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29Naturalism And Normativity: Reply to McNaughton and RawlingProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 104 (1): 187-203. 2004.McNaughton and Rawling's anti-reductionist intentions are to be welcomed, but are not well served by their continuing adherence to a neo-Humean notion of the 'descriptive'. Their too-willing acceptance of this notion is reflected in a denial of appropriate dialectical weight to considerations about the way 'pattern' disappears from the domain of value when we try to characterize the constituent features of the latter in non-evaluative terms. The need for a satisfactory account of the immanence o…Read more
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14J. Skorupski (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Ethics (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010), 850 pages. ISBN: 9780415413626 (hbk); 9780415415163 (pbk). Hardback $225; Paperback $50 (review)Journal of Moral Philosophy 10 (3): 368-370. 2013.
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30Dear PrudencePhilosophical Quarterly 72 (4): 1051-1054. 2022.Guy Fletcher has written an excellent and much needed book about prudence—lucid, thoughtful, and, to my mind, persuasive. He is well acquainted with all the contemporary literature on his topic, and his treatment of the contributions of others is fair, sympathetic, and helpful. While the discussion becomes increasingly subtle and complex, Fletcher remains admirably clear throughout. Signposts and reminders help the reader, as do outlines and summaries. He follows the excellent ‘rule of three’ as…Read more
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172Naturalism and NormativityAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 77 (1). 2003.Simon Blackburn can be seen as challenging those committed to sui generis moral facts to explain the supervenience of the moral on the descriptive. We (like perhaps Derek Parfit) hold that normative facts in general are sui generis. We also hold that the normative supervenes on the descriptive, and we here endeavour to answer the generalization of Blackburn's challenge. In the course of pursuing this answer, we suggest that Frank Jackson's descriptivism rests on a conception of properties inappr…Read more
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Benefits, holism, and the aggregation of valueIn Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred Dycus Miller & Jeffrey Paul (eds.), Utilitarianism: the aggregation question, Cambridge University Press. 2009.
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Book review (review)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 5 (1): 181-220. 1997.Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Scepticism Translated by Julia Annas & Jonathan Barnes Cambridge University Press 1994 ISBN‐0–521–30950–6 Hardback (£32.50) ISBN 0–521–31205‐X Paperback (£10.95) Republicanism, Liberty and Commercial Society 1649–1776 David Wootton (ed) Stanford University Press, 1994 viii, 497 pp. £35 ISBN 0804723567 John Marshall: John Locke: Resistance, Religion and Responsibility Cambridge University Press, 1994 Pp. xxi + 485. ISBN 0–521–44380–6 (hardback) £55 0–521–44687–3 (pap…Read more
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16The Rational and the Moral Order: The Social Roots of Reason and MoralityPhilosophy 72 (279): 154-158. 1995.
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1An Unconnected Heap of Duties?In Philip Stratton-Lake (ed.), Ethical Intuitionism: Re-Evaluations, Clarendon Press. 2002.
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41Book ReviewsMaria Antonaccio,. Picturing the Human: The Moral Thought of Iris Murdoch.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Pp. vii+244. $39.95 (review)Ethics 112 (4): 818-820. 2002.Iris Murdoch has long been known as one of the most deeply insightful and morally passionate novelists of our time. This attention has often eclipsed Murdoch's sophisticated and influential work as a philosopher, which has had a wide-ranging impact on thinkers in moral philosophy as well as religious ethics and political theory. Yet it has never been the subject of a book-length study in its own right. Picturing the Human seeks to fill this gap. In this groundbreaking book, author Maria Antonacc…Read more
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19Joseph Butler: Fifteen Sermons and Other Writings on Ethics (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2017.Joseph Butler's Fifteen Sermons is a classic and widely influential work of moral philosophy. Its topics include the role of conscience in human nature, self-love and egoism, compassion, resentment and forgiveness, love of our neighbour and of God. It is here presented with introduction, annotation, and other selected writings by Butler.
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13Forgiving for goodThe Philosophers' Magazine 52 43-48. 2011.The repentant offender has placed himself on the side of right, so to speak – he now stands with the victim against his own previous bad behaviour, which he now rejects. He’s a proper recipient for the gift of forgiveness. It can be morally appropriate to wipe the slate clean for him. But the unrepentant offender has undergone no such change. Why should we wipe the slate clean for such a person?
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56Moral Perception and Particularity by Lawrence A. Blum (review)Journal of Philosophy 93 (2): 89-92. 1996.
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7ForgivenessRoutledge. 2010.Forgiveness usually gets a very good press in our culture: we are deluged with self-help books and television shows all delivering the same message, that forgiveness is good for everyone, and is always the right thing to do. But those who have suffered seriously at the hands of others often and rightly feel that this boosterism about forgiveness is glib and facile. Perhaps forgiveness is not always desirable, especially where the wrongdoing is terrible or the wrongdoer unrepentant. In this book,…Read more
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11Book review (review)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 5 (1): 181-220. 1997.Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Scepticism Translated by Julia Annas & Jonathan Barnes Cambridge University Press 1994 ISBN‐0–521–30950–6 Hardback ISBN 0–521–31205‐X Paperback Republicanism, Liberty and Commercial Society 1649–1776 David Wootton Stanford University Press, 1994 viii, 497 pp. £35 ISBN 0804723567 John Marshall: John Locke: Resistance, Religion and Responsibility Cambridge University Press, 1994 Pp. xxi + 485. ISBN 0–521–44380–6 £55 0–521–44687–3 £22.95 Ian Harris: The Mind of John Lo…Read more
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36The Importance of Being HumanRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 29 63-81. 1991.I wish from my Heart, I could avoid concluding, that since Morality, according to your Opinion as well as mine, is determin'd merely by Sentiment, it regards only human Nature & human Life. … If Morality were determin'd by Reason, that is the same to all rational Beings: But nothing but Experience can assure us, that the Sentiments are the same. What Experience have we with regard to superior Beings? How can we ascribe to them any Sentiments at all? They have implanted those Sentiments in us for…Read more
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144Conditional and Conditioned ReasonsUtilitas 14 (2): 240. 2002.This paper is a brief reponse to some of Douglas Portmore's criticisms of our version of the agent-relative/agent-neutral distinction
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365From Darkness into Light? Reflections on Wandering in DarknessEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Religion 4 (3): 123--135. 2012.
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117Contours of the PracticalIn David Bakhurst, Margaret Olivia Little & Brad Hooker (eds.), Thinking about reasons: themes from the philosophy of Jonathan Dancy, Oxford University Press. pp. 240. 2013.
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22Response to DiamondRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 29 85-86. 1991.Where two people differ about the application of some term to a particular object, to what can they appeal to settle their disagreement? In my paper I suggested that the disputants can legitimately draw attention to various features of the contested case to try to show the continuity, or lack of it, between this case and other instances that fall under the concept. In so doing they are offering reasons to justify their judgement in this particular case
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153Some of the virtues have a very stable place in our understanding of goodness – beneficence and courage are unlikely ever to lose their high standing. But other virtues have something like a life cycle: they move from a marginal status to to a central one, and sometimes they move back again to the margins, or even beyond the domain of virtue altogether. Chastity is one example of this; humility is another. There was a period in which humility wasn’t a virtue at all (see Aristotle on the great-so…Read more
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Philosophy of Religion |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Religion |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |