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21The Virtue of Playfulness: Why Happy People Are PlayfulRoutledge. forthcoming.This book argues that in order for people to live well, they must develop a virtue of playfulness. Inspired by Aristotle, the book draws on work from philosophy, classics, history, biology, psychology, and media studies to understand the place of play and playfulness in a good life. Many philosophers have written about play, from Presocratics such as Heraclitus to contemporary philosophers such as Bernard Suits. Some champion play as the most crucial value in life. Others deride it and warn stro…Read more
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699Stoicism Sucks: How Stoicism Undervalues Good Things and Exploits Vulnerable PeopleSouthwest Philosophy Review 40 (1): 25-34. 2024.Stoicism deserves everything that Broic$ are doing to its movement. This is because Stoics stuff the value of everything into their own heads, thus denying that external things are good and that other people have intrinsic value. Stoics are psychopathic narcissists and axiological solipsists. And this makes Stoicism easy to coopt into bro-y, shallow, self-help-y garbage.
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31Dio Chrysostom’s Ancient Arguments against Owning Slaves: How Cynic Contrarianism Resists InjusticeJournal of Value Inquiry. 2023.Whereas Aristotle defended the appropriateness of slavery and Seneca derided only its cruelty, Dio Chrysostom vehemently opposed any argument in favor of keeping slaves. And he did it in the 1st Century CE Greco-Roman world, a society comfortable with slavery. This paper analyzes Dio’s dialogue _The Tenth Discourse: Diogenes or on Servants_ to try to understand how Cynics addressed the wrongs of slavery when so many other philosophers did not. The paper argues that Cynic commitments to self-suff…Read more
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19How to Say No: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Cynicism. Selected, translated, and introduced by M.D. UsherAncient Philosophy 43 (2): 557-560. 2023.
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17Experience Machines: The Philosophy of Virtual Worlds, edited by Mark SilcoxJournal of Moral Philosophy 17 (4): 468-470. 2020.
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12The Philosophy of Happiness: An Interdisciplinary Introduction, written by Lorraine L. BesserJournal of Moral Philosophy 20 (3-4): 339-341. 2023.
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758Possessed: The Cynics on Wealth and PleasureSouthwest Philosophy Review 38 (1): 17-29. 2022.Aristotle argued that you need some wealth to live well. The Stoics argued that you could live well with or without wealth. But the Cynics argued that wealth is a hinderance. For the Cynics, a good life consists in self-sufficiency, or being able to rule and help yourself. You accomplish this by living simply and naturally, and by subjecting yourself to rigorous philosophical exercises. Cynics confronted people to get them to abandon extraneous possessions and positions of power to live better. …Read more
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334The Benefits of Being a Suicidal Curmudgeon: Emil Cioran on Killing YourselfSouthwest Philosophy Review 37 (1): 219-228. 2021.Emil Cioran offers novel arguments against suicide. He assumes a meaningless world. But in such a world, he argues, suicide and death would be equally as meaningless as life or anything else. Suicide and death are as cumbersome and useless as meaning and life. Yet Cioran also argues that we should contemplate suicide to live better lives. By contemplating suicide, we confront the deep suffering inherent in existence. This humbles us enough to allow us to change even the deepest aspects of oursel…Read more
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293Friendship for the Flawed: A Cynical and Pessimistic Theory of FriendshipSouthwest Philosophy Review 36 (1): 199-209. 2020.When considering the value of friendship, most philosophers ignore the negatives. Most assume that humans need friends to flourish, and some argue that friendships can be good, no matter the risks entailed. This makes conversations about the value of friendship one-sided. Here, I argue that Cynics and Pessimists have an important view on friendship, despite it being ignored. They hold that: (a) friendship is unnecessary for flourishing, and (b) friendship presents ethical risks, especially to on…Read more
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32No Laughing Matter: Playfulness and a Good LifeDissertation, Vanderbilt University. 2019.In this dissertation, I adapt Aristotle and neo-Aristotelian philosophers to argue that a virtue of playfulness exists, and playfulness is necessary for achieving happiness. Playfulness helps people, uniquely and especially, to use their leisure time to rest, cultivate themselves, and engage their communities. This virtue of playfulness is so important for happiness that a person cannot live a good life without it. This argument offers a framework that can sort good from bad instances of play an…Read more
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39From Taquería to Medical School: Juan Carlos, Aristotle, Cognitive Enhancements, and a Good LifeTechné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 22 (1): 1-27. 2018.This paper begins with a vignette of Juan Carlos, an immigrant to America who works to support his family, attends classes at a community college, and cares for his ill daughter. It argues that an Aristotelian virtue ethicist could condone a safe, legal, and virtuous use of cognitive enhancements in Juan Carlos’s case. The argument is that if an enhancement can lead him closer to eudaimonia, then it is morally permissible to use it. The paper closes by demonstrating how common objections to cogn…Read more
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33From Taquería to Medical SchoolTechné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 22 (1): 1-27. 2018.This paper begins with a vignette of Juan Carlos, an immigrant to America who works to support his family, attends classes at a community college, and cares for his ill daughter. It argues that an Aristotelian virtue ethicist could condone a safe, legal, and virtuous use of cognitive enhancements in Juan Carlos’s case. The argument is that if an enhancement can lead him closer to eudaimonia (i.e., flourishing, or a good life), then it is morally permissible to use it. The paper closes by demonst…Read more
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234Socratic Oblivion and the Siren Songs of Academe: Responding to Anne-Marie Schultz's "Stirring up America's Sleeping Horses"Southwest Philosophy Review 34 (1): 23-30. 2018.
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294What Race Terms Do: Du Bois, Biology, and Psychology on the Meanings of "Race"Southwest Philosophy Review 34 (1): 235-247. 2018.This paper does two things. First, it interprets the work of W. E. B. Du Bois to reveal that the meanings of race terms are grounded by both a historical and an aspirational component. Race terms refer to a backward-looking component that traces the history of the group to its present time, as well as a forward-looking component that sets out values and goals for the group. Race terms thus refer to a complex cluster of concepts that involve biological, sociological, historical, moral, and politi…Read more
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32From Taquería to Medical School: Juan Carlos, Aristotle, Cognitive Enhancements, and a Good LifeTechné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 22 (1). 2018.This paper begins with a vignette of Juan Carlos, an immigrant to America who works to support his family, attends classes at a community college, and cares for his ill daughter. It argues that an Aristotelian virtue ethicist could condone a safe, legal, and virtuous use of cognitive enhancements in Juan Carlos’s case. The argument is that if an enhancement can lead him closer to eudaimonia (i.e., flourishing, or a good life), then it is morally permissible to use it. The paper closes by demonst…Read more
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216Reasons to Care about Reasons for Action: A Response to Paul S. DaviesSouthwest Philosophy Review 32 (2): 43-48. 2016.
El Paso, Texas, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Normative Ethics |
Moral Psychology |
Virtue Ethics |