University of Sheffield
Department of Philosophy
PhD
Colchester, Essex, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics
  •  17
    Critical Theory and Social Pathology
    In Axel Honneth, Espen Hammer & P. Gordon (eds.), The Routledge Companion to the Frankfurt School, Routledge. 2018.
    This Chapter presents an analysis of the idea of social pathology and its role in Frankfurt School Critical Theory. I suggest that this idea can set Critical Theory apart from mainstream liberal approaches, but also note the challenges involved in doing so, urging a return to its original, interdisciplinary program.
  •  13
  •  134
    Temporal inabilities and decision-making capacity in depression
    with Gareth S. Owen, Matthew Hotopf, and Wayne Martin
    Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 14 (1): 163-182. 2015.
    We report on an interview-based study of decision-making capacity in two classes of patients suffering from depression. Developing a method of second-person hermeneutic phenomenology, we articulate the distinctive combination of temporal agility and temporal inability characteristic of the experience of severely depressed patients. We argue that a cluster of decision-specific temporal abilities is a critical element of decision-making capacity, and we show that loss of these abilities is a risk …Read more
  •  79
    Authenticity, Insight and Impaired Decision-Making Capacity in Acquired Brain Injury
    with Gareth S. Owen and Wayne Martin
    Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 25 (1): 29-32. 2018.
    Thanks to Barton Palmer and John McMillan for these thoughtful commentaries. We found much to agree with and it is striking how so many of the issues relating to decision-making capacity assessment find resonances outside of an English jurisdiction. California and New Zealand are clearly grappling with a very similar set of issues and the commentaries speak to the international nature of these discussions.We will pick up on some main points the commentaries raise.As Palmer notes, DMC law is vuln…Read more
  •  74
    Habermas and Rawls are two heavyweights of social and political philosophy, and they are undoubtedly the two most written about authors in this field. However, there has not been much informed and interesting work on the points of intersection between their projects, partly because their work comes from different traditions—roughly the European tradition of social and political theory and the Anglo-American analytic tradition of political philosophy. In this volume, contributors re-examine the H…Read more
  •  4
    The Empty Formalism Objection Revisited
    In Thom Brooks (ed.), Hegel's Philosophy of Right, Wiley‐blackwell. 2012.
    This chapter contains sections titled: Empty Formalism in the Philosophy of Right Kantian Reply Strategies Acknowledgments Notes Abbreviations References.
  •  5
    Adorno and Horkheimer on Anti‐Semitism
    In Peter E. Gordon, Espen Hammer & Max Pensky (eds.), A Companion to Adorno, Wiley. 2020.
    The literature on Adorno and anti‐Semitism presents a somewhat curious state of affairs. On the one hand, concern with anti‐Semitism is presented as pivotal to his views and major works, at least post‐1940. On the other hand, the account of anti‐Semitism offered by Adorno – and Horkheimer – faces trenchant criticisms for failing to do justice to the complex phenomena at issue. In this Chapter, I re‐examine and re‐evaluate this account. In particular, I argue that they navigate well two central d…Read more
  •  139
    Mental capacity and decisional autonomy: An interdisciplinary challenge
    with Gareth S. Owen, Genevra Richardson, and Matthew Hotopf
    Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 52 (1). 2009.
    With the waves of reform occurring in mental health legislation in England and other jurisdictions, mental capacity is set to become a key medico-legal concept. The concept is central to the law of informed consent and is closely aligned to the philosophical concept of autonomy. It is also closely related to mental disorder. This paper explores the interdisciplinary terrain where mental capacity is located. Our aim is to identify core dilemmas and to suggest pathways for future interdisciplinary…Read more
  •  33
    The Linguistic Turn in the Early Frankfurt School: Horkheimer and Adorno
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 61 (1): 127-148. 2023.
    Abstractabstract:Was there a linguistic turn in Frankfurt School Critical Theory before Habermas's communications-theoretic one? Might later Wittgenstein and the early Frankfurt School have adopted similar pictures of language? I propose that both questions should be answered affirmatively, focusing on Horkheimer's Eclipse of Reason. I argue that, thanks to the picture of language that Horkheimer and Adorno share with (later) Wittgenstein, we can reconstruct their theory in a way that renders it…Read more
  •  8
    Kein scharfsinniger Unsinn, aber auch nicht einfach Unsinn (review)
    Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 69 (2): 331-337. 2021.
  •  31
    Acting Irrespective of Hope
    Kantian Review 25 (4): 605-630. 2020.
    Must we ascribe hope for better times to those who (take themselves to) act morally? Kant and later theorists in the Frankfurt School tradition thought we must. In this article, I disclose that it is possible – and ethical – to refrain from ascribing hope in all such cases. I draw on two key examples of acting irrespective of hope: one from a recent political context and one from the life of Jean Améry. I also suggest that, once we see that it is possible to make sense of (what I call) ‘merely e…Read more
  •  3
    Was ist orthodoxe kritische Theorie?
    In Rüdiger Dannemann, Henry W. Pickford & Hans-Ernst Schiller (eds.), Der Aufrechte Gang Im Windschiefen Kapitalismus: Modelle Kritischen Denkens, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. pp. 141-154. 2016.
    Lukács hat einst provokativ auf seine Frage „Was ist der orthodoxe Marxismus“ geantwortet, dass er in einer bestimmten Methode bestehe. Was aber wenn wir heute fragen, worin orthodoxe kritische Theorie besteht? Meine Antwort ist hierbei nicht eine bestimmte Methode, aber dafür nicht weniger provokant. Was die kritische Theorie kritisch macht ist auch nicht – trotz der vorherrschenden Meinung – ein Begründungsprogram. Im Gegenteil, nur ohne ein Begründungsprogram ist kritische Theorie angemessen …Read more
  •  28
    Dogmatischer Dogmatismusvorwurf: Eine Replik auf Stefan Müller-Doohm und Roman Yos
    Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 67 (1): 42-58. 2019.
