•  8
    The Philosophy of Forgiveness is multi-dimensional and complex. As recent scholarly philosophical works on forgiveness illustrate, incorporating personal, relational, political, ethical, psychological, and religious dimensions into one consistent conception of “forgiveness” is difficult. As part of Vernon Press’s series on the Philosophy of Forgiveness, Explorations of Forgiveness: Personal, Relational, and Religious begins the task of creating a consistent multidimensional account of forgivenes…Read more
  •  3
    Supererogation and Forgiveness
    In David Heyd (ed.), Handbook of Supererogation, Springer Nature Singapore. pp. 199-219. 2023.
    Forgiveness is widely considered a paradigm of supererogation: it seems to be morally permissible without being obligatory, and it seems to be almost always admirable and praiseworthy. I want to show that the phenomenon is a bit more complicated, and that many instances are hard to describe as supererogatory. First, I will distinguish forgiveness from some other responses to the transgression (ignoring, excusing, letting go). Second, I will examine the philosophical debate over the question of w…Read more
  •  2
    ABSTRACT In a recent (2015) Bioethics editorial, Udo Schuklenk argues against allowing Canadian doctors to conscientiously object to any new euthanasia procedures approved by Parliament. In this he follows Julian Savulescu's 2006 BMJ paper which argued for the removal of the conscientious objection clause in the 1967 UK Abortion Act. Both authors advance powerful arguments based on the need for uniformity of service and on analogies with reprehensible kinds of personal exemption. In this article…Read more
  •  10
    Book reviews (review)
    with Aaron Cooley, Gerry Hough, James G. Murphy, and John McGuire
    International Journal of Philosophical Studies 16 (4): 607-628. 2008.
  •  4
    Biography and betrayal
    Zeitschrift Für Ethik Und Moralphilosophie 5 (1): 3-14. 2022.
    John Bayley was married to Iris Murdoch for 45 years. In the last few years of her life, Murdoch developed Alzheimer’s, and John Bayley wrote a memoir about their life together, including the difficulties of looking after her with the disease. Although the Memoir was generally well-received, some critics called the publication an act of betrayal, because of the intimacy of some of the revelations, because of the public reduction of a great mind to a sick old woman, and especially because of Murd…Read more
  •  13
    Teaching Medical Ethics through Medical Law in advance
    Teaching Philosophy. forthcoming.
    Medical ethics is normally taught in a combination of three ways: through discussions of normative theories and principles; through for-and-against debating of topics; or through case studies. I want to argue that a fourth approach might be better, and should be used more: teaching medical ethics through medical law. Medical law is already deeply imbued with ethical concepts, principles and reasons, and allows the discussion of ethics through the “back door,” as it were. The two greatest advanta…Read more
  •  8
    Love, Choice, and Taking Responsibility
    In Simon Cushing (ed.), New Philosophical Essays on Love and Loving, Palgrave-macmillan. pp. 87-100. 2021.
    There is a long-standing philosophical discussion about the relationship between love and choice. The most simplistic versions see love as something one “falls” into, without any choice at all. A more sophisticated account of love would accommodate some degree of indirect choice: I feel an initial interest, and choose to seek her out more. I can also choose to create and sustain the conditions that support love, for example, by avoiding infidelity and long commutes. However, such indirect choice…Read more
  •  19
    What if a friend asks me to assist their suicide?
    Bioethics 36 (2): 218-224. 2021.
    Bioethics, Volume 36, Issue 2, Page 218-224, February 2022.
  •  4
    Forgiveness is a perennially rich topic in philosophy. It gathers together questions of ethics as well as philosophy of mind, action and emotion; it has analytic and Continental slants, and an impo...
  •  18
    Ivan Ilych and Autobiographical Despair
    Philosophy and Literature 45 (1): 199-210. 2021.
    ARRAY
  •  11
    Forgiveness is a perennially rich topic in philosophy. It gathers together questions of ethics as well as philosophy of mind, action and emotion; it has analytic and Continental slants, and an impo...
  •  2
    Why Medical Ethics Should Not be Taught by Philosophers
    Discourse: Learning and Teaching in Philosophical and Religious Studies 5 (1): 50-63. 2005.
  •  2
    Cultivating Transferable Skills in Philosophy Undergraduates
    Discourse: Learning and Teaching in Philosophical and Religious Studies 1 (1): 39-51. 2001.
  •  2
    Reconceiving Medical Ethics (edited book)
    Bloomsbury Academic. 2012.
    This volume of original work comprises a modest challenge, sometimes direct, sometimes implicit, to the mainstream Anglo-American conception of the discipline of medical ethics. It does so not by trying to fill the gaps with exotic minority interest topics, but by re-examining some of the fundamental assumptions of the familiar philosophical arguments, and some of the basic situations that generate the issues. The most important such situation is the encounter between the doctor and the sufferin…Read more
  •  9
    Introduction to the Symposium on Existential Flourishing
    International Journal of Philosophical Studies 28 (2): 205-312. 2020.
    Volume 28, Issue 2, May 2020, Page 205-312.
  •  7
  •  15
    The Philosophy of Autobiography (edited book)
    University of Chicago Press. 2015.
