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58Dissident Philosophers: Voices Against the Political Current (review)The Independent Review 27 (2). 2022.
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2380Race, Genes, and the Ethics of Belief: A review of Nicholas Wade, A Troublesome Inheritance (review)Hastings Center Report 44 (5): 51-52. 2014.A Troublesome Inheritance, by Nicholas Wade, should be read by anyone interested in race and recent human evolution. Wade deserves credit for challenging the popular dogma that biological differences between groups either don't exist or cannot explain the relative success of different groups at different tasks. Wade's work should be read alongside another recent book, The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution, by Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending. Together, th…Read more
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2635The Ethics of Genetic Enhancement: Key Concepts and Future ProspectsIn Steve Clarke, Julian Savulescu, C. A. J. Coady, Alberto Giubilini & Sagar Sanyal (eds.), The Ethics of Human Enhancement: Understanding the Debate, Oxford University Press. pp. 143-151. 2016.
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625Dodging Darwin: Race, Evolution, and the Hereditarian HypothesisPersonality and Individual Differences 160. 2020.
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871Can ‘eugenics’ be defended?Monash Bioethics Review 39 (1): 60-67. 2021.In recent years, bioethical discourse around the topic of ‘genetic enhancement’ has become increasingly politicized. We fear there is too much focus on the semantic question of whether we should call particular practices and emerging bio-technologies such as CRISPR ‘eugenics’, rather than the more important question of how we should view them from the perspective of ethics and policy. Here, we address the question of whether ‘eugenics’ can be defended and how proponents and critics of enhancemen…Read more
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4774Can Liberalism Last? Demographic Demise and the Future of LiberalismSocial Philosophy and Policy 40 (2): 524-543. 2023.
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2636Flesh Without Blood: The public health argument for synthetic meatJournal of Bioethical Inquiry 20 (3). 2023.
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2568Race, Eugenics, and the HolocaustIn Ira Bedzow & Stacy Gallin (eds.), Bioethics and the Holocaust, Springer. pp. 153-170. 2022.
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48Scientocracy: The Tangled Web of Science and Public Policy (review)The Independent Review 25 (1). 2020.
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624The Egalitarian Fallacy: Are Group Differences Compatible with Political Liberalism?Philosophia 48 (2): 433-444. 2020.Many people greet evidence of biologically based race and sex differences with extreme skepticism, even hostility. We argue that some of the vehemence with which many intellectuals in the West resist claims about group differences is rooted in the tacit assumption that accepting evidence for group differences in socially valued traits would undermine our reasons to treat people with respect. We call this theegalitarian fallacy. We first explain the fallacy and then give evidence that self-descri…Read more
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1980Personal Identity and Practical Reason: The Failure of Kantian Replies to ParfitDialogue 47 (2): 331-350. 2008.ABSTRACT: This essay examines and criticizes a set of Kantian objections to Parfit's attempt in Reasons and Persons to connect his theory of personal identity to practical rationality and moral philosophy. Several of Parfit's critics have tried to sever the link he forges between his metaphysical and practical conclusions by invoking the Kantian thought that even if we accept his metaphysical theory of personal identity, we still have good practical grounds for rejecting that theory when deliber…Read more
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539The Future of Phage: Ethical challenges of using phage viruses to treat bacterial infectionsPublic Health Ethics 13. 2020.
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643Review of Derek Parfit, On What Matters (review)Journal of Moral Philosophy 10 (3): 358-360. 2013.
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114Review of Jessica Flanigan, Pharmaceutical Freedom (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. 2018.
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594Compensation for Cures: Paying People to Participate in Challenge StudiesBioethics 33 (7): 792-797. 2019.Antibiotic resistance is one of the most pressing public health problems humanity faces. Research into new classes of antibiotics and new kinds of treatments – including risky experimental treatments such as phage therapy and vaccines – is an important part of improving our ability to treat infectious diseases. In order to aid this research, we will argue that we should permit researchers to pay people any amount of money to compensate for the risks of participating in clinical trials, including…Read more
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2330Trust, Trade, and Moral ProgressSocial Philosophy and Policy 34 (2): 89-107. 2017.Abstract:Trust is important for a variety of social relationships. Trust facilitates trade, which increases prosperity and induces us to interact with people of different backgrounds on terms that benefit all parties. Trade promotes trustworthiness, which enables us to form meaningful as well as mutually beneficial relationships. In what follows, I argue that when we erect institutions that enhance trust and reward people who are worthy of trust, we create the conditions for a certain kind of mo…Read more
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1970Intensive Animal Agriculture and Human HealthIn Bob Fischer (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Animal Ethics, Routledge. 2019.
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13629Public Goods and EducationIn Andrew I. Cohen (ed.), Philosophy and Public Policy, Rowman & Littlefield International. 2018.
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4352Antibiotics and Animal Agriculture: The need for global collective actionIn Michael Selgelid (ed.), Ethics and Antimicrobial Resistance, Oxford University Press. pp. 297-308. 2018.
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3580Review of Scott Barrett, Why Cooperate? The Incentive to Supply Global Public Goods (review)Journal of Social Economics 36 (11). 2009.
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1989Collective Action and Individual ChoiceJournal of Medical Ethics 39 (4): 752-756. 2013.Governments across the globe have squandered treasure and imprisoned millions of their own citizens by criminalising the use and sale of recreational drugs. But use of these drugs has remained relatively constant, and the primary victims are the users themselves. Meanwhile, antimicrobial drugs that once had the power to cure infections are losing their ability to do so, compromising the health of people around the world. The thesis of this essay is that policymakers should stop wasting resources…Read more
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15385Defending Eugenics: From cryptic choice to conscious selectionMonash Bioethics Review 35 24-35. 2018.
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6458Race Research and the Ethics of BeliefJournal of Bioethical Inquiry 14 (2): 287-297. 2017.On most accounts, beliefs are supposed to fit the world rather than change it. But believing can have social consequences, since the beliefs we form underwrite our actions and impact our character. Because our beliefs affect how we live our lives and how we treat other people, it is surprising how little attention is usually given to the moral status of believing apart from its epistemic justification. In what follows, I develop a version of the harm principle that applies to beliefs as well as …Read more
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Duke UniversitySenior Lecturer
Durham, North Carolina, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |