Saint Louis University
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 2009
Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States of America
  • Kant on why Autonomy Deserves Respect
    In Michael Bruce & Steven Barbone (eds.), Just the Arguments, Wiley‐blackwell. 2011.
  •  5
    Glaucon Before Lachesis
    Philosophy Now 151 65-66. 2022.
    A bit of fiction: the long-lost epilogue to Plato's Republic focused on the Myth of Er.
  •  8
    Autonomy and the Demands of Love
    IAFOR Journal of Ethics, Religion and Philosophy 2 (1). 2015.
    J. David Velleman has argued that what it makes sense to care about out of love for someone is the unimpeded realisation of her autonomy. Although Velleman refers to both Kantian and perfectionist notions of autonomy, a close look at his argument shows that the form of autonomy that he employs actually amounts instead to personal autonomy. I argue that there are in fact no value constraints on the objects of autonomous choice on this account of autonomy. The upshot of this claim is that a person…Read more
  •  54
    Struggling for Clarity on Well-Being
    Southwest Philosophy Review 35 (1): 155-162. 2019.
    Well-being is said to concern what is good for persons. But the words ‘good for’ are indeterminate enough to support the worry that philosophers working on well-being might not be quarreling over the same conceptual territory. To allay these worries, it would be helpful to provide an analysis of prudential goodness that is substantive enough to coordinate disagreement about and adjudicate between competing theories of well-being, and yet not so substantive that it begs any important questions at…Read more
  •  26
    For and against moral conversation-stoppers
    Think 17 (50): 39-50. 2018.
    In this article I argue that although Daniel Dennett is right to hold that moral conversation-stoppers are practically helpful, there are also moral and philosophical benefits to be gained from developing a habit of being suspicious of them.Export citation.
  •  8
    Mass-audience interactive narrative ethical reasoning instruction
    International Journal of Ethics Education 2 (2): 161-173. 2017.
    In this paper I introduce, elaborate, and defend a new form of ethical reasoning instruction. The pedagogy, which I have titled mass-audience interactive narrative ethical reasoning instruction, is an initiative designed to teach ethical reasoning effectively on a broad scale over an extended period of time. The hope is that such a program, if duly supported, will help to ensure the widest possible engagement, and high levels of retention, in an institution-level program of ethical reasoning.
  •  12
    Mink & Brace’s Accidental Conference
    Philosophy Now 125 57-58. 2018.
    An examination, in dialogue form, of one of the core weaknesses of the design argument for God's existence.
  •  58
    In this paper I present criticism of Rosalind Hursthouse’s neo-Aristotelian naturalistic virtue ethics as elaborated in her book On Virtue Ethics. I argue that her theory is vulnerable to the charge of partially collapsing into a form of consequentialism that falls prey to a powerful objection to that theory: the problem of instrumentally successful action (or, in Hursthouse’s case, the problem of instrumentally successful vice). I consider several possible responses from Hursthouse, and argue…Read more
  •  2
    Kant’s Theory of Virtue: The Value of Autocracy (review)
    International Philosophical Quarterly 51 (3): 412-415. 2011.
    A critical review of Anne Margaret Baxley's book, Kant's Theory of Virtue: The Value of Autocracy
  •  38
    Doing Justice to Thrasymachus
    Polis 22 (1): 24-44. 2005.
    Thrasymachus' variegated pronouncements on the nature of justice in Book I of the Republic have generated considerable dispute concerning whether those claims are consistent, and about what sorts of theoretical commitments those claims involve, if they are in fact consistent. After clarifying Thrasymachus' position and explaining how it generates charges of inconsistency, I argue that the charges dissolve if we approach the text with the proper conception of just action, as being synonymous with…Read more
  •  4
    Ethics and Well-Being
    In Richard Corrigan (ed.), Ethics: A University Guide, Progressive Frontiers Pubs.. pp. 309. 2010.
    This chapter contains an overview of contemporary work on well-being and its importance for ethics.
  • Mill: Earlier Utilitarianism and its Critics
    Philosophical Forum 42 (3): 322-323. 2011.
    A critical review of Chapter 79 of T. Irwin, The Development of Ethics
  •  33
    Justifying Oneself
    European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 13 (1): 27-38. 2017.
    At present, the activity of justifying oneself is mostly discussed in psychology, where it is typically viewed as a negative or at least regrettable activity involving changing one’s attitudes, beliefs, and feelings in order to minimize psychological threats arising from cognitive dissonance. Yet there is conceptual space, even a need, for an analysis of justifying oneself that is more content-neutral in nature. In this paper I provide such an analys…Read more
  •  43
    The Prudential Value of Education for Autonomy
    Journal of Philosophy of Education 45 (1): 19-35. 2011.
    A popular justification of education for autonomy is that autonomy possession has intrinsic prudential value. Communitarians have argued, however, that although autonomy may be a core element of a well-lived life in liberal societies, it cannot claim such a prudential pedigree in traditional societies in which the conception of a good life is intimately tied to the acceptance of a pre-established worldview. In this paper I examine a recent attempt made by Ishtiyaque Haji and Stefaan Cuypers to r…Read more
  •  129
    Adultery, Open Marriage, and Autonomy
    International Journal of Applied Philosophy 30 (2): 219-229. 2016.
