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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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13J. 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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15The 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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38Book 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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601Moral vision: an introduction to ethicsBlackwell. 1988.This book introduces the reader to ethics by examining a current and important debate. During the last fifty years the orthodox position in ethics has been a broadly non-cognitivist one: since there are no moral facts, moral remarks are best understood, not as attempting to describe the world, but as having some other function - such as expressing the attitudes or preferences of the speaker. In recent years this position has been increasingly challenged by moral realists who maintain that there …Read more
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211Value and Agent-Relative ReasonsUtilitas 7 (1): 31. 1995.In recent years the distinction between agent-relative and agent-neutral reasons has been taken by many to play a key role in distinguishing deontology from consequentialism. It is central to all universalist consequentialist theories that value is determined impersonally; the real value of any state of affairs does not depend on the point of view of the agent. No reference, therefore, to the agent or to his or her position in the world need enter into a consequentialist understanding of what ma…Read more
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IntuitionismIn Hugh LaFollette - (ed.), The Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory, Blackwell. pp. 268--87. 2000.
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274Achievement, welfare and consequentialismAnalysis 61 (2). 2001.significant role for accomplishment thereby admits a ‘Trojan Horse’ (267).1 To abandon hedonism in favour of a conception of well-being that incorporates achievement is to take the first step down a slippery slope toward the collapse of the other two pillars of utilitarian morality: welfarism and consequentialism. We shall argue that Crisp’s arguments do not support these conclusions. We begin with welfarism. Crisp defines it thus: ‘Well-being is the only value. Everything good must be good for …Read more
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2The problem of evil: A deontological perspectiveIn Richard Swinburne & Alan G. Padgett (eds.), Reason and the Christian Religion: Essays in Honour of Richard Swinburne, Oxford University Press. pp. 329--351. 1994.
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496On defending deontologyRatio 11 (1). 1998.This paper comprises three sections. First, we offer a traditional defence of deontology, in the manner of, for example, W.D. Ross (1965). The leading idea of such a defence is that the right is independent of the good. Second, we modify the now standard account of the distinction, in terms of the agent-relative/agentneutral divide, between deontology and consequentialism. (This modification is necessary if indirect consequentialism is to count as a form of consequentialism.) Third, we challenge…Read more
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Philosophy of Religion |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Religion |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |