• Drones and Robots: On the Changing Practice of Warfare
    In Seth Lazar & Helen Frowe (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of War, Oxford University Press. pp. 472-487. 2015.
    The recent development of unmanned technology—drones and robots of various types—is transforming the nature of warfare. Instead of fighting against other human beings, combatants will soon be fighting against machines. At present, these machines are operated by human beings, but they are becoming increasingly autonomous. Some people believe that, from a moral point of view, this development is worrisome, especially insofar as fully autonomous offensive systems (‘killer robots’) are concerned. I …Read more
  •  1
    Index
    In Virtue Ethics: A Critical Reader, Edinburgh University Press. pp. 300-306. 1997.
  •  19
  •  34
    Feminism, Honor and Self-Defense: A Response to Hereth
    Public Affairs Quarterly 37 (1): 64-78. 2023.
    Sometimes victims cannot defend themselves against the threat posed to them, but they can nevertheless harm or even kill their aggressors. Since they cannot defend themselves, it is unclear how such harming can be justified under the title of self-defense. According to the “Honor Solution,” by violently resisting their aggressors, victims do (partially) defend themselves because they protect their honor. Blake Hereth recently argued that this solution is incompatible with the feminist commitment…Read more
  •  38
    Rejecting the Objectification Hypothesis
    Review of Philosophy and Psychology 15 (1): 113-130. 2024.
    The last decade or so has witnessed a wave of empirical studies purporting to show that men’s sexual focus on the female body leads to increased hostility and aggression against women. According to what I call “The Objectification Hypothesis”, the explanation for this phenomenon has to do with the fact that, in such circumstances, men “objectify” women, that is, regard them as mere objects or as means only. The paper rejects this hypothesis and offers an alternative explanation for the connectio…Read more
  •  4
    "מעמדה של הדת במדינה תופס מקום מרכזי בשיח הציבורי והפוליטי, בארץ ובעולם. ייחודו של ספר זה בתפיסה השיטתית והמקיפה שלו באשר למקום הדת בישראל. מצד אחד, הספר דוחה את ההנחה הרווחת שלפיה הליברליזם מחייב את הפרדת הדת והמדינה. מצד אחר, הספר מציע פרשנות מצמצמת והגנות המיוחדות המוענקות לדתיים, המעוגנות בזכות לחופש דת ובחשיבות ההגנה על רגשות דתיים. נושאים מעוררי מחלוקת ורגישים כגון גיוס בחורי ישיבות, מימון ממשלתי לחינוך הדתי ונישואים וגירושים ברבנות נדונים בספר במבט מפוכח, משפטי ופילוסופי, המספק כלים לחשיב…Read more
  •  22
    Response to Five Critics
    with Yitzhak Benbaji
    Law and Philosophy 41 (6): 785-816. 2022.
    In response to our critics, we explain why in spite of the ad bellum breach involved in the first use of force the war agreement is still binding; why the moral symmetry to which War by Agreement subscribes benefits all parties, weak and strong; why contractarianism leaves room the for moral option of not acting within one's rights and refusing to take part in a seemingly unjust war; why contractarianism is superior to rights-consequentialism as a theory of just war; and why contractarianism doe…Read more
  •  42
    In Bello Proportionality: Philosophical Reflections on a Disturbing Empirical Study
    with Stephen de Wijze and Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan
    Journal of Military Ethics 21 (2): 116-131. 2022.
    A recent empirical study has argued that experts in the ethics or the law of war cannot reach reasonable convergence on dilemmas regarding the number of civilian casualties who may be killed as a side effect of attacks on legitimate military targets. This article explores the philosophical implications of that study. We argue that the wide disagreement between experts on what in bello proportionality means in practice casts serious doubt on their ability to provide practical real-life guidance. …Read more
  •  53
    Cruelty, Sadism, and the Joy of Inflicting Pain for its Own Sake
    Journal of Philosophical Research 47 23-42. 2022.
    The paper offers a theory of cruelty that includes the following claims: First, cruelty is best understood as a disposition to take delight in the very infliction of suffering on others. Thus understood, cruelty is the same phenomenon as that studied and operationalized by psychologists in the last decade or so under the heading of everyday sadism. Second, for people to be cruel, they need not have proper understanding of the moral standing of their victims. Third, ascriptions of cruelty do not …Read more
  •  75
    The topic of standing to blame has recently received a lot of attention. Until now, however, it has focused mainly on the blamer's perspective, investigating what it means to say of blamers that they lose standing to blame and why it is that they lose this standing under specified conditions. The present paper focuses on the perspective of the blamees and tries to explain why they are allowed to disregard standingless, more specifically hypocritical, blame. According to the solution proposed by …Read more
  •  17
    1. Introduction to Virtue Ethics
    In Virtue Ethics: A Critical Reader, Edinburgh University Press. pp. 1-41. 1997.
  •  27
    The purpose of this article is to discuss whether a person can be discriminated against by means of an action intended to benefit him or her. The discussion is triggered by a recent court decision according to which women may be entitled to compensation for a policy that made them better off in some respect because of its assumed effect on the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes about women. I reject this view, arguing that such effects are neither necessary nor sufficient for an act to be discr…Read more
  •  58
    Pascal’s wager faces serious criticisms and is generally considered unconvincing. We argue that it can make a comeback powered by an unlikely ally: postmodernism. If one denies the existence of objective facts (e.g. about God or His relation to the world), then various non-theological considerations should come to the fore when considering the rationality of religious commitment and the choice of education for one’s children. In fact, we shall argue that, if one genuinely cares about one’s child…Read more
  •  50
    Against Moral Taint
    with Yitzhak Benbaji
    Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 24 (1): 5-18. 2020.
    One motivation for adopting a justice-based view of the right to self-defense is that it seems to solve the puzzle of how a victim may kill her attacker even when doing so is not predicted to protect her from the threat imposed upon her. The paper shows (a) that this view leads to unacceptable results and (b) that its solution to cases of futile self-defense is unsatisfactory. This failure makes the interest-based theory of self-defense look more attractive, both in the context of futile self-de…Read more
  •  27
    Modern orthodoxy and morality: an uneasy partnership
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 88 (2): 167-180. 2020.
    Modern orthodoxy often perceives itself and is perceived by others as a movement which grants more importance to moral considerations in its interpretation of halakha and in its general worldview than does the ultra-orthodox movement. Accordingly, modern orthodox rabbis are often referred to as more “moderate” than their ultra-orthodox counterparts, a term which seems to imply that they are more open to moral arguments and more likely to adopt, or to develop, moral interpretations of halakha. A …Read more
  •  8
    Religion and Morality
    with Avi Sagi
    Brill | Rodopi. 1995.
    _Religion and Morality_ seeks to answer two fundamental questions regarding the relation between religion and morality. The first is the puzzle posed by Socrates, the so-called '_Euthyphro_ dilemma', which asks: is morality valuable by virtue of its intrinsic importance and worth, or is morality valuable because, and only because, God approves it and commands us to follow its dictates? The second question is raised by Kierkegaard in _Fear and Trembling_. He asks: Is a conflict between religion a…Read more
  •  12
    Moral Dilemmas
    Brill | Rodopi. 1995.
    Moral dilemmas set a challenge for ethical theory. They are situations where agents seem to be under an obligation both to do, and to refrain from doing, a specific act. Are such situations possible? What is their exact nature? These are the questions that _Moral Dilemmas_ tries to answer. The book argues that moral theories should not allow for the possibility of irresolvable dilemmas, for situations in which no right answer exists. To this end, arguments seeking to prove the existence of irres…Read more
  •  18
    War by Agreement: A Contractarian Ethics of War
    with Yitzhak Benbaji
    Oxford University Press. 2019.
    Yitzhak Benbaji and Daniel Statman present a new theory on the ethics of war which shows that wars can be morally justified at both the ad bellum level and the in bello level.
  •  44
    Debunking, Vindication, and Moral Luck
    Midwest Studies in Philosophy 43 (1): 203-223. 2019.
    Midwest Studies In Philosophy, EarlyView.
  •  9
    State and Religion in Israel: A Philosophical-Legal Inquiry
    with Gideon Sapir
    Cambridge University Press. 2018.
    State and Religion in Israel begins with a philosophical analysis of the two main questions regarding the role of religion in liberal states: should such states institute a 'Wall of Separation' between state and religion? Should they offer religious practices and religious communities special protection? Gideon Sapir and Daniel Statman argue that liberalism in not committed to Separation, but is committed to granting religion a unique protection, albeit a narrower one than often assumed. They th…Read more
  •  77
    Targeted Killing
    Theoretical Inquiries in Law 5 (1): 179-198. 2004.
    The purpose of this paper is to provide a philosophical defense for targeted killings in the wars against terror. The paper argues that if one accepts the moral legitimacy of the large-scale killing of combatants in conventional wars, one cannot object - on moral grounds - to the targeted killing of terrorists in wars against terror. If one rejects this legitimacy, one must object to all killing in war, targeted and non-targeted alike, and thus not support the view, which is criticized here, tha…Read more
  •  12
    Nomos Without Narrative: A Reply to Talia Fisher
    Theoretical Inquiries in Law Forum 9 (2 Forum). 2008.
  •  11
    Mind the Gap: A Reply to Ripstein
    Theoretical Inquiries in Law 9 (1): 12-16. 2008.
  • Religion and Morality
    with A. Sagi
    Religious Studies 32 (3): 424-425. 1996.
  •  52
    The debate over the so-called reality of moral dilemmas
    Philosophical Papers 19 (3): 191-211. 1990.
    No abstract
  •  105
    Moral and epistemic luck
    Ratio 4 (2): 146-156. 1991.