    It is often claimed that adultery can be morally permissible in cases where those engaged in adulterous behavior are part of an open marriage. Yet this only follows if the institution of open marriage itself can be justified. This problem has been generally overlooked, but it deserves attention, as it is far from evident that open marriage has sterling moral credentials. I argue that the most promising general justification of the institution of open marriage is not based on consequentialist or …Read more
  •  73
    On Respect for Personal Autonomy and the Value Instantiated in Autonomous Choice
    Southwest Philosophy Review 25 (1): 189-198. 2009.
    In this paper I argue for what I call ‘the inherency thesis’: the thesis that an autonomous choice that succeeds in expressing an agent’s authentic identity is inherently prudentially valuable for the choosing agent. I argue that this is the case because autonomous choice is a vehicle for the expression of authentic identity, the satisfaction of which is intrinsically prudentially valuable. Moreover, I argue that no such inherent relation exists between fulfilled autonomous choice and the exemp…Read more
  •  38
    Achieving Autonomy
    Social Theory and Practice 42 (4): 767-792. 2016.
    I argue that acting autonomously is often a far more difficult achievement than much of the recent literature on this topic would suggest. Several of the most influential autonomy achievement theories have low achievement thresholds, and there are conceptual and empirical reasons to hold that autonomy achievement ought to be viewed as having much higher thresholds in general. I consider and rebut a variety of reasons for keeping the autonomy achievement threshold low, and conclude with a brief w…Read more
  •  17
    Valenta on Frankfurt’s Doctrine of Sufficiency
    Southwest Philosophy Review 30 (2): 65-70. 2014.
  •  12
    A reconstruction of Kant's argument for why autonomy deserves respect.
  •  105
    Skeptical theism and the problem of moral aporia
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 62 (2). 2007.
    Skeptical theism seeks to defend theism against the problem of evil by invoking putatively reasonable skepticism concerning human epistemic limitations in order to establish that we have no epistemological basis from which to judge that apparently gratuitous evils are not in fact justified by morally sufficient reasons beyond our ken. This paper contributes to the set of distinctively practical criticisms of skeptical theism by arguing that religious believers who accept skeptical theism and tak…Read more
  •  21
    Autonomous Agency and Normative Implication
    Journal of Value Inquiry 46 (3): 317-330. 2012.
    This paper concerns the question of whether any normative commitments necessarily accompany autonomous agency. Substantive theories claim that they do; content-neutral theories deny this. In this paper I argue that it is possible to defend a substantive account without arguing in favor of any particular normative commitments that must accompany autonomous agency. A proper appreciation of what it means for an account to be normatively substantive, coupled with an understanding of what is involve…Read more
  •  230
    Why theists cannot accept skeptical theism
    Sophia 47 (2): 129-148. 2008.
    In recent years skeptical theism has gained currency amongst theists as a way to escape the problem of evil by invoking putatively reasonable skepticism concerning our ability to know that instances of apparently gratuitous evil are unredeemed by morally sufficient reasons known to God alone. After explicating skeptical theism through the work of Stephen Wykstra and William Alston, I present a cumulative-case argument designed to show that skeptical theism cannot be accepted by theists insofar a…Read more
  •  14
    Kant’s Theory of Virtue: The Value of Autocracy
    International Philosophical Quarterly 51 (3): 412-415. 2011.
  •  79
    The perennial problem of evil
    Think 2 (4): 65-73. 2003.
    Mark Piper introduces the best-known and perhaps most powerful of all the arguments against the existence of God
  •  25
    Autonomy and the Normativity Question: Framing Considerations
    International Journal of Philosophical Studies 21 (2). 2013.
    (2013). Autonomy and the Normativity Question: Framing Considerations. International Journal of Philosophical Studies. ???aop.label???. doi: 10.1080/09672559.2012.727014
  •  43
    Autonomy, Oppression, and Gender (edited book)
    Oxford University Press USA. 2014.
    This collection of new essays examines philosophical issues at the intersection of feminism and autonomy studies. Are autonomy and independence useful goals for women and subordinate persons? Is autonomy possible in contexts of social subordination? Is the pursuit of desires that issue from patriarchal norms consistent with autonomous agency? How do emotions and caring relate to autonomous deliberation? Contributors to this collection answer these questions and others, advancing central debates …Read more
  •  47
    Navigating Subjective Theories of Well-Being
    Southwest Philosophy Review 32 (1): 125-134. 2016.
    My concern in this paper is with subjective theories of well-being. My goal is to unpack the two leading subjective theories of well-being – informed desire satisfaction accounts and experiential accounts – and to argue that experiential theories should have pride of place. In the course of the paper I also respond to the Experience Machine objection, which is widely taken to be one of the strongest arguments against experiential accounts of well-being. Importantly, I am not claiming that exp…Read more