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18Wise Choices, Apt Feelings: A Theory of Normative JudgementPhilosophical Quarterly 41 (163): 252-256. 1991.
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45Review of Gay Meeks: Thoughtful Economic Man: Essays on Rationality, Moral Rules and Benevolence. (review)Ethics 103 (3): 572-574. 1993.Some have attempted to justify benefit/ cost analysis by appealing to a moral theory that appears to directly ground the technique. This approach is unsuccessful because the moral theory in question is wildly implausible and, even if it were correct, it would probably not endorse the unrestricted use of benefit/ cost analysis. Nevertheless, there is reason to think that a carefully restricted use of benefit/ cost analysis will be justifiable from a wide variety of plausible moral perspectives. F…Read more
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36Is Goodness Without God Good Enough?: A Debate on Faith, Secularism, and EthicsRowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2008.Is Goodness Without God Good Enough contains a lively debate between William Lane Craig and Paul Kurtz on the relationship between God and ethics, followed by seven new essays that both comment on the debate and advance the broader discussion of this important issue. Written in an accessible style by eminent scholars, this book will appeal to students and academics alike.
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19Rape and the Reasonable ManLaw and Philosophy 18 (2): 113-139. 1999.Standards of reasonability play an important role in some of the most difficult cases of rape. In recent years, the notion of the “reasonable person” has supplanted the historical concept of the “reasonable man” as the test of reasonability. Contemporary feminist critics like Catharine MacKinnon and Kim Lane Scheppele have challenged the notion of the reasonable person on the grounds that reasonability standards are “gendered to the ground” and so, in practice, the reasonable person is just the …Read more
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29FatherhoodIn Hugh LaFollette (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Ethics, Blackwell. 2013.Surveys theories of paternity/fatherhood.
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5795Parental Rights and Due ProcessThe Journal of Law and Family Studies 1 (2): 123-150. 1999.The U.S. Supreme Court regards parental rights as fundamental. Such a status should subject any legal procedure that directly and substantively interferes with the exercise of parental rights to strict scrutiny. On the contrary, though, despite their status as fundamental constitutional rights, parental rights are routinely suspended or revoked as a result of procedures that fail to meet even minimal standards of procedural and substantive due process. This routine and cavalier deprivation of pa…Read more
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787Justice and future generationsPhilosophy and Public Affairs 6 (1): 70-83. 1976.In A Theory of Justice, Rawls attempts to ground intergenerational justice by "virtual representation" through a thickening of the veil of ignorance. Contractors don't know to what generation they belong. This approach is flawed and will not result in the just savings principle Rawls hopes to justify. The project of grounding intergenerational duties on a social contractarian foundation is misconceived. Non-overlapping generations do not stand in relation to one another that is central to the c…Read more
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405Converging on valuesAnalysis 59 (4). 1999.In 'The Moral Problem', Michael Smith defends a conception of normative reasons that is nonrelative. Given his understanding of normative reasons, nonrelativity commits him to the convergence hypothesis: that, as a result of the process or correction of beliefs and rational deliberation, 'all' agents would converge on having the same set of desires. I develop several reasons for being pessimistic about the truth of this hypothesis. As a result, if normative reasons exist, we have a reason to be …Read more
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79The Limits of ConsequentialismProceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 10 167-176. 2008.Modern consequentialism is a very broad theory. Consequentialists can invoke a distribution sensitive theory of value to address the issues of distributive justice that bedeviled utilitarianism. They can attach intrinsic moral value to such acts truth-telling and promise-keeping and, so, acknowledge the essential moral significance of such acts in a way that classical utilitarianism could not. It can appear that there are no limits to consequentialism’s ability to respond to the criticisms again…Read more
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394Quicksand in the contract groundPhilosophical Studies 44 (1). 1983.In his book, The Grounds of Moral Judgment, Russell Grice argues for a thesis he calls "the contract ground thesis," which connects the interest of members of a group in making a contract to the existence of an obligation and reason to abide by that contract. This thesis has been challenged by Jesse Kalin and subsequently defended by Grice. We show that Grice's defense fails--the contract ground thesis is without justification.
