•  75
    Moral Occasionalism
    In Oxford Studies in Metaethics, . pp. 299-325. forthcoming.
    This chapter develops Moral Occasionalism, according to which moral facts are grounded in certain natural facts, which are called sub-moral grounds, and these sub-moral grounds influence us in such a way as to induce largely correct moral beliefs. Moral Occasionalism is designed to explain the correlation of moral beliefs with the moral facts—and to do so in a way that is consistent with non-interactionist views, according to which moral facts neither influence nor are influenced by moral belief…Read more
  •  148
    Human-Centered AI: The Aristotelian Approach
    with Ava Wright
    Divus Thomas 126 (2): 200-218. 2023.
    As we build increasingly intelligent machines, we confront difficult questions about how to specify their objectives. One approach, which we call human-centered, tasks the machine with the objective of learning and satisfying human objectives by observing our behavior. This paper considers how human-centered AI should conceive the humans it is trying to help. We argue that an Aristotelian model of human agency has certain advantages over the currently dominant theory drawn from economics.
  •  232
    Rule by Automation: How Automated Decision Systems Promote Freedom and Equality
    Moral Philosophy and Politics 9 (2): 201-218. 2022.
    Using automated systems to avoid the need for human discretion in government contexts – a scenario we call ‘rule by automation’ – can help us achieve the ideal of a free and equal society. Drawing on relational theories of freedom and equality, we explain how rule by automation is a more complete realization of the rule of law and why thinkers in these traditions have strong reasons to support it. Relational theories are based on the absence of human domination and hierarchy, which automation he…Read more
  •  330
    In the beginning of the COVID pandemic, researchers and bioethicists called for human challenge trials to hasten the development of a vaccine for COVID. However, the fact that we lacked a specific, highly effective treatment for COVID led many to argue that a COVID challenge trial would be unethical and we ought to pursue traditional phase III testing instead. These ethical objections to challenge trials may have slowed the progress of a COVID vaccine, so it is important to evaluate their merit.…Read more
  •  483
    Anscombe's Relative Bruteness
    Philosophical News 18 135-145. 2020.
    Ethical beliefs are not justified by familiar methods. We do not directly sense ethical properties, at least not in the straightforward way we sense colors or shapes. Nor is it plausible to think – despite a tradition claiming otherwise – that there are self-evident ethical truths that we can know in the way we know conceptual or mathematical truths. Yet, if we are justified in believing anything, we are justified in believing various ethical propositions e.g., that slavery is wrong. If ethical …Read more
  •  73
    Moral Perception and Morally Relevant Perception
    ASEBL Journal 13 19-27. 2018.
    You might bear witness to some injustice, but can you witness the injustice itself? At first glance, it’s tempting to say “yes.” Sometimes we see things that provoke an immediate judgement that some act is wrong just as we sometimes see things that provoke the immediate judgement that e.g. the book is red or that our friend is angry. It seems like we perceive the injustice just as we perceive the redness or the anger. Natural as that position is, I argue that it is a mistake and that those who h…Read more
  •  43
    You Give Love A Bad Name
    Business Ethics Journal Review 7 (2): 7-13. 2019.
    Brennan and Jaworski (2018) accuse me of misunderstanding their thesis and failing to produce a counterexample to it. In this Response, I clarify my central argument in “Can’t Buy Me Love,” explain why I used prostitution as an example, and work to advance the debate.
  •  453
    Is, Ought, and the Regress Argument
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 97 (3): 528-543. 2019.
    Many take the claim that you cannot ‘get’ an ‘ought’ from an ‘is’ to imply that non- moral beliefs are by themselves incapable of justifying moral beliefs. I argue that this is a mistake and that the position that moral beliefs are justified exclusively by non-moral beliefs—a view that I call moral inferentialism—presents an attractive non-sceptical moral epistemology.
  •  36
    Can’t Buy Approval
    Business Ethics Journal Review 6 (2): 7-10. 2018.
    James Stacey Taylor claims that my argument in “Can’t Buy Me Love” is both incomplete and doomed to fail. I grant some of Taylor’s points, but remind him that semiotic objections to the commodification of certain goods are strongest when we think not about individual market transactions, but about what it means for a society to support the market in question.
  •  36
    Capacity, Obligation, and Medical Billing
    with Mark Wells
    Journal of Value Inquiry 52 (1): 17-24. 2018.
    It is a common assumption that medical institutions may permissibly use the force of law to seek remuneration for costs incurred in medical intervention done without patient consent. In this paper, we challenge that assumption. Specifically, we claim that: Generally, when patients who lack capacity are given medical treatment without their consent, those practitioners who treated them are wrong to use legal mechanisms to secure remuneration for that treatment.
  •  725
    Can’t Buy Me Love
    Journal of Philosophical Research 42 341-352. 2017.
    Critics of commodification often claim that the buying and selling of some good communicates disrespect or some other inappropriate attitude. Such semiotic critiques have been leveled against markets in sex, pornography, kidneys, surrogacy, blood, and many other things. Brennan and Jaworski (2015a) have recently argued that all such objections fail. They claim that the meaning of a market transaction is a highly contingent, socially constructed fact. If allowing a market for one of these goods c…Read more