•  46
    Childhood Obesity: Ethical and Policy Issues
    with Kristin Voigt and Stuart G. Nicholls
    Oxford University Press. 2014.
    Childhood obesity has become a central concern in many countries and a range of policies have been implemented or proposed to address it. This co-authored book is the first to focus on the ethical and policy questions raised by childhood obesity and its prevention. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize that childhood obesity is a multi-faceted phenomenon, and just one of many issues that parents, schools and societies face. They argue that it is important to acknowledge the resulting comple…Read more
  •  7
    My discussion will focus on Simester’s overall analysis of the “general part” of criminal law theory, setting aside the book’s rich and careful analyses of many specific topics. Quite rightly, in my view, Simester wishes to emphasize criminal law’s prohibitions, and their moral as well as legal importance. My criticism is that Simester runs together moral and legal categories in a way that distorts both. Simester grounds lawful punishment in a specific notion of moral culpability. In my view, th…Read more
  •  28
    Poverty, Dignity, and the Kingdom of Ends
    In Jan-Willem van der Rijt & Adam Steven Cureton (eds.), Human Dignity and the Kingdom of Ends: Kantian Perspectives and Practical Applications, Routledge. pp. 206-223. 2021.
    In this chapter we argue that poverty should be seen as a violation of dignity, drawing on two of Kant’s formulations of the Categorical Imperative – the formula of humanity and the formula of the kingdom of ends. In our view, poverty should not be seen primarily in terms of exploitation, nor of failures to help people in need. A Kantian perspective should give proper weight to the actual and potential agency of those who suffer poverty. This is a question about power, not just the distribution …Read more
  •  24
    Beyond (Non)-Instrumentalization: Migration and Dignity within a Kantian Framework
    Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 26 (2): 209-224. 2022.
    This article offers a Kantian account of dignity violations in the context of contemporary migration to western states. It considers three major issues: “modern slavery,” statutory detention, and lack of rights to engage in economic activity. While most Kantian accounts emphasize the dignity violations of treating people as “mere means,” we point out that this does not capture the central issue: the “hostile environment” that so many migrants face. The first part of the article briefly sets out …Read more
  •  114
    Responsibilities for Healthcare - Kantian Reflections
    Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 21 (2): 155-165. 2012.
    This paper explores some ways in which Immanuel Kant’s ethical theory can be brought to bear on professional and health care ethics. Health care professionals are not mere individuals acting upon their own ends. Rather, their principles of action must be defined in terms of participation in a cooperative endeavor. This generates complex questions as to how well their roles mesh with one another and whether they comprise a well-formed collective agent. We argue that Kant’s ethics therefore, and p…Read more
  •  49
    Taking Responsibility for Negligence and Non-negligence
    Criminal Law and Philosophy 14 (1): 113-134. 2020.
    Negligence reminds us that we often do and cause things unawares, occasionally with grave results. Given the lack of foresight and intention, some authors argue that people should not be judged culpable for negligence. This paper offers a contrasting view. It argues that gaining control is itself a fundamental responsibility, with both collective and individual elements. The paper underlines both sides, focussing on how they relate as we ascribe responsibility or culpability. Following the intro…Read more
  •  58
    The Social Creation of Morality and Complicity in Collective Harms: A Kantian Account
    Journal of Applied Philosophy 36 (3): 457-470. 2018.
    This article considers the charge that citizens of developed societies are complicit in large-scale harms, using climate destabilisation as its central example. It contends that we have yet to create a lived morality – a fabric of practices and institutions – that is adequate to our situation. As a result, we participate in systematic injustice, despite all good efforts and intentions. To make this case, the article draws on recent discussions of Kant’s ethics and politics. Section 1 considers T…Read more
  •  25
    Regulation Enables: Corporate Agency and Practices of Responsibility
    Journal of Business Ethics 154 (4): 989-1002. 2019.
