University of Notre Dame
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 1981
New York City, New York, United States of America
  •  238
    Moral relativism
    Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2015.
    Moral relativism is an important topic in metaethics. It is also widely discussed outside philosophy (for example, by political and religious leaders), and it is controversial among philosophers and nonphilosophers alike. This is perhaps not surprising in view of recent evidence that people's intuitions about moral relativism vary widely. Though many philosophers are quite critical of moral relativism, there are several contemporary philosophers who defend forms of it. These include such promine…Read more
  •  161
    Two concepts of the given in C. I. Lewis: Realism and foundationalism
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 27 (4): 573-590. 1989.
    It is usually assumed that what Lewis says about the given in Mind and the World-Order (MWO) and An Analysis of Knowledge and Valuation (AKV) is essentially the same, and that both works are defenses of foundationalism. However, this assumption faces two problems: first, it is difficult to bring Lewis's diverse remarks on the given into coherence, especially when those in MWO are compared with those in AKV; and second, though AKV is a defense of foundationalism, there is much in MWO that can be …Read more
  •  158
    Moral dilemmas (edited book)
    Oxford Uiversity Press. 1987.
    The essays in this volume illuminate a central topic in ethical theory: moral dilemmas. Some contemporary philosophers dispute the traditional view that a true moral dilemma -- a situation in which a person has two irreconcilable moral duties -- cannot exist. This collection provides the historical background to the ongoing debate with selections from Kant, Mill, Bradley, and Ross. The best recent work on the question is represented in essays by Donagan, Foot, Hare, Marcus, Nagel, van Fraassen, …Read more
  •  143
    Virtue and nature
    Social Philosophy and Policy 25 (1): 28-55. 2008.
    The Neo-Aristotelian ethical naturalism of Philippa Foot and Rosalind Hursthouse purports to establish a naturalistic criterion for the virtues. Specifically, by developing a parallel between the natural ends of nonhuman animals and the natural ends of human beings, they argue that character traits are justified as virtues by the extent to which they promote and do not inhibit natural ends such as self-preservation, reproduction, and the well-being of one’s social group. I argue that the approac…Read more
  •  129
    Medical Analogies in Buddhist and Hellenistic Thought: Tranquillity and Anger
    Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 66 11-33. 2010.
    Medical analogies are commonly invoked in both Indian Buddhist dharma and Hellenistic philosophy. In the Pāli Canon, nirvana (or, in Pāli,nibbāna) is depicted as a form of health, and the Buddha is portrayed as a doctor who helps us attain it. Much later in the tradition, Śāntideva described the Buddha’s teaching as ‘the sole medicine for the ailments of the world, the mine of all success and happiness.’ Cicero expressed the view of many Hellenistic philosophers when he said that philosophy is ‘…Read more
  •  117
    Practical Identities and Autonomy: Korsgaard’s Reformation of Kant’s Moral Philosophy
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 64 (3): 546-570. 2002.
    Kant has long been taxed with an inability to explain the detailed normative content of our lives by making universalizability the sole arbiter of our values. Korsgaard addresses one form of this critique by defending a Kantian theory amended by a seemingly attractive conception of practical identities. Identities are dependent on the contingent circumstances of each person's world. Hence, obligations issuing from them differ from Kantian moral obligations in not applying to all persons. Still, …Read more
  •  101
    C. I. Lewis's Critique of Foundationalism in Mind and the World-Order
    Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 20 (3). 1984.
