•  572
    The New Hume Debate: Revised Edition (edited book)
    Routledge. 2000.
    For decades scholars thought they knew Hume's position on the existence of causes and objects he was a sceptic. However, this received view has been thrown into question by the `new readings of Hume as a sceptical realist. For philosophers, students of philosophy and others interested in theories of causation and their history, The New Hume Debate is the first book to fully document the most influential contemporary readings of Hume's work. Throughout, the volume brings the debate beyond textual…Read more
  •  317
    Consciousness as a Memory System
    with Andrew E. Budson and Elizabeth A. Kensinger
    Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology. forthcoming.
    We suggest that there is confusion between why consciousness developed and what additional functions, through continued evolution, it has co-opted. Consider episodic memory. If we believe that episodic memory evolved solely to accurately represent past events, it seems like a terrible system—prone to forgetting and false memories. However, if we believe that episodic memory developed to flexibly and creatively combine and rearrange memories of prior events in order to plan for the future, then i…Read more
  •  72
    Neurodiversity and Autism Advocacy: Who Fits Under the Autism Tent?
    American Journal of Bioethics 20 (4): 33-34. 2020.
    McCoy, Liu, Lutz, and Sisti (2020) raise concerns about “partial representation,” in which nonelected advocates or advocacy organizations fail to engage and hold themselves accountable to the full range of people they purport to represent. They are right to point out that the autism community is vulnerable to partial representation. This open peer commentary notes some elements among those engaged with autism that may not fit under the type of “federated model” of representation McCoy, et al rec…Read more
  •  60
    The New Hume Debate (edited book)
    Routledge. 2000.
    First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
  •  57
    Autism, theory of mind, and the reactive attitudes
    with Raya Bidshahri
    Bioethics 32 (1): 43-49. 2017.
    Whether to treat autism as exculpatory in any given circumstance appears to be influenced both by models of autism and by theories of moral responsibility. This article looks at one particular combination of theories: autism as theory of mind challenges and moral responsibility as requiring appropriate experience of the reactive attitudes. In pursuing this particular combination of ideas, we do not intend to endorse them. Our goal is, instead, to explore the implications of this combination of e…Read more
  •  48
    As a neurodevelopmental condition that affects cognitive functioning, autism has been used as a test case for theories of moral responsibility. Most of the relevant literature focuses on autism’s impact on theory of mind and empathy. Here I examine aspects of autism related to executive function. I apply an account of how we might fail to be reasons responsive to argue that autism can increase the frequency of excuses for transgressive behavior, but will rarely make anyone completely exempt from…Read more
  •  46
    Review: Thomson, Bacon to Kant (review)
    Teaching Philosophy 26 (2): 177-179. 2003.
  •  38
    Definitions of health and disease are of more than theoretical interest. Understanding what it means to be healthy has implications for choices in medical treatment, for ethically sound informed consent, and for accurate assessment of policies or programs. This deeper understanding can help us create more effective public policy for health and medicine. It is notable that such contentious legal initiatives as the Americans with Disability Act and the Patients' Bill of Rights fail to define adequ…Read more
  •  29
    Bacon to Kant (review)
    Teaching Philosophy 26 (2): 177-179. 2003.
  •  26
    Human subjects review and archaeology: a view from Indian country
    with Jeffrey C. Bendremer
    In Chris Scarre & Geoffrey Scarre (eds.), The Ethics of Archaeology: Philosophical Perspectives on Archaeological Practice, Cambridge University Press. pp. 97--114. 2006.
  •  20
    Pharmacists and the social contract
    American Journal of Bioethics 7 (6). 2007.
    This Article does not have an abstract
  •  18
    Ethics and research with undergraduates
    with Leslie B. Alexander
    Ethics and Education 1 (2): 163-175. 2006.
    Ethicists, researchers and policy makers have paid increasing attention to the ethical conduct of research, especially research involving human beings. Research performed with and by undergraduates poses a specific set of ethical challenges. These challenges are often overlooked by the research community because it is assumed that undergraduate student researchers do not have a significant impact on the research community and that their projects are not host to research posing important ethical …Read more
  •  16
    Autism, the Social Thinking Curriculum, and moral courage
    Power and Education 7 (3): 355-360. 2015.
