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43Wrongs and FaultsReview of Metaphysics 59 (1): 95-132. 2005.THE ELEMENTARY MORAL DISTINCTION. The ultimate objects of moral assessment are people and their lives. I will call this the "elementary moral distinction." Many today seem to have lost sight of it. How often are we told that we should show respect for other people, only to discover that what we are actually being asked to show respect for is how those other people live? The equation of the two should be resisted. We do not always respect a person by respecting how he lives. Sometimes quite the r…Read more
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44Review of Nagel, Thomas, Concealment and Exposure and Other Essays (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2003 (7). 2003.
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238Six theses about pleasurePhilosophical Perspectives 18 (1): 247-267. 2004.I defend these claims: (1) 'Pleasure' has exactly one English antonym: 'unpleasure.' (2) Pleasure is the most convincing example of an organic unity. (3) The hedonic calculus is a joke. (4) An important type of pleasure is background pleasure. (5) Pleasures in bad company are still good. (6) Higher pleasures aren't pleasures (and if they were, they wouldn't be higher). Thesis (1) merely concerns terminology, but theses (2)-(6) are substantive, evaluative claims
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ReasonsIn Jules Coleman & Scott Shapiro (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law, Oxford University Press. 2004.
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1Law s Aims in Law s EmpireIn Scott Hershovitz (ed.), Exploring Law's Empire: The Jurisprudence of Ronald Dworkin, Oxford University Press. 2006.
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20Legal PositivismIn Aileen Kavanagh & John Oberdiek (eds.), Arguing About Law, Routledge. pp. 153. 2009.
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120Justification under AuthorityCanadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 23 (1): 71-98. 2010.In a recent paper in the Yale Law Journal, Malcolm Thorburn argued that to enjoy a justificatory defence in the criminal law is to have a normative power that is exercised in the circumstances which give rise to the justification. He also argued that where such powers are conferred on private citizens, those citizens should be understood as acting as public officials pro tempore when they exercise them. In this extended reply, I resist both propositions and reply to some of the criticisms that T…Read more
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Hart and Feinberg on responsibilityIn Matthew H. Kramer (ed.), The legacy of H.L.A. Hart: legal, political, and moral philosophy, Oxford University Press. 2008.
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129How law claims, what law claimsIn Matthias Klatt (ed.), Institutionalized reason: the jurisprudence of Robert Alexy, Oxford University Press. 2012.In this paper, written for a volume on the work of Robert Alexy, I discuss the idea that law makes certain distinctive claims, an idea familiar from the work of both Alexy and Joseph Raz. I begin by refuting some criticisms by Ronald Dworkin of the very idea of law as a claim-maker. I then discuss whether, as Alexy and Raz agree, law's claim is a moral one. Having arrived at an affirmative verdict, I discuss the content of law's moral claim. Is it, as Alexy says, a claim to moral correctness? Or…Read more
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31Finnis on JusticeIn John Keown & Robert P. George (eds.), Reason, morality, and law: the philosophy of John Finnis, Oxford University Press. pp. 151. 2013.
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13This paper has two parts. The first is an exposition of John Foster's argument that ultimate reality, whatever else it might be, is not physical, and could not be. The second part is a somewhat tentative discussion of this argument, in which I consider ways it might be challenged or amended. I suggest that while Foster's argument may not render materialism untenable, at the very least it forces the materialist to adopt certain other controversial views, and so is a force to be reckoned with. I s…Read more
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1Tort law and its theoryIn John Tasioulas (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Law, Cambridge University Press. 2020.
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20From Personal Life to Private LawOxford University Press. 2018.The book examines the philosophical foundations of private law, arguing that the foremost preoccupations of the law of obligations are grounded in and pervade the personal lives of individuals.
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10Law as a Leap of Faith: And Other Essays on Law in GeneralOxford University Press UK. 2012.How do laws resemble rules of games, moral rules, personal rules, rules found in religious teachings, school rules, and so on? Are laws rules at all? Are they all made by human beings? And if so how should we go about interpreting them? How are they organized into systems, and what does it mean for these systems to have 'constitutions'? Should everyone want to live under a system of law? Is there a special kind of 'legal justice'? Does it consist simply in applying the law of the system? And how…Read more
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2Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Law Volume 3 (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2018.Oxford Studies in the Philosophy of Law is a forum for new philosophical work on law. The essays range widely over general jurisprudence, philosophical foundations of specific areas of law, and other philosophical topics relating to legal theory.
