•  18
    Review of Jonathan Dancy: Moral Reasons (review)
    Ethics 106 (1): 187-189. 1995.
  •  12
    Wise Choices, Apt Feelings: A Theory of Normative Judgement
    Philosophical Quarterly 41 (163): 252-256. 1991.
  •  90
    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
  •  13
    Review of Robert Nozick: The Nature of Rationality (review)
    Ethics 105 (3): 659-662. 1993.
  •  29
    Is Goodness Without God Good Enough?: A Debate on Faith, Secularism, and Ethics
    with Louise Antony, William Lane Craig, John Hare, Paul Kurtz, C. Stephen Layman, Mark C. Murphy, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, and Richard Swinburne
    Rowman & 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.
  •  16
    Rape and the Reasonable Man
    Law 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
  •  12
    Converging on values
    Analysis 59 (4): 355-361. 1999.
  • Justice and the Moral Community
    Dissertation, The University of Arizona. 1978.
  •  351
    Quicksand in the contract ground
    with David Drebushenko
    Philosophical 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.
  •  403
    Minimizing maximin
    Philosophical 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.
  •  476
    Daddy Dilemmas: Untangling the Puzzles of Paternity
    Cornell 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
  •  796
    What’s Special about Humeanism
    Noûs 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
  •  19
    Review of Timothy Macklem, Beyond Comparison: Sex and Discrimination (review)
    Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2004 (5). 2004.
  •  381
    Providing for Rights
    with Mark B. Lambeth
    Dialogue 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
  •  67
    Human reproductive interests: Puzzles at the periphery of the property paradigm
    Social Philosophy and Policy 29 (1): 106-125. 2012.
    Research Articles Donald C. Hubin, Social Philosophy and Policy, FirstView Article
  •  909
    The Moral Justification of Benefit/Cost Analysis
    Economics 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
  •  1283
    Rape and the reasonable man
    Law 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
  •  372
    Non-Tuism
    Canadian 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
  •  897
    Desires, Whims and Values
    The 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
  •  564
    Self-Subverting Principles of Choice
    with Michael Perkins
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 16 (1). 1986.
    The thesis that rationality consists in the straight-forward maximization of utility has not lacked critics. Typically, however, detractors reject the Humean picture of rationality upon which it seems based; they seek to emancipate reason from the tyranny of the passions. It is, then, noteworthy when an attack on this thesis comes from ‘within the ranks.’David Gauthier's paper ‘Reason and Maximization’ is just such an attack; and for this reason, among others, it is interesting. It is not succes…Read more
  •  930
    The groundless normativity of instrumental rationality
    Journal of Philosophy 98 (9): 445-468. 2001.
    Neo-Humean instrumentalist theories of reasons for acting have been presented with a dilemma: either they are normatively trivial and, hence, inadequate as a normative theory or they covertly commit themselves to a noninstrumentalist normative principle. The claimed result is that no purely instrumentalist theory of reasons for acting can be normatively adequate. This dilemma dissolves when we understand what question neo-Humean instrumentalists are addressing. The dilemma presupposes that neo-H…Read more
  •  676
    Prudential Reasons
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 10 (1). 1980.
    Several authors, including Thomas Nagel and David Gauthier, have defended the view that reasons of self-interest (prudential reasons) are rationally binding. That is, there is always a reason, bearing on the rational advisability, based on one's self-interest and, as a result, a person may act irrationally by knowingly acting against such reasons regardless of the person's desires or values. Both Nagel and Gauthier argue from the rationally mandatory nature of prudential reasons to the conclusio…Read more
  •  4065
    Irrational desires
    Philosophical Studies 62 (1). 1991.
    Many believe that the rational evaluation of actions depends on the rational evaluation of even basic desires. Hume, though, viewed desires as "original existences" which cannot be contrary to either truth or reason. Contemporary critics of Hume, including Norman, Brandt and Parfit, have sought a basis for the rational evaluation of desires that would deny some basic desires reason-giving force. I side with Hume against these modern critics. Hume's concept of rational evaluation is admittedly to…Read more
  •  22
  •  426
    The scope of justice
    Philosophy and Public Affairs 9 (1): 3-24. 1979.
  •  14
    Non-tuism
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 21 (4): 441-468. 1991.
    in Morals by Agreement, David Gauthier assumes that the contractors' preferences are non-tuistic--that they take "no interest in one another's interests." This is the analog of John Rawls's assumption of "mutual disinterest." Gauthier's assumption of non-tuism is ambiguous in important ways and he sometimes shifts between quite distinct meanings. I examine the various plausible interpretations of non-tuism and then critically evaluate Gauthier's justification for assuming that it is only agents'…Read more
  •  29
    Fatherhood
    In Hugh LaFollette (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Ethics, Blackwell. 2013.
    Surveys theories of paternity/fatherhood.
  •  11