    Both advocates of corporate regulation and its opponents tend to depict regulation as restrictive—a policy option that limits freedom in the name of welfare or other social goods. Against this framing, I suggest we can understand regulation in enabling terms. If well designed and properly enforced, regulation enables companies to operate in ways that are acceptable to society as a whole. This paper argues for this enabling character by considering some wider questions about responsibility and th…Read more
  •  43
    An empirical survey on biobanking of human genetic material and data in six EU countries
    with Isabelle Hirtzlin, Christine Dubreuil, Nathalie Préaubert, Jenny Duchier, Brigitte Jansen, Jürgen Simon, Paula Lobatao De Faria, Anna Perez-Lezaun, Bert Visser, Anne Cambon-Thomsen, and The Eurogenbank Consortium
    European Journal of Human Genetics 11. 2003.
    Biobanks correspond to different situations: research and technological development, medical diagnosis or therapeutic activities. Their status is not clearly defined. We aimed to investigate human biobanking in Europe, particularly in relation to organisational, economic and ethical issues in various national contexts. Data from a survey in six EU countries were collected as part of a European Research Project examining human and non-human biobanking. A total of 147 institutions concerned with b…Read more
  •  1738
    Hannah Arendt on Power
    In Keith Dowding (ed.), Encyclopedia of Power, Sage. pp. 26-28. 2011.
    Hannah Arendt’s (1906-1975) conception of power is entirely distinctive. It is rooted in a political philosophy that celebrates the public realm of freedom that emerges when people act with others as citizens or political equals. For Arendt, power is actualized where people act together to sustain or to change the world they share with one another. Her fundamental claim is this: ‘Power corresponds to the human ability not just to act but to act in concert. Power is never the property of an indiv…Read more
  •  77
    This paper considers the often-expressed fear that medical research may use children merely as means, and not respect them as ends in themselves – especially insofar as they are deemed less able to consent than adults. The main focus is on large-scale genetic, socio-medical and epidemiological research. The theoretical starting point of the paper is that to be treated as an end in oneself is to be regarded as – and to act as – a participant in cooperative endeavours. This participatory status is…Read more
  • Ethical issues surrounding research are complex and multifaceted. There are issues concerning: the methods used, the intended purpose, the foreseen and unforeseen effects, the use and dissemination of findings, and, not least, what is and what fails to be researched. - In this article we break down the issues into two main categories: (I) how the research itself is done; and (II) how it is determined by and in turn affects a wider context. In the first section we discuss familiar issues such as …Read more
  •  51
    Two approaches to moral responsibility : part two
    Richmond Journal of Philosophy 6 14-19. 2004.
    In this first part of the article, I want to sketch two things. First, I will say something about the idea of free will. The paradoxes involved in this idea often occur to people even before they come to philosophy, and these difficulties will be central to Kant’s account. But second, before turning to Kant, I would like to tackle Aristotle’s broad approach, and show that, before free will was invented by Christian philosophers, there was a quite different way of thinking about moral responsibil…Read more
  •  36
    Review article of Christopher Kutz, Complicity: Ethics and Law for a Collective Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)
  •  80
    Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) is likely to be the first woman to join the canon of the great philosophers. Arendt's work has attracted a huge volume of scholarship. This collection reprints papers from the USA, Germany, France and the UK, where further scholarly work is emerging at an increasing pace. Given that there was vigorous debate of her work in her lifetime, that there have since been several waves of evaluation and re-evaluation, and because a new generation of scholars is now coming to her…Read more
  •  286
    Like most bioethical discussion, examination of human biobanks has been largely framed in terms of research subjects’ rights, principally informed consent, with some gestures toward public benefits. However, informed consent is for the competent, rights-bearing individual: focussing on the individual, it thus neglects social, economic and even political matters; focussing on the competent rights-bearer, it does not serve situations where consent is plainly inappropriate (eg, the young child) or …Read more
  •  8
    Wendy Brown, Politics Out of History [Review of book] (review)
    Philosophy in Review 23 (6): 376-378. 2003.
  •  24
    Responsibility
    In Ruth Chadwick (ed.), Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics (Second Edition), Elsevier. pp. 821-828. 2012.
    Discusses what is involved in describing a person as responsible: she has responsibilities that she is duty-bound to undertake, and may be held responsible when she fails to fulfill these. Considers why societies and organizations divide responsibilities between persons. Also considers how questions of responsibility arise in the spheres of morality, law, organizational life and politics, and how different modes of holding responsible may be appropriate in each. Concludes with a brief discussion…Read more
  •  28
    The ethics of evaluating obesity intervention studies on children
    with Dita Wickins-Drazilova
    International Journal of Obesity 35 (supplement). 2011.