    Does theorising always presuppose a programme of justification? Does the Critical Theory of Adorno and Horkheimer do so? Do they claim it does? The answer should be a resounding ‘no’ to all three questions. In regard to the second and third question, I have sketched an argument to that effect in an earlier paper in this journal. In this paper, I offer a rejoinder to the critical reply offered by Stefan Müller-Doohm und Roman Yos on behalf of the Habermasian mainstream in Frankfurt School Critica…Read more
  •  29
    Like two heavyweight boxers exchanging punches, but neither landing the knock-out blow, Kantians and Hegelians seem to be in a stand-off on what in contemporary parlance is known as the Empty Formalism Objection. Kant's ethics is charged with being merely formal and thereby failing to provide the kind of specific guidance that any defensible ethical system should have the resources to provide. Hegel is often credited with having formulated this objection in its most incisive way, and a wealth of…Read more
  •  21
    In this paper, we take up two objections Raymond Geuss levels against John Rawls' ideal theory in Philosophy and Real Politics. We show that, despite their fundamental disagreements, the two theorists share a common starting point: they both reject doing political philosophy by way of applying an independently derived moral theory; and grapple with the danger of unduly privileging the status quo. However, neither Rawls' characterization of politics nor his ideal theoretical approach as response …Read more
  •  61
    Can one both be an Aristotelian in ethics and a negativist, whereby the latter involves subscribing to the view that the good cannot be known in our social context but that ethical guidance is nonetheless possible in virtue of a pluralist conception of the bad? Moreover, is it possible to combine Aristotelianism with a thoroughly historical outlook? I have argued that such combinations are, indeed, possible, and that we can find an example of them in Adorno's work. In this paper, I reply to thre…Read more
  •  12
    Can one both be an Aristotelian in ethics and a negativist, whereby the latter involves subscribing to the view that the good cannot be known in our social context but that ethical guidance is nonetheless possible in virtue of a pluralist conception of the bad? Moreover, is it possible to combine Aristotelianism with a thoroughly historical outlook? I have argued that such combinations are, indeed, possible, and that we can find an example of them in Adorno's work. In this paper, I reply to thre…Read more
  •  31
    A whole lot of misery: Adorno's negative Aristotelianism
    European Journal of Philosophy. forthcoming.
    Can one both be an Aristotelian in ethics and a negativist, whereby the latter involves subscribing to the view that the good cannot be known in our social context but that ethical guidance is nonetheless possible in virtue of a pluralist conception of the bad? Moreover, is it possible to combine Aristotelianism with a thoroughly historical outlook? I have argued that such combinations are, indeed, possible, and that we can find an example of them in Adorno's work. In this paper, I reply to thre…Read more
  •  10
    A whole lot of misery: Adorno's negative Aristotelianism
    European Journal of Philosophy 25 (2): 861-874. 2017.
    To read Adorno as a negativist Aristotelian was always going to be controversial. It is, thus, unsurprising that the common critical concern running through the three reviews assembled here is the Aristotelianism I ascribe to Adorno. I am immensely grateful for these generous and thoughtful contributions, and in what follows I will try to do justice to the concerns they raise. I focus on the ascription of Aristotelianism as the major concern, but I also discuss related and wider comments, regard…Read more
  •  30
    Was ist orthodoxe Kritische Theorie?
    Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 65 (3): 456-469. 2017.
    Name der Zeitschrift: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie Jahrgang: 65 Heft: 3 Seiten: 456-469.
  •  13
    The Legacy of John Rawls (edited book)
    Continuum International Publishing Group. 2005.
    This book fills the void, making a substantial contribution not only to work on Rawls's thought but to contemporary debates in ethics and justice as well.
  •  47
    In this paper, we take up two objections Raymond Geuss levels against John Rawls′ ideal theory in Philosophy and Real Politics. We show that, despite their fundamental disagreements, the two theorists share a common starting point: they both reject doing political philosophy by way of applying an independently derived moral theory; and grapple with the danger of unduly privileging the status quo. However, neither Rawls′ characterization of politics nor his ideal theoretical approach as response …Read more
  • . 2017.
  •  51
    Empty, Useless, and Dangerous? Recent Kantian Replies to the Empty Formalism Objection
    Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain 63 163-186. 2011.
  •  1892
    Adorno’s politics: Theory and praxis in Germany’s 1960s
    Philosophy and Social Criticism 40 (9): 0191453714545198. 2014.
    Theodor W. Adorno inspired much of Germany’s 1960s student movement, but he came increasingly into conflict with this movement about the practical implications of his critical theory. Others – including his friend and colleague Herbert Marcuse – also accused Adorno of a quietism that is politically objectionable and in contradiction with his own theory. In this article, I recon- struct, and partially defend, Adorno’s views on theory and (political) praxis in Germany’s 1960s in 11 theses. His oft…Read more
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  •  28
    No easy way out : Adorno's negativism and the problem of normativity
    In Stefano Giacchetti Ludovisi & G. Agostini Saavedra (eds.), Nostalgia for a Redeemed Future: Critical Theory, University of Delaware. 2009.
    In this paper, I will address a question that has long overshadowed T.W. Adorno?s critical theory, namely, the question of whether or not it is possible to account for normativity within his negativistic philosophy. I believe that we can answer this question in the affirmative, but in this paper my aim will be more limited. I will clarify the problem and lay out the response strategies that are open to those hoping to defend Adorno?s theory. And I will argue that the problem cannot be dismissed …Read more
  •  49
    Critical Theory's Philosophy
    In Freyenhagen Fabian (ed.), , . 2017.