    Michelle Garcia Winner’s Social Thinking Curriculum is widely used by schools across the USA and has garnered attention internationally. The curriculum addresses social language and behavior deficits among those on the autism spectrum. Although many embrace this curriculum without reservation, the emphasis on social conformity, including avoiding behaviors that make others uncomfortable, merits scrutiny. Individuals who have difficulty understanding social cues and conventions can derive tremend…Read more
  •  14
    This chapter addresses ethical issues for informed consent when recruiting autistic participants for research. The process of informed consent for participation in research involves some abilities, such as dialogue and understanding the intentions of the researchers, that can be especially challenging when autistic individuals are being asked to participate. This chapter reviews these abilities, and suggests ways to provide meaningful support to promote autonomy and help researchers meet their r…Read more
  •  12
  •  12
    Responsible Conduct of Research Is All Well and Good
    American Journal of Bioethics 2 (4): 61-62. 2002.
    No abstract
  •  9
    In an earlier Dissecting Bioethics contribution, Debra J. H. Mathews, Joseph J. Fins, and Eric Racine challenge standard ways of thinking about the therapeutic misconception in the context of consent for research participation. They propose that instead of demanding “rational congruence” between how researchers and participants conceive of a given protocol, we should accept a less stringent standard of “reasonable coherence.” While Mathews, Fins, and Racine (MFR) provide some important insights…Read more
  •  8
    Epistemology, Communities and Experts: A Response to Goodwin Liu
    Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning 3 (1): 5-12. 1996.
    This paper responds to Goodwin Liu's argument in Volume II of this Journal that a pedagogy must be supported by an appropriate theory of knowledge, and that the epistemology which best supports the service-learning pedagogy is anti-foundational pragmatism. The author shows that Liu's characterization of the pragmatist model of knowledge does not avoid the dualism which he sees as a fault of the traditional epistemology. After suggesting a remedy to this, the author then extends Liu's argument by…Read more
  •  7
    Philosophers and bioethicists have mostly given up on human dignity. As a concept, dignity has seemed obscure and unintelligible, or forbidden because of its connection with theology. Here I take a fresh look, and identify two families of dignity concepts: dignity as arche and dignity as telos. Arche draws on the idea of an origin or source, as in ‘archetype’ or ‘archeology.’ Dignity as arche refers to the qualities inherent in a being that is the source (the arche) of our duties to that being. …Read more
  •  7
    Providing Critical Care for a Big Fish at the End of Life
    In Sandra Shapshay (ed.), Bioethics at the Movies, Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 256. 2009.
  •  3
    Developing Disability-Focused Pre-Health and Health Professions Curricula
    with Rachel Conrad Bracken, Rebecca Garden, Rebecca Fischbein, Raman Bhambra, Neli Ragina, Shay Dawson, and Ariel Cascio
    Journal of Medical Humanities 44 (4): 553-576. 2023.
    People with disabilities (PWD) comprise a significant part of the population yet experience some of the most profound health disparities. Among the greatest barriers to quality care are inadequate health professions education related to caring for PWD. Drawing upon the expertise of health professions educators in medicine, public health, nursing, social work, and physician assistant programs, this forum showcases innovative methods for teaching core disability skills and concepts grounded in dis…Read more
  •  3
    Howard Brody identifies “drug-centered care” as a contrast to “patient-centered care” and asks whether drug-centered care promotes the same outcomes that justify patient-centered care—health and dignity for patients and virtue in providers. Answering in the negative, Brody provides a sobering account of how the pharmaceutical industry molds our disease concepts and our perspectives on medications as medical tools. Brody’s new concept was set up to fail, much as if he had named it “money-centered…Read more
  • The New Hume Debate
    with Rupert Read
    Philosophy 77 (299): 125-129. 2002.
  • Nature and Natural Belief in Hume's Science of the Mind
    Dissertation, Rutgers the State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick. 1997.
    This dissertation examines the so-called 'natural beliefs' discussed by Hume. These include the beliefs in the validity of induction, the existence of objective necessary connections, the existence of external objects, and the existence of a continuing self. Hume holds our natural beliefs to be non-rational, instinctive and without epistemological justification. However, I argue that Hume's naturalist account of human understanding involves a non-epistemological notion of justification on which …Read more