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1669Friendship in the Shadow of TechnologyIn John Arthur & Steven Scalet (eds.), Morality and Moral Controversies: Readings in Moral, Social, and Political Philosophy, Pearson Prentice Hall. 1981.This essay looks at the impact that technology is having upon friendship. For as we all know, it is nothing at all to see friends at a restaurant table all engaged in texting rather than talking to one another.
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961The Character of FriendshipIn Danian Caluori (ed.), Thinking About Friendship: Historical and Contemporary Prespectives, Palgrave Macmillon. forthcoming.This essay discusss (1) the differences and commonalities between romantic love and friendship and (2) the differences and commonalities between parental love of friendship.
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306AtrocitiesIn Clifton Bryant Dennis Peck (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, Sage Publication. 2009.This essay discusses the character of many atrocities that have occurred throughout human history.
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158Card, Claudia. Confronting Evils: Terrorism, Torture, Genocide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 350. $99.00 (review)Ethics 122 (1): 184-188. 2011.
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130Licensing Parents: Family, State, and Child MaltreatmentLexington Books. 2009.This book examines the negative power that child maltreatment has on individuals and society ethically and politically, while analyzing the positive power that parental love and healthy families have. To address how best to confront the problem of child maltreatment, it examines several policy options, ultimately defending a policy of licensing parents, while carefully examining the tension between child and adult rights and duties.
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101Moral Equality and Natural InferioritySocial Theory and Practice 31 (3): 379-404. 2005.This essay is a commentary upon "Race and Kant" by Thomas Hill, Jr and Bernard Boxill. They argue that although Kant in his anthropological writings took blacks to be inferior, his moral theory requires that they be shown the proper moral respect since blacks are persons nonetheless. I argue that this argument is sound, because the conception of inferiority that Kant attributed to blacks does not permit showing them the proper moral respect. Imagine a defective Mercedes Benz and a Ford Pinto. Th…Read more
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86Rationality and moral autonomy: An essay in moral psychologySynthese 57 (2). 1983.Although there are many variations on the theme, so much is made of the good of moral autonomy that it is difficult not to suppose that there is everything to be said for being morally autonomous and nothing at all to be said for being morally nonautonomous. However, this view of moral autonomy cannot be made to square with the well-received fact that most people are morally nonautonomous — not, at any rate, unless one is prepared to maintain that most people are irrational in this respect. I am…Read more
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78Living morally: a psychology of moral characterTemple University Press. 1989.CHAPTER ONE Moral Character and Moral Theories Social interaction is the thread from which the fabric of moral character is woven.1 For it is social ...
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78The essay discuss the issue of comparing the American Slavery and the Holocaust, and the extent to which the ideology of the American dream has fueled invidious comparisons between the two peoples. Just as murder and rape are wrongs to be understood in their own right, I argue that a like claim holds for American Slavery and the Holocuast. The essay further points out that we should be weary of supposing that wrongdoing is the sort of the thing for which compensation is at all possible.
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76This essay is part of a symposium on affirmative action that took place at the University of Cincinnati with the distinguished legal scholar Ronald Dworkin. I argue against affirmative action. And I discuss at length the votes of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and the dissent of Justice Clarence Thomas. I develop the idea of idiosyncratic excellence; and I argue that diversity is a weakness insofar as it (a) an excuse for social myopia and (b)an impediment to individuals seeing beyond their differe…Read more
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72This essay is a discussion of the radio talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger. It is an assessment of the moral advice that she dispenses her radio show, and kinds of criticisms to which she has been subjected
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51Book ReviewsClaudia Card,. The Atrocity Paradigm: A Theory of Evil.New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Pp. x+284. $45.00 ; $25.00 (review)Ethics 116 (1): 222-225. 2005.
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51Should Race Matter? Unusual Answers to the Usual QuestionsPhilosophical Review 122 (4): 647-650. 2013.
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51The Reality of the Moral SelfThe Monist 76 (1): 3-21. 1993.Ethical egoism and Kantian ethics constitute radically different and incompatible moral traditions. Speaking rather broadly, one might go so far as to say that each tradition is a source of inspiration for criticisms of the other, each tradition reminding us of the limitations of the other. For Kantian ethics, with its extreme other-regarding and abstract approach to morality, would sometimes seem to lose sight of the self, leaving a self that seems somewhat eviscerated. Ethical egosim, by contr…Read more
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50Review of Ferdinand Schoeman: Responsibility, Character, and the Emotions: New Essays in Moral Psychology (review)Ethics 99 (4): 950-951. 1989.
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44Justice, Happiness, and Self-KnowledgeCanadian Journal of Philosophy 16 (1). 1986.No man can, for any considerable time, wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which is the true one- Nathaniel HawthorneThe Platonic view that every just person is, in virtue of being such, happier than any unjust person, since all among the latter are unhappy, strikes a most responsive chord in the hearts of a great many persons. But it would seem that this idea has less of a foothold in reality than it does in our hearts. It is far too di…Read more
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43Capitalism versus Marx's communismStudies in East European Thought 20 (1): 67-79. 1979.In this paper, I have assessed Marx's criticism of capitalism, and the practice of divided labor, from the standpoint of two important senses of worth which persons can have, namely self-respect and self-esteem. I have tried to show that in either case, Communism, as Marx envisioned it, is not the superior to capitalism he might have supposed. Along the way, I hope to have also shown the importance of distinguishing between two concepts, namely self-respect and self-esteem
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35Being moral and handling the truthSocial Philosophy and Policy 30 (1-2): 1-20. 2013.It is generally agreed that Kant went too far in his claim that it is wrong to lie even if doing so will save an individual's life. The question remains whether it is morally permissible to tell a lie even if this does not involve saving the life of another individual. In this essay, I seek to answer this question affirmatively while at the same time setting strong constraints for when a lie (not involving saving a life) is morally permissible. I argue that lying is morally permissible in the fa…Read more
Syracuse, New York, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Normative Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Mind |
Normative Ethics |