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28Making Morality IntelligiblePhilosophy 90 (3): 403-455. 2015.The demands of morality ought to be intelligible. However they are not alwaysreadilyintelligible. Thus it is easy to see why we need good sense and courage, and why we should seek to live at peace with our neighbours. But moral necessity is not always that transparent. Furthermore the intelligibility we seek is perhaps not always of this kind. This paper illustrates these difficulties by considering certain basic and unshakable convictions we share about homicide and sexuality, two topics we ten…Read more
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C. B. Macpherson: "The Rise and Fall of Economic Justice" (review)Journal of Applied Philosophy 5 (1): 118. 1988.
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11Three sceptical thoughts about rights in employmentIn Alan R. Malachowski (ed.), Business Ethics: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management, Routledge. pp. 208. 2001.
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47The Bad News of the GospelPhilosophy 86 (2): 249-291. 2011.This article discusses Elizabeth Anscombe's faith and her concept of faith, and the bearing of this on what it is for belief to be reasonable. Reasonableness requires that we make a rough distinction between what can and cannot be taken seriously. At the margin we will rightly be influenced by thinkers such as Anscombe who were well able to appreciate the philosophical consensus but were also prepared to disturb it. She disturbed it in a particular way: by asserting Christian teachings robustly …Read more
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12Does teaching by cases mislead us about morality?Journal of Medical Ethics 22 (1): 46-52. 1996.Those who teach or are taught medical ethics with a heavy reliance on case studies should be warned first of all that the practice tends to exaggerate the degree to which morality is controversial. Secondly, they ought to realise that it is often quite unclear what problems count as moral problems. Thirdly, they will need to bear in mind that there may be -- and presumably are -- limits to what we may regard as open to discussion. It would be quite superficial to assume that ethics teachers, goi…Read more
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100Was Mill a Utilitarian?Utilitas 10 (1): 33. 1998.Mill was receptive to all sorts of ideas, both plausible and implausible, which did not fit well with utilitarianism. He was, for example, inclined to think of equality, not just pleasure, as. He was able to think of himself as a utilitarian only by grossly expanding that notion to cover any doctrine which did not entirely rely, without the possibility of further explanation, on or God's commands. It is even doubtful whether he was a consequentialist in any sense. Mill's account of moral obligat…Read more
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22Justice and Jobs: Three Sceptical Thoughts about Rights in EmploymentJournal of Applied Philosophy 11 (1): 71-78. 1994.ABSTRACT Are there specific moral rights connected with employment? Three putative rights are considered: The right to work, the right of the most competent to be chosen, and the right to equal pay for work of equal value. It is very commonly assumed that we enjoy one or another of these rights. This paper argues that none of these rights exists. After all, what would it be to infringe someone's right to work? And is not employment sometimes in someone's gift? Again, if two people are doing work…Read more
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4Modern virtue ethicsIn Timothy Chappell (ed.), Values and Virtues: Aristotelianism in Contemporary Ethics, Oxford University Press. 2006.
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28Dodgy passport, fruitless journey (review)Philosophy 83 (4): 525-555. 2008.Since critical standards impose restraints, inappropriate standards can over-restrain. Might there then be claims we can only assess satisfactorily with the aid of a less restrictive and detached approach than is current among philosophers of the present day? This article takes up a particular suggestion, put forward by John Cottingham, that this is indeed the case -- that there are regions of thought, particularly in regard to religion, which we can only explore with the aid of emotional sensit…Read more
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39Death sentencesPhilosophy 81 (1): 5-32. 2006.An analysis of the doctrine of the sanctity of life, and a defence of that doctrine against some trends in current ‘bioethics’, particularly as exemplified in Jeff McMahan's book ‘The Ethics of Killing’. (Published Online February 27 2006).
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63Good-bye to the problem of evil, hello to the problem of veracityReligious Studies 37 (4): 373-396. 2001.I start from Mill's words about Mansel and the problem of evil. In this dispute Mansel has generally been thought to have come off worst. However, Mansel was clearly right to this extent: that what would make a man a good man would not be the same as what made God good. This is because, quite generally, what makes something good of its kind, where we can talk about goodness at all, varies with the kind. With Aristotle we must say: the criteria are fixed by the thing's ergon, or at least by somet…Read more
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36Wittgenstein's Theory of KnowledgeRoyal Institute of Philosophy Lectures 7 246-267. 1973.I shall start by considering the apparently paradoxical doctrines that Wittgenstein put forward about knowledge: they show how the concept of knowledge is, as he says, specialized. This is not, as I shall show, a very important issue in itself, but it leads on to other points, of more interest: how it comes about, for example, that not all corrections of our beliefs are on the same level. I shall then discuss the idea that we inherit a certain picture of the world that forms the background of ou…Read more
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26A Wittgenstein workbook (edited book)University of California Press. 1970.Preface The material in this booklet has been used to introduce undergraduates in their final year to the philosophy of Wittgenstein. ...
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8Sisterly Assistance and the Feminism of AngerCogito 7 (1): 58-62. 1993.One can in all innocence help people who are not victims of injustice. In this essay I argue that women can attempt to provide better opportunities for women in just this spirit, in the way that the members of a trade union will join to assist one another. The observance of this distinction will make it easier for us calmly to assess whether women are on the whole unjustly treated by comparison with men. The word “sexism” is a campaign word that should not be allowed to do our thinking for u…Read more
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10Wittgenstein's Theory of KnowledgeRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 7 246-267. 1973.I shall start by considering the apparently paradoxical doctrines that Wittgenstein put forward about knowledge: they show how the concept of knowledge is, as he says, ‘specialized’. This is not, as I shall show, a very important issue in itself, but it leads on to other points, of more interest: how it comes about, for example, that ‘not all corrections of our beliefs are on the same level’. I shall then discuss the idea that we inherit a certain picture of the world that forms the background o…Read more
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33The Doctor of Philosophy Will See You NowRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 65 177-214. 2009.Papers about philosophy, as distinct from papers within it, are like homeopathic medicines – thin in content. We can only hope to provide some substance if we confine ourselves to some particular aspect. The aspect I have chosen to discuss is this. What hope should we have of finding from within this rather curious and academic subject of ours a help in the affairs of life? Could we expect a doctor of philosophy to give practical advice, rather like a medical doctor?
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Action |
Applied Ethics |