2016.
  •  14
    Reply to loxterkamp
    Think 16 (45): 51-52. 2017.
  •  24
    Living well
    Think 13 (38): 13-23. 2014.
  •  206
    Meaningful lives?
    Ratio 26 (1): 79-90. 2012.
    Contemporary ethical theorists have sought criteria to identify meaningful lives. A central issue that divides accounts is whether the concept of meaningfulness rests on objective values. My own view is that each side in the controversy is partially right and partially wrong. I believe objective values are needed for the concept of a meaningful life but that no successful account of such values has yet been offered. Lacking such an account, the concept of a meaningful life should be replaced by …Read more
  •  36
    Yuck! The Nature and Moral Significance of Disgust (review)
    Philosophical Psychology 26 (5): 769-772. 2013.
    No abstract
  •  4
    Happiness and morality
    In Steven M. Cahn (ed.), Exploring Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology, Oxford University Press. 2008.
  •  21
    Thieves of Virtue: When Bioethics Stole Medicine
    The European Legacy 21 (4): 458-459. 2016.
  •  18
    Progress in Bioethics: Science, Policy, and Politics
    The European Legacy 19 (4): 533-534. 2014.
  •  143
    The subjectivity of happiness
    Journal of Value Inquiry 44 (1): 47-54. 2010.
  •  46
    Love and Resilience
    Ethical Perspectives 20 (4): 591-604. 2013.
    Recent studies indicate that many people demonstrate resilience to the loss of a spouse, and are able to return fairly quickly to their normal levels of subjective well-being. The question I address here is whether these empirical findings support scepticism about the importance of our loved ones. I argue that we have reason to doubt the correlation posited by the sceptic between the importance of a person’s spouse and his or her reaction to spousal loss. Extreme devastation may not be a sign of…Read more
  •  51
    What Does the Shape of a Life Tell Us About Its Value
    Journal of Value Inquiry 51 (3): 563-575. 2017.
  •  34
    Book review (review)
    Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 28 (1): 83-86. 2007.
  •  175
    Happiness: classic and contemporary readings in philosophy (edited book)
    Oxford University Press. 2007.
    This book will be the first collection of classic and contemporary readings devoted to the subject of happiness. Part I will include classic readings from Plato to Sartre, thus providing a brief tour of the most important theories of ethics and emphasizing their approaches to happiness. Part II will be devoted to the work of contemporary theorists who have sought to grasp the concept of happiness from a variety of perspectives.
  •  139
    Choosing the Experience Machine
    Philosophy in the Contemporary World 20 (1): 52-58. 2013.
    In the decades since Robert Nozick posed his now famous thought experiment involving the experience machine, philosophers have taken his treatment as conclusive. A review of the literature finds almost no one who has argued that people would choose the experience machine. To find such unanunity among philosophers is unexpected. But the situation is especially surprising because Nozick's conclusion appears mistaken. In support of this view, we offer three different sorts of reasons why persons wo…Read more
  • Book reviews (review)
    with Greg Andonian, Jared Babin, Nataša Bakić-Mirić, Charlotte A. Berkowitz, Michael Burgess, Victor Castellani, Camelia Mihaela Cmeciu, Doina Cmeciu, John Danvers, Eberhard Eichenhofer, Hall Gardner, Stefan Höjelid, Jeff Horn, Irving Louis Horowitz, Daniel D. Hutto, Javier Kalhat, Tommi Lehtonen, David W. Lovell, John Milfull, Neil Morpeth, Jeff Noonan, Jean Pedersen, Joyce Senders Pedersen, Mia Roth, Richard Schaefer, Arthur Shostak, Stanley Shostak, Gary Steiner, Paola S. Timiras, Barnard Turner, Alison Webster, and Fredric S. Zuckerman
    The European Legacy 14 (2): 209-248. 2009.
  •  2
    Book Reviews (review)
    with Doohwan Ahn, Sonia Arribas, Roman Bäcker, Sébastien Charles, Doina Cmeciu, Theodor Damian, Jens De Vleminck, Donald J. Dietrich, Daphna Erdinast-Vulcan, Guillaume Evrard, Francis A. Grabowski, Khalil Habib, H. Hazel Hahn, Jeff Horn, Marek Jeziński, Tommi Lehtonen, Yu Liu, Juliet Lodge, Suzanne Macalister, Theo Malekin, Bart Moore-Gilbert, Glenn W. Olsen, Bob Partridge, Brayton Polka, Francis D. Ra[Sbreve]Ka, Mia Roth, Mark Royce, Stanley Shostak, Jonathan Swarts, Andrew Vincent, Ann Ward, and Jonathan Warner
    The European Legacy 16 (1): 109-141. 2011.