    We are living through a boom in autobiographical writing. Every half-famous celebrity, every politician, every sports hero—even the non-famous, nowadays, pour out pages and pages, Facebook post after Facebook post, about themselves. Literary theorists have noticed, as the genres of “creative nonfiction” and “life writing” have found their purchase in the academy. And of course psychologists have long been interested in self-disclosure. But where have the philosophers been? With this volume, Chri…Read more
  •  18
    Special Issue on Recklessness and Negligence
    with Beatrice Krebs
    Criminal Law and Philosophy 14 (1): 5-8. 2020.
    This paper introduces the Special Issue on Recklessness and Negligence. It highlights the main issues and controversies that surround these concepts and then briefly introduces each of the papers that comprise the Special Issue.
  •  14
    Divorce, Disorientation, and Remarriage
    Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 23 (3-4): 531-544. 2020.
    This paper asks three inter-related questions, proceeding chronologically through a divorcee’s experience: is it responsible and rational to make an unconditional marital vow in the first place? does divorce break that unconditional marital vow? And the main question: can the divorcee make a second unconditional marital vow in all moral seriousness? To the last question I answer yes. I argue that the divorce process is so disorienting – to use Amy Harbin’s term – as to transform the divorcee and…Read more
  •  13
    Divorce, Disorientation, and Remarriage
    Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 23 (3-4): 531-544. 2020.
    This paper asks three inter-related questions, proceeding chronologically through a divorcee’s experience: is it responsible and rational to make an unconditional marital vow in the first place? does divorce break that unconditional marital vow? And the main question: can the divorcee make a second unconditional marital vow in all moral seriousness? To the last question I answer yes. I argue that the divorce process is so disorienting – to use Amy Harbin’s term – as to transform the divorcee and…Read more
  •  28
    Special Issue on Recklessness and Negligence
    with Beatrice Krebs
    Criminal Law and Philosophy 14 (1): 5-8. 2020.
    This paper introduces the Special Issue on Recklessness and Negligence. It highlights the main issues and controversies that surround these concepts and then briefly introduces each of the papers that comprise the Special Issue.
  •  23
    Divorce, Disorientation, and Remarriage
    Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 23 (3-4): 531-544. 2020.
    This paper asks three inter-related questions, proceeding chronologically through a divorcee’s experience: is it responsible and rational to make an unconditional marital vow in the first place? does divorce break that unconditional marital vow? And the main question: can the divorcee make a second unconditional marital vow in all moral seriousness? To the last question I answer yes. I argue that the divorce process is so disorienting – to use Amy Harbin’s term – as to transform the divorcee and…Read more
  •  14
    Selective Conscientious Objection in Healthcare
    The New Bioethics 25 (3): 236-247. 2019.
    Most discussions of conscientious objection in healthcare assume that the objection is universal: a doctor objects to all abortions. I want to investigate selective objections, where a doctor objec...
  •  17
    Volume 25, Issue 3, September 2019, Page 286-289.
  •  24
    Reckless Enabling
    Criminal Law and Philosophy 14 (1): 51-67. 2020.
    The 2016, the UK Supreme Court case of Jogee confirmed a long-standing convention in English law. In cases where D is assisting or encouraging P to commit an offence, D will only be liable as an accessory for that offence if she intentionally assists or encourages P and if she knows the essential features of the offence. In this paper, I discuss and develop some of the arguments from Sanford Kadish’s 1996 article “Reckless Complicity.” I argue that a special sub-category of complicity, namely ‘e…Read more
  •  6
    Moral Philosophy and the ‘Real World’
    Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis 31 (1): 21-30. 2011.
    Notoriously, most philosophers write for other philosophers. Most philosophy books are designed for students of philosophy, students who can be assumed to have signed up and remained in the subject voluntarily, and therefore to have a certain interest in the subject and a certain understanding of the point of it all. In this paper I want to consider the philosopher’s engagement with those who, living in the ‘real world’, have had neither interest in nor exposure to philosophy beyond the stereoty…Read more
  •  93
    Regret, Remorse and the Twilight Perspective
    International Journal of Philosophical Studies 25 (5): 624-634. 2017.
    I examine the ‘momentous’ choices that one makes early in life – about career or spouse, for example – and I ask what it means to regret such choices at the end of one’s life. I argue that such regrets are almost meaningless because of the difficulty of imaginatively accessing a much earlier self. I then contrast long-term regret to remorse, and argue that the two are qualitatively different experiences because remorse involves another person as victim.
  •  46
    Dementia, identity and the role of friends
    Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 21 (2): 255-264. 2018.
    Ronald Dworkin introduced the example of Margo, who was so severely demented that she could not recognise any family or friends, and could not remember anything of her life. At the same time, however, she seemed full of childish delight. Dworkin also imagines that, before her dementia, Margo signed an advance refusal of life-saving treatment. Now severely demented, she develops pneumonia, easy to treat, but lethal if untreated. Dworkin argues that the advance refusal ought to be heeded and Margo…Read more
  •  41
    Education, Despair and Morality: A Reply to Roberts
    Journal of Philosophy of Education 51 (1): 298-309. 2017.
    In a recent thought-provoking piece, Peter Roberts argues against the central role of happiness as a guiding concept in education, and argues for more attention to be paid to despair. This does not mean cultivating despair in young people, but allowing them to make sense of their own natural occasional despair, as well as the despair of others. I agree with Roberts about happiness, and about the need for more attention to despair, but I argue that focusing too much on despair is dangerous withou…Read more