•  394
    Realism in the ethics of immigration
    Philosophy and Social Criticism 49 (8): 950-974. 2023.
    The ethics of immigration is currently marked by a division between realists and idealists. The idealists generally focus on formulating morally ideal immigration policies. The realists, however, tend to dismiss these ideals as far-fetched and infeasible. In contrast to the idealists, the realists seek to resolve pressing practical issues relating to immigration, principally by advancing what they consider to be actionable policy recommendations. In this article, I take issue with this conceptio…Read more
  •  120
    Nietzsche on the necessity of repression
    Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 66 (1): 1-30. 2023.
    It has become orthodox to read Nietzsche as proposing the ‘sublimation’ of troublesome behavioural impulses. On this interpretation, he is said to denigrate the elimination of our impulses, preferring that we master them by pressing them into the service of our higher goals. My thesis is that this reading of Nietzsche’s conception of self-cultivation does not bear scrutiny. Closer examination of his later thought reveals numerous texts that show him explicitly recommending an eliminatory approac…Read more
  •  110
    Nietzsche on the Sources of Agonal Moderation
    Journal of Nietzsche Studies 49 (1): 102-129. 2018.
    I do not recommend peace to you, but victory instead. Your work shall be a struggle, your peace shall be a victory!As can be seen from the epigraph, Nietzsche famously entreats his readers to pursue a life of struggle and victory as opposed to one of peace. This is not a singular occurrence. For instance, in a notebook entry of the same period, he calls for an "unleashing of struggle [Kampf]" with the objective of instigating sociocultural rejuvenation, thereby echoing many of the social Darwini…Read more
  •  109
    Warding off the Evil Eye: Peer Envy in Rawls's Just Society
    Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie. forthcoming.
    This article critically analyzes Rawls’s attitude toward envy. In A Theory of Justice, Rawls is predominantly concerned with the threat that class envy poses to political stability. Yet he also briefly discusses the kind of envy that individuals experience toward their social peers, which he calls particular envy, and which I refer to as peer envy. He quickly concludes, however, that particular envy would not present a serious risk to the stability of his just society. In this article, I contest…Read more
  •  104
    Wittgenstein and the Utility of Disagreement
    Social Theory and Practice 42 (1): 1-31. 2016.
  •  93
    The Value of Malevolent Creativity
    Journal of Value Inquiry 55 (1): 127-144. 2020.
    Until recently, theorists of creativity have consistently maintained that two necessary conditions must be satisfied in order for us to legitimately ascribe creativity to a given phenomenon: a) that it exhibit novelty, and b) that it possess value. However, researchers investigating malevolent forms of creativity have claimed that the value condition is problematic insofar as we often ascribe creativity to products that are of entirely negative value for us. This has given rise to a number of mo…Read more
  •  90
    Nietzsche on Instinct and Language ed. by João Constâncio and Maria João Mayer Branco (review) (review)
    Journal of Nietzsche Studies 44 (1): 115-117. 2013.
    Nietzsche’s critique of the will to truth, and, more specifically, the metaphysical tradition, is inextricable from both his philosophy of language and his turn to physiology. Though the way in which Nietzsche conceived of the intertwinement of language, reason, and the body developed through the course of his philosophical maturation, it is nonetheless a recurrent motif spanning the breadth of his oeuvre. As the editors state in their introduction to Nietzsche on Instinct and Language (NIL), th…Read more
  •  87
    United we stand, divided we fall: the early Nietzsche on the struggle for organisation
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 49 (4): 508-533. 2019.
    ABSTRACTAccording to Nietzsche, both modern individuals and societies are pathologically fragmented. In this paper, I examine how he proposes we combat this affliction in his Untimely Meditations. I argue that he advocates a dual struggle involving both instrumental domination and eradication. On these grounds, I claim the following: 1. pace a growing number of commentators, we cannot categorise the species of conflict he endorses in the Untimely Meditations as agonistic; and 2. this conflict is…Read more
  •  44
    This article disputes Freud's reading of “The Sandman,” in which he seeks to explain the text's uncanniness primarily with reference to his theory of the castration complex. Rather than abandon Freud altogether, however, I demonstrate how the uncanny effects of Hoffmann's tale are best understood with reference to Freud's concept of “total narcissism.” Specifically, I argue that the ambiguities surrounding this notion are profoundly interwoven with the uncanniness of “The Sandman's” “doubles.” F…Read more
  •  26
    Name der Zeitschrift: Nietzsche-Studien Jahrgang: 45 Heft: 1 Seiten: 3-32.
  •  19
    Nietzsche on Conflict, Struggle and War
    Cambridge University Press. 2022.
    Nietzsche controversially valorizes struggle and war as necessary ingredients of human flourishing. In this book, James S. Pearson reconstructs Nietzsche's rationale for placing such high value on relations of conflict. In doing so, Pearson reveals how Nietzsche's celebration of social discord is interwoven with his understanding of nature as universal struggle. This study thus draws together Nietzsche's writings on politics, culture, metaphysics, biology and human psychology. It also overcomes …Read more
  • Finding What Will Suffice: Stevens and the Post-Hegelian Evaluation of Art
    Wallace Stevens Journal 36 (2): 242-259. 2012.