At the moment, my primary project is the articulation and defense of a holist meta-ethics -- an account of how certain highly structured groups qualify in their own right as moral agents. I argue that these "corporate agents " have their own beliefs, desires, and intentions and the ability to act on them. Further, they have free will, reactive attitudes, the capacity for other-regarding action, and various other capacities relevant to normative competence. As a direct result, they have their own moral obligations -- distinct from those of their members -- and their own moral responsibility. Their lack of phenomenal consciousness is no hin…
At the moment, my primary project is the articulation and defense of a holist meta-ethics -- an account of how certain highly structured groups qualify in their own right as moral agents. I argue that these "corporate agents " have their own beliefs, desires, and intentions and the ability to act on them. Further, they have free will, reactive attitudes, the capacity for other-regarding action, and various other capacities relevant to normative competence. As a direct result, they have their own moral obligations -- distinct from those of their members -- and their own moral responsibility. Their lack of phenomenal consciousness is no hindrance to this.
Most of my interest in this topic arises from an interest in metaphysics and ethics, but it also arose partly from my experience as a lawyer. I practiced corporate environmental law (mergers and acquisitions, Brownfields redevelopment, permitting and remediation) for 15 years before I retired to teach philosophy, and I draw heavily on my experiences there in both my research and my teaching.
I teach ethics and political philosophy, both in their pure forms and as inflected by specific conceptions of the environment, business, and -- more recently -- "work" as an essential human activity. All of this is leading to new research interests in capitalism, corporate citizenship, and work.
I took my PhD in philosophy from the University of Colorado-Boulder, my Masters from Northwestern University, my JD from Harvard Law School, and my Bachelors from the University of Missouri-Columbia.