  •  99
    Philosophy of the Buddha is a philosophical introduction to the teaching of the Buddha. It carefully guides readers through the basic ideas and practices of the Buddha, including kamma , rebirth, the not-self doctrine, the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, ethics, meditation, non-attachment, and Nibbâna . The book includes an account of the life of the Buddha as well as comparisons of his teaching with practical and theoretical aspects of some Western philosophical outlooks, both ancient an…Read more
  •  79
    Our lives are such that moral wrongdoing is sometimes inescapable for us. We have moral responsibilities to persons which may conflict and which it is wrong to violate even when they do conflict. Christopher W. Gowans argues that we must accept this conclusion if we are to make sense of our moral experience and the way in which persons are valuable to us. In defending this position, he critically examines the recent moral dilemmas debate. He maintains that what is important in this debate is not…Read more
  •  71
    Can moral disagreements be rationally resolved? Can universal human rights be defended in face of moral disagreements? The problem of moral disagreement is one of the central problems in moral thinking. It also provides a stimulating stepping-stone to some of the perennial problems of philosophy, such as relativism, scepticism, and objectivity. _Moral Disagreements_ is the first anthology to bring together classic and contemporary readings on this key topic. Clearly divided into five parts; The …Read more
  •  60
    Moral Dilemmas and Prescriptivism
    American Philosophical Quarterly 26 (3). 1989.
    The purpose of this paper is to establish that, For an important class of moral judgments, The claim that there are moral dilemmas is false. The judgments are the judgments an agent committed to morality makes as the conclusion of deliberation about what, All things considered, He or she morally ought to do in some situation. The argument is that these judgments are prescriptive, In the sense of implying an intention to act, And that it is implausible to think there are dilemmas involving such p…Read more
  •  51
    Moral Virtue and the Epistemology of Disagreement
    Philosophical Topics 38 (2): 39-57. 2010.
    The paper is a defense of the thesis that there are situations in which morally virtuous persons who are epistemic peers may disagree about what to do without either person being rationally required to change his or her judgment (a version of the Steadfast position in the epistemology of disagreement debate). The argument is based in part on similarities between decisions of virtuous agents and other practical decisions such as a baseball manager’s decision to change pitchers during a game. In b…Read more
  •  46
    An Introduction to Kant’s Moral Philosophy (review)
    International Philosophical Quarterly 50 (4): 513-518. 2010.
  •  43
    Book reviews (review)
    with Zain Ali, Max Charlesworth, Hans-Georg Moeller, Shalom Goldman, Dmitry A. Olshansky, Sor-Hoon Tan, and Patrick Hutchings
    Sophia 44 (2): 71-87. 2005.
  •  37
    Virtue and Nature
    Social Philosophy and Policy 25 (1): 28-55. 2008.
    The Neo-Aristotelian ethical naturalism of Philippa Foot and Rosalind Hursthouse purports to establish a naturalistic criterion for the virtues. Specifically, by developing a parallel between the natural ends of nonhuman animals and the natural ends of human beings, they argue that character traits are justified as virtues by the extent to which they promote and do not inhibit natural ends such as self-preservation, reproduction, and the well-being of one’s social group. I argue that the approac…Read more
  •  33
    Moral Relevance and Moral Conflict, by James D. Wallace (review)
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 51 (2): 478-481. 1991.
  •  33
    Intuition and Argument in Philosophy
    International Philosophical Quarterly 24 (2): 125-140. 1984.
  •  31
    Frege (review)
    International Philosophical Quarterly 23 (1): 99-101. 1983.
  •  28
    Beyond Objectivism and Relativism (review)
    International Philosophical Quarterly 25 (2): 207-211. 1985.
  •  26
    Kant’s Impure Ethics
    International Philosophical Quarterly 41 (3): 363-369. 2001.
  •  26
    Morality and Moral Theory (review)
    International Philosophical Quarterly 34 (3): 380-382. 1994.
  •  24
    Integrity in the corporation: The plight of corporate product advocates (review)
    Journal of Business Ethics 3 (1). 1984.
    The integrity of corporate product advocates (advertisers and salespersons) is questionable for the same reason the integrity of lawyers is questionable. In both cases the requirements of a professional role inevitably lead to forms of deception. However, the integrity of lawyers has been taken to be a more serious issue than the integrity of product advocates. I consider why this is so, and I conclude that we should pay more attention to the integrity issue in the corporate case. In addition, I…Read more