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Nietzsche on the Eternal RecurrenceCambridge University Press. forthcoming.Table of Contents: 1. The introduction of infinities 2. Gay Science 341, “The greatest weight”, considers infinite value 3. The argument of KSA 11:11:38[12] anticipates Poincaré’s theorem 4. “The Soothsayer” envisions the dark side of eternal recurrence 5. “On Redemption” tells of the will’s struggle with the past 6. “The Stillest Hour” struggles to speak of infinite negative value 7. “On The Vision and the Riddle” envisions the cosmology 8. “The Convalescent” has animals proclaiming recu…Read more
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Pleasure is goodness; morality is universalEthical Theory and Moral Practice 1-17. forthcoming.This paper presents the Universality Argument that pleasure is goodness. The first premise defines goodness as what should please all. The second premise reduces 'should' to perceptual accuracy. The third premise invokes a universal standard of accuracy: qualitative identity. Since the pleasure of all is accurate solely about pleasure, pleasure is goodness, or universal moral value. The argument proceeds from a moral sense theory that analyzes moral concepts as concerned with what all should hop…Read more
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Qualia share their correlates’ locationsSynthese 202 (2): 1-14. 2023.
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Humean Nature: How Desire Explains Action, Thought, and FeelingOxford University Press. 2017.This book defends the Humean Theory of Motivation, according to which desire drives all action and practical reasoning. Desire motivates us to pursue its object. It makes thoughts of its object pleasant. It focuses attention on its object. Its effects are amplified by vivid representations of its object. These aspects of desire explain why motivation usually accompanies moral belief, how intentions shape our plans, how we exercise willpower, what human selves are, how action can express emotion…Read more
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Possible girlsPacific Philosophical Quarterly 89 (2). 2008.I argue that if David Lewis’ modal realism is true, modal realists from different possible worlds can fall in love with each other. I offer a method for uniquely picking out possible people who are in love with us and not with our counterparts. Impossible lovers and trans-world love letters are considered. Anticipating objections, I argue that we can stand in the right kinds of relations to merely possible people to be in love with them and that ending a trans-world relationship to start a relat…Read more
APA Eastern Division
Areas of Specialization
Value Theory |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Mind |
Metaphysics |
Epistemology |
Friedrich Nietzsche |
PhilPapers Editorships
Desire |
Moral Realism and Irrealism |