•  47
    Objects of Intention
    with Robert C. Koons
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 86 (4): 655-703. 2012.
    The “New Natural Law” Theory (NNL) of Grisez, Finnis, Boyle, and their collaborators offers a distinctive account of intentional action, which underlies a moral theory that aims to justify many aspects of traditional morality and Catholic doctrine. In fact, we show that the NNL is committed to premises that entail the permissibility of many actions that are irreconcilable with traditional morality and Catholic doctrine, such as elective abortions. These consequences follow principally from the N…Read more
  •  23
    Elizabeth Anscombe and the New Natural Lawyers on Intentional Action
    The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13 (1): 47-56. 2013.
    In Intention and her subsequent essays that addressed human action, Elizabeth Anscombe made signal contributions to the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition, and to western philosophy more broadly. The new natural law theory of Germain Grisez, John Finnis, Joseph Boyle, and their collaborators mistakenly claims to be consonant with Anscombe’s work. A central reason for this misappropriation lies in the failure to understand the ways in which Anscombe does and does not deploy a “first-person perspect…Read more
  •  162
    Objects of Intention: A Hylomorphic Critique of the New Natural Law Theory
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 86 (4): 655-703. 2012.
    The “New Natural Law” Theory (NNL) of Germain Grisez, John Finnis, Joseph Boyle, and their collaborators offers a distinctive account of intentional action, which underlies a moral theory that aims to justify many aspects of traditional morality and Catholic doctrine. In fact, we show that the NNL is committed to premises that entail the permissibility of many actions that are irreconcilable with traditional morality and Catholic doctrine, such as elective abortions. These consequences follow p…Read more
  •  1539
    Why Liberal Neutrality Prohibits Same-Sex Marriage: Rawls, Political Liberalism, and the Family
    British Journal of American Legal Studies 1 (2): 411-466. 2012.
    John Rawls’s political liberalism and its ideal of public reason are tremendously influential in contemporary political philosophy and in constitutional law as well. Many, perhaps even most, liberals are Rawlsians of one stripe or another. This is problematic, because most liberals also support the redefinition of civil marriage to include same-sex unions, and as I show, Rawls’s political liberalism actually prohibits same- sex marriage. Recently in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, however, California’s…Read more