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4Reason Over Passion: The Social Basis of Evaluation and AppraisalWilfrid Laurier Press. 1979."Reason is not passion's slave." Rather, the author argues, reason appraises the cultural appropriateness of passion, thus directing our attitudinal behaviour. He refutes those theories of value which correspond philosophically to societies described by Jean-Jacques Rousseau: societies of "honour without virtue, reason without wisdom, pleasure without happiness." His argument, which takes into account traditional philosophic positions, is divided into five parts: Attitudes, Evaluation, Character…Read more
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8Anti-foundationalism and Practical Reasoning: Conversations Between Hermeneutics and AnalysisAcademic Printing &. 1987.The editor's introduction to the volume explores the thesis of a convergence between analytic and hermeneutic philosophy on the absence of grounds for knowledge and practice. The nature of philosophy without foundations is discussed, along with the conservative tendencies and utopian tensions of "anti-foundationalism."
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23A Values‐Clarification RetrospectiveEducational Theory 36 (3): 271-287. 1986.Values clarification was too quickly scorned, for its problems are also problems for other contemporary approaches to moral education - especially cognitive-developmental accounts. These problems show the need for better understanding of behavioural characterizations - particularly of the use of words for virtues and vices. The problems can best be corrected by reexamining the role of conversation in education along lines suggested by Freire and Habermas rather than Dewey and Kohlberg.
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35Emotions, Reasons, and NormsJournal of Philosophy of Emotion 1 (1): 72-97. 2019.A tension between acting morally and acting rationally is apparent in analyses of moral emotions that ascribe an inherent subjectivity to ethical thinking, leading thence to irresolvable differences between rational agents. This paper offers an account of emotional worthiness that shows how, even if moral reasons fall short of philosophical criteria of rationality, we can still accord reasonableness to them and recognize that the deliberative weight of social norms is sufficient to address the m…Read more
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3Stephen Mulhall and Adam Swift, Liberals and Communitarians Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 14 (2): 115-117. 1994.
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1Stephen Mulhall and Adam Swift, Liberals and Communitarians (review)Philosophy in Review 14 115-117. 1994.
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37Mention and DesignationAnalysis 29 (1). 1968.Some characteristics of two species of singular reference are described and a complexity of mention vis-a-vis designation illustrated by means of special quotation devices. It is pointed out that the use/mention distinction is more complex and less absolute than sometimes realized.
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11Actions and ExtensionsAmerican Philosophical Quarterly 7 (4). 1970.Basic Human Actions are event-like, and it should be possible to refer to them without mention of specific intentions. Such reference need not require an act ontology, since actions may be regarded as indivisible complexes -- of agent, object, and tool -- which are referred to by statements rather than named.
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37Socialist justiceEthics 87 (1): 1-17. 1976.John Rawls observes that "a theory of justice is . . . a theory of the moral sentiments." His analysis of moral attitudes as defined by rationally chosen principles is controversial, however, and distinguishes his liberal conception of justice from one which understands such attitudes as constituted by verifiable beliefs about social realities. The socialist conception suggested by the latter analysis is at least as plausible as individualist alternatives.
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21Marxism and MoralismDialogue 29 (4): 583-. 1990.Moral philosophers continue to divide on the conundrum of Marx and morality— how a ferocious moral critic of nineteenth-century capitalism could also denounce morality as an ideological snare and delusion. In Marxism and the Moral Point of View, Kai Nielsen brings together many years of thought on both terms of the question, rightly seeking a balance between Marx's moralism and Marx's anti-moralism.
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13On the Assertion of Philosophical DoubtDialogue 10 (1): 82-91. 1971.Familiar arguments against scepticism are explicated in terms of a distinction between logical possibility and assertibility. Certain consistent sceptical propositions are unassertible.
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27The Philosophy of Action. Edited by Alan R. White. Oxford Readings in Philosophy series. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. 172. $1.30 (review)Dialogue 7 (4): 687-688. 1969.
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24The leadership of serviceJournal of Academic Ethics 2 (3): 199-207. 2004.Using experiences at Memorial University of Newfoundland as a basis, this essay suggests that leadership should be an expectation of professional academics in all the categories of their work, namely teaching, research and service. The desirability of developing the leadership of service in particular is advanced as an appropriate expectation for faculty members career progress. Developing a general leadership ethos is both philosophically appropriate and practically advantageous in collegial or…Read more
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3Simone Chambers, Reasonable Democracy: Jurgen Habermas and the Politics of Discourse Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 16 (5): 325-327. 1996.
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28The Priority of Needs over WantsSocial Theory and Practice 8 (1): 95-112. 1982.Egalitarian assumptions are unsupported by standard liberal arguments, against which the libertarian critique of distributive principles seems persuasive. Liberal instincts can be defended, however, by ideas from the radical tradition. The priority of labor over capital is equivalent to adequate provision for human needs. By distinguishing needs (e.g., security) from their material conditions (e.g., medical care) it is shown that needs are not voracious but rational ends to which everyone has…Read more
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29Social norms and aberrations: Violence and some related social factsEthics 81 (1): 22-35. 1970.For any group there is a point beyond which the accumulation of acts of violence, cruelty, or even rudeness, implies disintegration. By a series of small and plausible transitions this putative empirical generalization may be transformed into a statement about the normative attitudes of persons in stable groups. The generalization may in the first place be more strongly construed as a statement of law governing any society. The weakening of bonds between persons implied by the prevalence of beha…Read more
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74The Right to Life after DeathDialogue 46 (3): 531-551. 2007.Imagining a future world in which people no longer die provides a helpful tool for understanding our present ethical views. It becomes evident that the cardinal virtues of prudence, temperance, and courage are options for reasonable people rather than rational requirements. On the assumption that the medical means to immortality are not universally available, even justice becomes detached from theories that tie the supposed virtue to the protection of human rights. Several stratagems are availab…Read more
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17The faculty of the futureJournal of Academic Ethics 1 (1): 49-58. 2003.This paper examines some implications of predicted demographic changes in Canadian universities that may make them unable to replace retiring faculty members in numbers permitting academic business as usual. If the predictions prove correct, it will be desirable to reinterpret received verities about the relationship between professor/student ratios and effective education, the dual roles of teaching and research, and democratic governance in communities of higher education. Possibilities for re…Read more
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50The subjects of justiceEthics 90 (4): 490-501. 1980.Competing political theories variously identify communities, individuals, institutions, and classes as the basic subjects of justice. Liberal theories fail to map an important part of the domain of right action by ignoring class conflict and thereby neglect the possibility that justice may require social direction of economic systems. A conceptually more adequate account strongly suggests the virtues of a market socialism.
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70Reasonable TrustEuropean Journal of Philosophy 21 (3): 402-423. 2013.Establishing trust among individual agents has defined a central issue of practical reasoning since the dawning of liberal individualism. Hobbes was convinced that foolish self-interest always threatens to defeat uncompelled cooperation when one can gain by abandoning a joint effort. Against this philosophical background, scientific studies of human beings display a surprisingly cooperative species. It would seem to follow that biologically inherited characteristics impair our reason. The respon…Read more
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McMaster UniversityRetired faculty
Newfoundland, Canada
Areas of Specialization
Value Theory |
Areas of Interest
Value Theory |