-
1What Virtue Adds to ValueAustralasian Philosophical Review 6 (2): 113-128. 2022.ABSTRACT In virtually every corner of ethics—including discussions of value, practical reasoning, moral psychology, and justice—it is common for theorists to suggest that our actions, attitudes, or emotions should be proportional to the degree of value present in the objects or events to which they are responding. I argue that there is a fundamental problem with these approaches: they overlook the character of the agent and what it adds to the equation. I show that a commitment to proportionalit…Read more
-
1Creativity and the Value of VirtueAustralasian Philosophical Review 6 (2): 204-218. 2022.1. This is the second in a two-part investigation of the relationship between virtue and value. It focuses principally on two questions that part 1 [Pettigrove 2022] left readers asking.1 First, is...
-
63The Case for Rage: Why Anger Is Essential to Anti-racist StrugglePhilosophical Review 132 (4): 637-641. 2023.
-
7Rights, Reasons, and Religious ConflictSocial Philosophy Today 21 81-93. 2005.The role of religious commitments in John Rawls’s version of political liberalism has drawn frequent criticism. Some of the critics have complained that it fails to respect those with deep religious commitments by excluding explicitly religious reasons from debate about fundamental issues of justice. Others criticize the exclusion of religious reasons on the ground that it is unnecessary. Political liberalism, they argue, can accommodate appeals to religious reasons. For critics of both stripes,…Read more
-
10The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy and Psychology of Forgiveness (edited book)Routledge. 2023.Brings into conversation research in two separate disciplines, offering readers a comprehensive guide to current forgiveness research. Its 42 chapters are divided into five sections: I. Religious Traditions; II. Historic Treatments; III. The Nature of Forgiveness; IV. Normative Issues; V. Empirical Findings.
-
26Nir Eisikovits Sympathizing with the Enemy: Reconciliation, Transitional Justice, NegotiationJournal of Moral Philosophy 9 (3): 470-472. 2012.
-
19Morality and the Emotions, edited by Bagnoli Carla: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. vii + 304, £37.50 (hardback) (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 91 (4): 801-804. 2013.
-
21Morality and the Emotions, edited by Bagnoli Carla: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. vii + 304, £37.50Australasian Journal of Philosophy 91 (4): 801-804. 2013.No abstract
-
45I Was Wrong (review)Social Theory and Practice 36 (2): 355-362. 2010.In I Was Wrong, Nick Smith explores a number of factors that contribute to our evaluation of apologies as being better or worse, adequate or inadequate. After discussing some of the strengths of Smith's account, I consider some of its limitations. In particular, I draw attention to a number of qualities that contribute to our normative assessment of apologies but that have been neglected by recent discussions of the ethics of apologizing.
-
66Forgiveness without God?Journal of Religious Ethics 40 (3): 518-544. 2012.Of the many forgiveness-related questions that she takes up in her novels, the one with which Iris Murdoch wrestles most often is the question, “Is forgiveness possible without God?” The aim of this essay is to show, in the first instance, why the question Murdoch persistently raises is a question worth asking. Alongside this primary aim stands a secondary one, which is to consider how one might glean moral insights from the Christian tradition even if one does not (any longer) endorse its theol…Read more
-
13From Enlightenment to Receptivity: Rethinking Our Values, by Michael SloteMind 124 (493): 384-387. 2015.
-
11Christel Fricke (ed.), The Ethics of Forgiveness: A Collection of Essays (New York: Routledge, 2011) 212 pp. ISBN: 9780415885430. £76.00 (review)Journal of Moral Philosophy 10 (4): 564-566. 2013.
-
19Character as Moral Fiction, written by Mark AlfanoJournal of Moral Philosophy 14 (2): 233-236. 2017.
-
30Anger and Forgiveness: Resentment, Generosity, Justice, by Martha Nussbaum (review)Faith and Philosophy 34 (1): 110-114. 2017.
-
16The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy and Pyschology of Forgiveness (edited book)Routledge. 2023.Brings into conversation research in two separate disciplines, offering readers a comprehensive guide to current forgiveness research. Its 42 chapters are divided into five sections: I. Religious Traditions; II. Historic Treatments; III. The Nature of Forgiveness; IV. Normative Issues; V. Empirical Findings.
-
Characters and rolesIn Tim Dare & Christine Swanton (eds.), Perspectives in Role Ethics: Virtues, Reasons, and Obligation, Routledge. 2019.
-
33Neglected Virtues (edited book)Routledge. 2021.This book explores the nitty-gritty details of particular virtues. Most of the virtues discussed--ambition, cheerfulness, creativity, magnificence, pride, wit, wonder--have been almost wholly neglected by contemporary ethicists.
