•  21
    Paul-Mikhail Podosky introduces the notion of other-oriented hermeneutical injustice and argues that non-human animals are often the subjects of such injustice. In this paper, I argue that although the notion of other-oriented hermeneutical injustice is coherent, Podosky’s examples – including his primary case of non-human animals – are not instances of it. I attempt to show that an epistemology of ignorance serves as a better theoretical basis for Podosky’s argument. In the final section of the…Read more
  •  45
    Cooptation or solidarity: food sovereignty in the developed world
    Agriculture and Human Values 35 (2): 319-329. 2018.
    This paper builds on previous research about the potential downsides of food sovereignty activism in relatively wealthy societies by developing a three-part taxonomy of harms that may arise in such contexts. These are direct opposition, false equivalence, and diluted goals and methods. While this paper provides reasons to resist complacency about wealthy-world food sovereignty, we are optimistic about the potential for food sovereignty in wealthy societies, and we conclude by describing how weal…Read more
  •  33
    Review of Mark Balaguer: Platonism and Anti-Platonism in Mathematics (review)
    British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 50 (4): 775-780. 1999.
  •  40
    Identity and Food Choice: You Are What You Eat?
    with Z. Tobias
    Food Ethics 8 (1): 1-17. 2023.
    We use Marya Schechtman’s Narrative Self-Constitution View to support the widespread idea that food can contribute to the construction and expression of our identities and be used to understand others. What foods we consume can be one such way to construct our identities as food itself can have different values: ethically sourced, healthy, culturally significant, etc. However, the ability to constitute one’s own identity in this way depends on the ability to autonomously choose what we consume. …Read more
  •  24
    Agency and Autonomy in Food Choice: Can We Really Vote with Our Forks?
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 35 (1): 1-15. 2022.
    Ethical consumerism is the thesis that we should let our values determine our consumer purchases. We should purchase items that accord with our values and refrain from buying those that do not. The end goal, for ethical consumerism, is to transform the market through consumer demand. The arm of this movement associated with food choice embraces the slogan “Vote with Your Fork!” As in the more general movement, the idea is that we should let our values dictate our choices. In this paper, I offer …Read more
  •  20
    In this paper, I examine the question of whether there is justification for regulations that place limits on food choices. I begin by discussing Sarah Conly’s recent defense of paternalist limits on food choice. I argue that Conly’s argument is flawed because it assumes a particular conception of health that is not universally shared. I examine this conception of health in some detail, and I argue that we need to shift our focus from individual behaviors and lifestyle to the broader social and e…Read more
  •  41
    Affording Disaster: Concealed Carry on Campus
    Public Affairs Quarterly 28 (2). 2014.
    As of March 2012, students with concealed carry permits attending public colleges and universities in the state of Colorado may carry their weapons on campus. Colorado is one of six states with legal provisions permitting guns on public campuses. An additional twenty-two states leave it up to the governing bodies of individual colleges and universities to determine their institution's gun policy, while twenty-two states ban concealed weapons on campuses. The NRA often asserts that "an armed soci…Read more
  •  123
    Julian Cole argues that mathematical domains are the products of social construction. This view has an initial appeal in that it seems to salvage much that is good about traditional platonistic realism without taking on the ontological baggage. However, it also has problems. After a brief sketch of social constructivist theories and Cole’s philosophy of mathematics, I evaluate the arguments in favor of social constructivism. I also discuss two substantial problems with the theory. I argue that u…Read more
  •  19
    Physician Assisted Suicide: A New Look at the Arguments
    Bioethics 21 (3): 127-139. 2007.
    ABSTRACT In this paper, I examine the arguments against physician assisted suicide (PAS). Many of these arguments are consequentialist. Consequentialist arguments rely on empirical claims about the future and thus their strength depends on how likely it is that the predictions will be realized. I discuss these predictions against the backdrop of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act and the practice of PAS in the Netherlands. I then turn to a specific consequentialist argument against PAS – Susan M. W…Read more
  •  9
    Wild Justice (review)
    Environmental Ethics 32 (1): 95-98. 2010.
  •  35
    Autonomy, Values, and Food Choice
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 29 (3): 349-367. 2016.
    In most areas of our lives, legal protections are in place to ensure that we have autonomous control over what happens in and to our bodies. However, there are fewer protections in place for autonomous choice when it comes to the food we purchase and consume. In fact, the current trend in US legislation is pushing us away from autonomous food choice. In this paper, I discuss two examples of this trend: corporate resistance to GM labeling laws and farm protection laws. These examples are quite di…Read more
  •  12
    Does a pharmacist have a right to refuse to fill certain prescriptions? In this paper, I examine cases in which an employee might refuse to do something that is part of his or her job description. I will argue that in some of these cases, an employee does have a right of refusal and in other cases an employee does not. In those cases where the employee does not have a right of refusal, I argue that the refusals are just cause for termination of employment. I argue that there are moral principles…Read more
  •  32
    Just Food: Philosophy, Justice and Food (edited book)
    Rowman & Littlefield International. 2015.
    This is a collection of thirteen new philosophical essays exploring the inequities in our contemporary food system. The book addresses topics including food and property, food insecurity, food deserts, food sovereignty, the gendered aspects of food injustice, food and race, and locavorism.
  • Structure and Object
    Dissertation, The Ohio State University. 1994.
    The notion of objecthood plays a central role in many classic philosophical disputes; arguments about universals, possible worlds, propositions, sense impressions, and the ontology of mathematics all depend--in one way or another--upon the concept of an object. But often these disputes are unclear, because the concept of an object is left unexplicated. I believe that various non-equivalent notions of objecthood are involved in these disputes, thereby rendering progress unlikely. My goal in this …Read more
  •  47
    The Fetal Position (review)
    Teaching Philosophy 34 (4): 423-425. 2011.
  •  12
  •  37
    Animal Ethics in Context (review)
    Environmental Ethics 33 (2): 223-224. 2011.
  •  35
    Unnecessary Suffering
    Environmental Ethics 30 (1): 51-67. 2008.
    The philosophical literature on the ethical treatment of animals is largely divided between two distinct kinds of approaches: (1) the rights-based approach; and (2) the utilitarian approach. A third approach to the debate is possible. The general moral principle “It is wrong to cause unnecessary pain or suffering” is sufficient to render many human activities involving nonhuman animals morally wrong, provided an appropriate account of unnecessary is developed to give the principle its force. The…Read more
  •  29
    Wild Justice (review)
    Environmental Ethics 32 (1): 95-98. 2010.
  •  688
    ABSTRACTIn this paper, I examine the arguments against physician assisted suicide . Many of these arguments are consequentialist. Consequentialist arguments rely on empirical claims about the future and thus their strength depends on how likely it is that the predictions will be realized. I discuss these predictions against the backdrop of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act and the practice of PAS in the Netherlands. I then turn to a specific consequentialist argument against PAS – Susan M. Wolf's …Read more
  •  70
    Mathematical, astrological, and theological naturalism
    Philosophia Mathematica 7 (2): 129-135. 1999.
    persuasive argument for the claim that we ought to evaluate mathematics from a mathematical point of view and reject extra-mathematical standards. Maddy considers the objection that her arguments leave it open for an ‘astrological naturalist’ to make an analogous claim: that we ought to reject extra-astrological standards in the evaluation of astrology. In this paper, I attempt to show that Maddy's response to this objection is insufficient, for it ultimately either (1) undermines mathematical n…Read more
  •  49
    Does a pharmacist have a right to refuse to fill certain prescriptions? In this paper, I examine cases in which an employee might refuse to do something that is part of his or her job description. I will argue that in some of these cases, an employee does have a right of refusal and in other cases an employee does not. In those cases where the employee does not have a right of refusal, I argue that the refusals (if repeated) are just cause for termination of employment. I argue that there are mo…Read more
  •  5
    The Fetal Position (review)
    Teaching Philosophy 34 (4): 423-425. 2011.
  •  4
    Julius Caesar and the Number 2
    Electronic Journal of Analytic Philosophy 5. 1997.