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8OversimplificationIn Robert Arp, Steven Barbone & Michael Bruce (eds.), Bad Arguments, Wiley. 2018-05-09.This chapter focuses on one of the common fallacies in Western philosophy, 'oversimplification'. The fallacy of oversimplification occurs when we attempt to make something appear simpler by ignoring certain relevant complexities. Sometimes oversimplification makes sense. The world can be a convoluted place, and we may need to ignore certain factors in order to get our heads around certain thorny ideas. But in other cases, oversimplification can be used deliberately to deceive or divide people. I…Read more
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3Mindless philosophers and overweight globs of grease : are droids capable of thought?In Jason T. Eberl & Kevin S. Decker (eds.), The Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy: You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned, Wiley-blackwell. 2015.The mechanical occupants of the Star Wars galaxy exhibit many human‐like characteristics. In Star Wars, the interactions that occur between droids share many of the features that are common in human relationships. Droids occasionally provide us with a jarring glimpse of their true mechanical natures. This chapter examines why droid intelligence is so important for the denizens of the Star Wars galaxy. Truth is, the treatment of droids is very different from that of humans and other sentient crea…Read more
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78A Legacy of Harm? Climate Change and the Carbon Cost of ProcreationJournal of Applied Philosophy 38 (5): 790-808. 2021.There is growing acknowledgement of a moral obligation to curb our personal carbon emissions. However, while much has been said regarding certain kinds of carbon- ntensive behaviours, the philosophical literature has – until only very recently – been largely silent regarding one of the worst things that a person can choose to do from a climate perspective: namely, have a child. I contend that procreation is an inessential high-emission activity – one that results in inordinately greater emission…Read more
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21One Song, Many Works: A Pluralist Ontology of RockContemporary Aesthetics 13. 2015.A number of attempts have been made to construct a plausible ontology of rock music. Each of these ontologies identifies a single type of ontological entity as the “work” in rock music. Yet, all the suggestions advanced to date fail to capture some important considerations about how we engage with music of this tradition. This prompted Lee Brown to advocate a healthy skepticism of higher-order musical ontologies. I argue here that we should instead embrace a pluralist ontology of rock, an ontolo…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Climate Change |
Punishment |
Time |
Philosophy of Music |
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Climate Change |
Punishment |
Time |
Philosophy of Music |