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466Minimizing maximinPhilosophical Studies 37 (4). 1980.In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls provides several arguments contractors in the original position using maximin reasoning, which leads directly to the difference principle. These arguments are inadequate to support the claim that maximin reasoning is the uniquely rational approach to choice in the original position.
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533Daddy Dilemmas: Untangling the Puzzles of PaternityCornell Journal of Law and Public Policy 13 (29): 29-80. 2003.Though most children can easily answer the question, "Who's your daddy?", the concept of paternity is complex and multifaceted. Courts have stumbled in answering it. In order to ground paternal rights and obligations in a satisfactory way, we need to disaggregate the various elements of stereotypical paternity. It is not sufficient merely to separate social from biological paternity. The latter concept, itself, is complex. We need to separate the procreative element of paternity from the genetic…Read more
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871What’s Special about HumeanismNoûs 33 (1): 30-45. 1999.One of the attractions of the Humean instrumentalist theory of practical rationality is that it appears to offer a special connection between an agent's reasons and her motivation. The assumption that Humeanism is able to assert a strong connection between reason and motivation has been challenged, most notably by Christine Korsgaard. She argues that Humeanism is not special in the connection it allows to motivation. On the contrary, Humean theories of practical rationality do connect reasons an…Read more
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19Review of Timothy Macklem, Beyond Comparison: Sex and Discrimination (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2004 (5). 2004.
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438Providing for RightsDialogue 27 (3): 489-. 1988.Gauthier's version of the Lockean proviso (in Morals by Agreement) is inappropriate as the foundation for moral rights he takes it to be. This is so for a number of reasons. It lacks any proportionality test thus allowing arbitrarily severe harms to others to prevent trivial harms to oneself. It allows one to inflict any harm on another provided that if one did not do so, someone else would. And, by interpreting the notion of bettering or worsening one's position in terms of subjective expected …Read more
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90Human reproductive interests: Puzzles at the periphery of the property paradigmSocial Philosophy and Policy 29 (1): 106-125. 2012.Research Articles Donald C. Hubin, Social Philosophy and Policy, FirstView Article
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684The Moral Justification of Benefit/Cost AnalysisEconomics and Philosophy 10 (2): 169-194. 1994.Benefit/cost analysis is a technique for evaluating programs, procedures, and actions; it is not a moral theory. There is significant controversy over the moral justification of benefit/cost analysis. When a procedure for evaluating social policy is challenged on moral grounds, defenders frequently seek a justification by construing the procedure as the practical embodiment of a correct moral theory. This has the apparent advantage of avoiding difficult empirical questions concerning such matter…Read more
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1372Rape and the reasonable manLaw and Philosophy 18 (2): 113-139. 1999.Standards of reasonability play an important role in some of the most difficult cases of rape. In recent years, the notion of the reasonable person has supplanted the historical concept of the reasonable man as the test of reasonability. Contemporary feminist critics like Catharine MacKinnon and Kim Lane Scheppele have challenged the notion of the reasonable person on the grounds that reasonability standards are gendered to the ground and so, in practice, the reasonable person is just the reason…Read more
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408Non-TuismCanadian Journal of Philosophy 21 (4). 1991.Contractarians view justice as being defined by a contract made by rational individuals. No one supposes that this contract is actual, and the fact that it is merely hypothetical raises a number of questions both about the assumptions under which it would be actual and about the force of hypothetical agreement that is contingent on these assumptions.Particular contractarian theories must specify the circumstances of the agreement and the endowments, beliefs, desires, and degree and type of ratio…Read more
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734Desires, Whims and ValuesThe Journal of Ethics 7 (3): 315-335. 2003.Neo-Humean instrumentalists hold that anagent's reasons for acting are grounded in theagent's desires. Numerous objections have beenleveled against this view, but the mostcompelling concerns the problem of ``aliendesires'' – desires with which the agent doesnot identify. The standard version ofneo-Humeanism holds that these desires, likeany others, generate reasons for acting. Avariant of neo-Humeanism that grounds anagent's reasons on her values, rather than allof her desires, avoids this impli…Read more
Columbus, Ohio, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Practical Reason, Misc |
Reasons |
Moral Reasoning and Motivation |
Family Ethics |
Parenthood |