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15Oxford studies in philosophy of law volume 4 (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2021.This volume provides a forum for some of the best new philosophical work on law, by both senior and junior scholars from around the world. The chapters range widely over issues in general jurisprudence (the nature of law, adjudication, and legal reasoning); the philosophical foundations of specific areas of law (from criminal law to evidence to international law); the history of legal philosophy; and related philosophical topics that illuminate the problems of legal theory.
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61Law as a leap of faith: essays on law in generalOxford University Press. 2012.Law as a leap of faith -- Legal positivism : 5 1/2 myths -- Some types of law -- Can there be a written constitution? -- How law claims, what law claims -- Nearly natural law -- The legality of law -- The supposed formality of the rule of law -- Hart on legality, justice, and morality -- The virtue of justice and the character of law -- Law in general.
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How law claims, what law claimsIn Matthias Klatt (ed.), Institutionalized reason: the jurisprudence of Robert Alexy, Oxford University Press. 2012.
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6Kelsen revisited: new essays on the pure theory of law (edited book)Hart Publishing. 2013.Forty years after his death, Hans Kelsen (1881-1973) remains one of the most discussed and influential legal philosophers of our time. This collection of new essays takes Kelsen's Pure Theory of Law as a stimulus, aiming to move forward the debate on several central issues in contemporary jurisprudence. The essays in Part I address legal validity, the normativity of law, and Kelsen's famous but puzzling idea of a legal system's 'basic norm'. Part II engages with the difficult issues raised by th…Read more
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55Wrongdoing by results: Moore's experiential argument: Wrongdoing by resultsLegal Theory 18 (4): 459-471. 2012.Michael Moore and I agree about the moral importance of how our actions turn out. We even agree about some of the arguments that establish that moral importance. In Causation and Responsibility, however, Moore foregrounds one argument that I do not find persuasive or even helpful. In fact I doubt whether it even qualifies as an argument. He calls it the “experiential argument.” In this comment I attempt to analyze Moore's “experiential argument” in some detail and thereby to bring out why it doe…Read more
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56The Legality of LawRatio Juris 17 (2): 168-181. 2004.In this paper I outline various different objects of investigation that may be picked out by word “law” (or its cognates). All of these objects must be investigated in an integrated way before one can provide a complete philosophical explanation of the nature of law. I begin with the distinction between laws (artefacts) and law (the genre to which the artefacts belong). This leads me to the distinction between the law (of a particular legal system) and law (the genre of artefacts). Then I discus…Read more
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121Reasons and Abilities: Some PreliminariesAmerican Journal of Jurisprudence 58 (1): 63-74. 2013.This paper takes some first steps in a study of the thesis that “ought” implies “can.” Considerable attention is given to the proper interpretation of the thesis, including the interpretation of “ought,” the interpretation of “can,” and the interpretation of “implies.” Having chosen a particular interpretation of the thesis to work on—in some ways its broadest interpretation—the paper tries to bring out some considerations that bear on its truth or falsity. After an excursion into the general th…Read more
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40Law as a Leap of Faith as OTHERS see ITLaw and Philosophy 33 (6): 813-842. 2014.This is my reply to five extended critical assessments of my book Law as a Leap of Faith, appearing together in a symposium issue of Law and Philosophy. The critics are Kevin Toh, Luís Duarte d’Almeida and James Edwards, Fábio Perin Shecaira, Cristina Redondo, and Matthew Smith. The topics include H.L.A. Hart’s philosophical legacy, the moral claims of law, the nature of legal reasoning, the doctrine of legal positivism, and the possibility of alienation from law
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53Fifteen Themes from Law as a Leap of FaithJurisprudence 6 (3): 601-623. 2015.This article contains the author's responses to five critics of his book Law as a Leap of Faith whose criticisms appear in this journal. The critics are Kimberley Brownlee, Antony Hatzistavrou, Kristen Rundle, Sari Kisilevsky and Nicola Lacey. The criticisms and responses pick up the following fifteen themes from the book: law, morality, society, explanation, continuity, rationality, ends, instruments, values, justice, allocation, games, modalities, generalities, jurisprudence
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12Making sense of mens Rea: Antony duffs accountOxford Journal of Legal Studies 11 (4): 559-588. 1991.
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14Avoiding the Premature Introduction of Psychedelic Medicines in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related DisordersAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 14 (2): 129-131. 2023.Peterson et al. (2023) identify two potential uses of psychedelic drugs in Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (AD/ADRD). The first is to treat depression and anxiety that commonly occur afte...
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1Reasons, Reasoning, ReasonablenessIn Jules Coleman & Scott J. Shapiro (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law, Oxford University Press. 2002.
Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |