•  110
    An Essay on Rights
    Philosophical Quarterly 46 (184): 395-398. 1996.
  •  85
    Natural Law and Practical Rationality
    Mind 112 (447): 555-558. 2003.
    This essay argues that Mark C. Murphy's original contribution to natural law ethics succeeds in finding a way between older metaphysical and newer purely practical approaches in this genre. Murphy's reconstruction of the function argument, critique of subjectivist theories of well-being, and rigorous formulation of a flexible welfarist theory of value deserve careful attention. I defend Kant against Murphy's critique and argue that Murphy faces the problem of showing that all his basic goods are…Read more
  •  76
    The Domain of Authority
    Philosophy 82 (1): 23-43. 2007.
    If the commands of authority are peremptory and content-independent directives, it is a great puzzle why any rational autonomous agent should accept them as morally binding, as Robert Paul Wolff and others have argued. I analyse the peremptory and content-independent quality of authoritative directives and argue that all earthly authorities operate within a specified domain. I investigate three candidates for the role of universally applicable boundary conditions–morality, harm to self, and absu…Read more
  •  74
    Practical Reflection
    Philosophical Quarterly 40 (161): 524-527. 1990.
    “What do you see when you look at your face in the mirror?” asks J. David Velleman in introducing his philosophical theory of action. He takes this simple act of self-scrutiny as a model for the reflective reasoning of rational agents: our efforts to understand our existence and conduct are aided by our efforts to make it intelligible. Reflective reasoning, Velleman argues, constitutes practical reasoning. By applying this conception, _Practical Reflection_ develops philosophical accounts of int…Read more
  •  73
    Hegel is one of the most important figures in the history of ideas and political thought. His _Philosophy of Right_ is widely recognised as one of the greatest works of political philosophy. _Hegel and the Philosophy of Right_ introduces and assesses: * Hegel's life and the background of the _Philosophy of Right_ * The ideas and text of the _Philosophy of Right_ * The continuing importance of Hegel's work to philosophy and political thought
  •  68
    Hegel as Ornithologist
    with Michael Carpenter
    The Owl of Minerva 42 (1-2): 225-227. 2010.
    Using a variet y of classical sources, we identify the Owl of Minerva as the European Little Owl (Athene noctua) and describe its habits. Our not-altogether- serious conclusion is that Hegel was wrong to state that the Owl of Minerva begins its flight only at the falling of the dusk.
  •  53
    Political Philosophy
    Routledge. 2001.
    This comprehensive introduction to the major thinkers and topics in political philosophy explores the philosophical traditions which continue to inform our political judgements. Dudley Knowles introduces the ideas of key political thinkers including Hobbes, Locke, Marx and Mill and influential contemporary thinkers such as Berlin, Rawls and Nozick. He outlines central problems in political philosophy and encourages the reader to critically engage with all the issues discussed. The individual cha…Read more
  •  52
    Political obligation is concerned with the clash between the individual's claim to self-governance and the right of the state to claim obedience.
  •  48
    Conservative Utilitarianism
    Utilitas 12 (2): 155. 2000.
    The resilience of utilitarian ethics in the face of unremitting criticism can be explained in part by its use of various strategies of indirect utilitarianism. The success of these strategies throws up a distinctive problem: how can one measure the utility of moral rules, large-scale social institutions or character traits distinctive of virtues? Reading Hume as a utilitarian of sorts in his treatment of justice, I explain his conservative endorsement of entrenched social practices as a conseque…Read more
  •  45
    Gratitude and good government
    Res Publica 8 (1): 1-20. 2002.
    I attempt to show that it is notphilosophically incompetent to ground politicalobligation in feelings of gratitude. But theargument needs to be stated carefully.Gratitude must be distinguished fromreciprocity. It applies only to good governmentwhich provides benefits to citizens for whichthey ought to feel grateful. It applies only tocitizens who accept that their feelings ofgratitude are properly demonstrated by anacceptance on their part of the duties ofcitizenship. It does not apply to citize…Read more
  •  44
    Parents' consent to the post-mortem removal and retention of organs
    Journal of Applied Philosophy 18 (3). 2001.
    Parents of children who died following complex heart surgery have recently discovered that organs were removed and retained in post-m
  •  43
    Climbing: Because It's There – Stephen E. Schmid
    Philosophical Quarterly 61 (245): 887-890. 2011.
  •  39
    Hegel on property and personality
    Philosophical Quarterly 33 (130): 45-62. 1983.
  •  32
    Good Samaritans and Good Government
    Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 112 (2pt2): 161-178. 2012.
    In this paper I review and provide a qualified defence of Samaritanism—Christopher Heath Wellman's novel approach to the old-fashioned problem of political obligation. I outline Wellman's theory, clarifying the details, and defend an amended version against a variety of objections concerning, successively, an alleged conflation of duties of care and beneficence, a difficulty concerning the distinction of perfect and imperfect duties, a problem deriving from the 'particularity requirement', and r…Read more
  •  30
    Robert B. Pippin, Hegel's Practical Philosophy: Rational Agency as Ethical Life (review)
    Philosophical Quarterly 61 (242): 192-196. 2011.
    No abstract available.
  •  30
    Political Thinkers: From Socrates to the Present (review)
    Contemporary Political Theory 4 (1): 87-90. 2005.
  •  30
    Hegel's Citizen
    Hegel Bulletin 25 (1-2): 41-53. 2004.
    Hegel's account of freedom is complex and difficult. It integrates a doctrine of free agency, a theory of social freedom, and a self-determining theodicy of Spirit. To achieve full understanding, if full understanding is possible, the student must both disentangle and articulate the components, and then fit together the separate pieces into an intelligible whole. And what is true of the whole is true of the parts; each element is in turn complex and controversial.In this paper, I want to investi…Read more
  •  24
    Hegel on the Justification of Punishment
    Proceedings of the Hegel Society of America 15 125-145. 2001.
  •  23
    Property and Political Theory
    Philosophical Quarterly 35 (141): 433. 1985.
  •  20
    Explanation and its Limits (edited book)
    Cambridge University Press. 1990.
    This collection of new essays explores the nature of explanation and causality.
  •  19
    Political Concepts
    Contemporary Political Theory 4 (1): 87-90. 2005.
  •  18
    Alan Brudner and the Contemporary Significance of Hegel's Philosophy of Law (review)
    with Alan Brudner, Hamish Stewart, Alon Harel, and Tony Burns
    Jurisprudence 3 (1): 211-251. 2012.
  •  16
    The Economy of the Earth: Philosophy, Law and the Environment
    Philosophical Books 30 (4): 242-244. 1989.