-
108The Ethics of Social Punishment: The Enforcement of Morality in Everyday LifeCambridge University Press. 2020.How do we punish others socially, and should we do so? In her 2018 Descartes Lectures for Tilburg University, Linda Radzik explores the informal methods ordinary people use to enforce moral norms, such as telling people off, boycotting businesses, and publicly shaming wrongdoers on social media. Over three lectures, Radzik develops an account of what social punishment is, why it is sometimes permissible, and when it must be withheld. She argues that the proper aim of social punishment is to put …Read more
-
20Attitudes and PracticesAustralasian Philosophical Review 3 (3): 288-304. 2019.ABSTRACT The philosophical literature on forgiveness has ignored a distinction that has a profound bearing on when we should forgive, namely, the distinction between attitudes and practices. Most of the literature focuses on the attitudes called for in the aftermath of wrongdoing. And it attempts to derive the ethics of forgiving directly from the ethical profile of those attitudes. However, attitudes underdetermine what one ought to do. I argue that assessing what we should do also requires us …Read more
-
38II—Ambition, Love, And HappinessProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 120 (1): 21-45. 2020.What is the relationship between ambition and love? While discussions of happiness often mention romances, friendships, aspirations, and achievements, the relationship between these features is seldom discussed. This paper aims to fill that gap. It begins with a suggestive remark made by La Rochefoucauld and repeated by Adam Smith: ‘Love often leads on to ambition, but seldom does one return from ambition to love.’ To explain what accounts for such a pattern, I introduce a distinction between st…Read more
-
Seeking Forgiveness: Studies in Moral and Political PhilosophyDissertation, University of California, Riverside. 2003.Recent years have witnessed a renewed interest in forgiveness and apology in a number-of disciplines, including political science, sociology, psychology, theology and philosophy. Many of these discussions have been hampered by a lack of clarity regarding the concepts and practices relevant to seeking and offering forgiveness. The following studies analyze apologizing, forgiving and related practices in order to promote a better understanding of apology and forgiveness in personal and political c…Read more
-
1Palestinian Political Forgiveness: Agency, Permissibility, and ProspectsSocial Theory and Practice 4 (36): 661-688. 2010.The Israel-Palestine conflict stands at the heart of tensions in the Middle East and, more than that, at the heart of tensions between the West and the Islamic world. It is sometimes suggested that the resolution of this conflict will require forgiveness on the part of both Palestine and Israel. However, what such forgiveness would involve has not been adequately explored. Our aim is to remedy this gap in the discussion. Our consideration of Palestinian political forgiveness will address thr…Read more
-
1Changing Our MindIn Michael Brady & Miranda Fricker (eds.), The Epistemic Life of Groups: Essays in the Epistemology of Collectives, Oxford University Press Uk. pp. 111-129. 2016.A complete analysis of group knowledge would include an account of the acquisition and revision of group beliefs. This paper explores what an account of group belief revision would require. Focusing on moral communities and moral beliefs, I identify a number of ways in which such communities might revise their beliefs. And I develop an account of group belief revision that can accommodate modifications of a) propositional content, b) non-propositional content, c) understanding and d) concepti…Read more
-
51Death, asymmetry and the psychological selfPacific Philosophical Quarterly 83 (4). 2002.Lucretius thought that we should be as indifferent to the time of our death as we are toward the time of our birth. This paper will critique the ways in which Thomas Nagel, Frederik Kaufman and Christopher Belshaw have appealed to a psychological notion of the self in an attempt to defend our asymmetric intuitions against Lucretius’ claim. Four objections are marshalled against the psychological–self strategy: (1) the psychological notion of the self fails to capture all of our intuitions about …Read more
-
73Apology, Reparations, and the Question of Inherited GuiltPublic Affairs Quarterly 17 (4): 319-348. 2003.The paper addresses the question of the appropriateness of a Congressional apology for American slavery. After offering an account of what an apology entails, I consider the claim that today's Congress fails to stand in the right relation to the guilt of American slavery to apologize for it. I argue that, while the current Congress and the constituency it represents do not bear a guilt that would permit it to apologize FOR slavery, it has inherited a guilt RELATED TO slavery for which it is appr…Read more
-
84The Forgiveness We Speak: The Illocutionary Force of ForgivingSouthern Journal of Philosophy 42 (3): 371-392. 2004.What are we doing when we say "I forgive you"? This paper employs Austin's notion of illocutionary force to analyze three different kinds of acts in which we might engage when saying "I forgive you." We might use it (1) to disclose an emotional condition, (2) to declare a debt cancelled, or (3) to commit ourselves to a future course of action. I suggest that the forgiving utterances we seek possess qualities of both the first and the third types of speech-acts.
-
134Unapologetic ForgivenessAmerican Philosophical Quarterly 41 (3). 2004.The paper responds to those who argue that it is morally objectionable to forgive the unapologetic. I argue that it is both possible and permissible to forgive the unapologetic. Along the way the analysis sheds light on the relationship between forgiveness and trust, condonation, self-respect, punishment, justice and apology.
-
52Rights, Reasons, and Religious ConflictSocial Philosophy Today 21 81-93. 2005.The role of religious commitments in John Rawls’s version of political liberalism has drawn frequent criticism. Some of the critics have complained that it fails to respect those with deep religious commitments by excluding explicitly religious reasons from debate about fundamental issues of justice. Others criticize the exclusion of religious reasons on the ground that it is unnecessary. Political liberalism, they argue, can accommodate appeals to religious reasons. For critics of both stripes,…Read more