    The methodology of the IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of dietary- and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants) study raises a number of important ethical questions. Many of these are already well recognised in ethical guidelines that uphold principles of individual and parental consent, confidentiality and scientific review. There are, however, wider issues that require ethical reflection. In this paper, we focus on a set of problems surrounding the evaluation of complex…Read more
  •  51
    Kant and the question of meaning
    Philosophical Forum 30 (2). 1999.
    This paper discusses Kant’s problematic attempts to come to grips with the question of meaning. The first section sets out the problem as Kant discovers it, under the idea of a ‘Categorical Imperative.’ The second looks directly at his thoughts on the question of meaning, in connection with individual dignity, personal fulfilment and hope for our common future. Third, I examine inadequacies in Kant’s account, while the fourth part suggests that these arise through a lack of faith in the practica…Read more
  •  107
    Human genetic banking: altruism, benefit and consent
    New Genetics and Society 23 (1): 89-103. 2004.
    This article considers how we should frame the ethical issues raised by current proposals for large-scale genebanks with on-going links to medical and lifestyle data, such as the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council's 'UK Biobank'. As recent scandals such as Alder Hey have emphasised, there are complex issues concerning the informed consent of donors that need to be carefully considered. However, we believe that a preoccupation with informed consent obscures important questions about the …Read more
  •  58
    Disclosure and responsibility in Arendt’s The Human Condition
    European Journal of Political Theory 14 (1): 37-54. 2015.
    Hannah Arendt is one of the few philosophers to examine the dynamics of political action at length. Intriguingly, she emphasises the disclosure of who the actor is as a specific distinction of political action. This emphasis is connected with some long-standing worries about Arendt’s account that centre on its apparent unconcern for political responsibility. In this paper, I argue that Arendt’s emphasis on disclosure actually harbours a profound concern with responsibility. I do so by examining …Read more
  •  18
  •  49
    A brief discussion of means and ends in Arendt's political theory, which considers the following quotation from Arendt's essay, 'What is freedom?': "Political institutions, no matter how well or badly designed, depend for continued existence upon acting men; their conservation is achieved by the same means that brought them into being. Independent existence marks the work of art as a product of making; utter dependence upon further acts to keep it in existence marks the state as a product of act…Read more
  •  124
    Nietzsche's response to Kant's morality
    Philosophical Forum 30 (3). 1999.
    Although commentators sometimes mention a link between Kant and Nietzsche, this paper claims that the continuities in their moral thought have been insufficiently explored. I argue that Nietzsche may offer us a profound rethinking of Kant’s morality – one indebted to Kant’s ideal of critique. The paper first considers the wide apparent gulf between the thinkers. The second section seeks to explain this gulf in terms which relate to Kant’s overall project, while the final section deals with Nietz…Read more
  •  67
    'Infrastructures of responsibility': The moral tasks of institutions
    Journal of Applied Philosophy 23 (2). 2006.
    The members of any functioning modern society live their lives amid complex networks of overlapping institutions. Apart from the major political institutions of law and government, however, much normative political theory seems to regard this institutional fabric as largely a pragmatic convenience. This paper contests this assumption by reflecting on how institutions both constrain and enable spheres of effective action and responsibility. In this way a society’s institutional fabric constitutes…Read more
  •  54
    Gewissen/Moral [Hannah Arendt on Conscience & Morality]
    In Wolfgang Heuer, Bernd Heiter & Stefanie Rosenmüller (eds.), Arendt Handbuch: Leben - Werk - Wirkung, Metzler Verlag. 2011.
    Discusses the different senses of morality in Hannah Arendt's work, and her understanding of conscience.
  •  87
    Blame and responsibility
    Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 6 (4): 427-445. 2003.
    This paper looks at judgments of guilt in the face of alleged wrong-doing, be it in public or in private discourse. Its concern is not the truth of such judgments, although the complexity and contestability of such claims will be stressed. The topic, instead, is what sort of activities we are engaged in, when we make our judgments on others' conduct. To examine judging as an activity it focuses on a series of problems that can occur when we blame others. On analysis, we see that these problems t…Read more