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3On the Harm of GenocideForum Philosophicum: International Journal for Philosophy 22 (1): 31-49. 2017.My aim in this essay is to advance the state of scholarly discussion on the harms of genocide. The most obvious harms inflicted by every genocide are readily evident: the physical harm inflicted upon the victims of genocide and the moral harm that the perpetrators of genocide inflict upon themselves. Instead, I will focus on a kind of harm inflicted upon those who are neither victims nor perpetrators, on those who are outside observers, so to speak. My thesis will be that when a whole community …Read more
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2Speaking Rationally About the GoodForum Philosophicum: International Journal for Philosophy 20 (1): 29-49. 2015.In this paper, I explain and defend Karol Wojtyła’s claim that “if we wish to speak rationally about good and evil, we have to return to the philosophy of being. If we do not set out from such ‘realist’ presuppositions, we end up in a vacuum.” I begin by outlining Wojtyła’s existential understanding of the good, according to which the good for x is found in those ends that complete the being that is lacking in x, or that enhance its existence in keeping with its nature. Then I explain how Wojtył…Read more
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11On the Grounds of a Person’s DignityInternational Philosophical Quarterly 61 (1): 27-45. 2021.What does it mean to say that a person has dignity, and what explains her dignity? Linda Zagzebski argues that personal dignity entails both infinite and irreplaceable value. Initially she grounds the former claim in the power of rationality and the latter in the uniqueness of one’s subjective lived experience. Later she grounds both in the power of rationality, understood in terms of reflective consciousness. I argue that the latter account is an improvement upon the former but that needless pr…Read more
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1On the Harm of GenocideForum Philosophicum: International Journal for Philosophy 22 (1): 31-49. 2017.My aim in this essay is to advance the state of scholarly discussion on the harms of genocide. The most obvious harms inflicted by every genocide are readily evident: the physical harm inflicted upon the victims of genocide and the moral harm that the perpetrators of genocide inflict upon themselves. Instead, I will focus on a kind of harm inflicted upon those who are neither victims nor perpetrators, on those who are outside observers, so to speak. My thesis will be that when a whole community …Read more
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12Speaking Rationally About the Good: Karol Wojtyła on Being and the Normative OrderForum Philosophicum: International Journal for Philosophy 20 (1): 29-49. 2015.In this paper, I explain and defend Karol Wojtyła’s claim that “if we wish to speak rationally about good and evil, we have to return to the philosophyof being. If we do not set out from such ‘realist’ presuppositions, we end up in a vacuum.” I begin by outlining Wojtyła’s existential understanding of the good,according to which the good for x is found in those ends that complete the being that is lacking in x, or that enhance its existence in keeping with its nature. Then I explain how Wojtyła …Read more
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3Thomas Aquinas, Josef Seifert, and the Metaphysics of Respecting PersonsLogos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 17 (2): 100-117. 2014.
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3Knowing the Natural Law: From Precepts and Inclinations to Deriving Oughts. By Steven J. JensenInternational Philosophical Quarterly 56 (4): 503-506. 2016.
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6The Root of Friendship: Self-Love and Self-Governance in Aquinas. By Anthony T. FloodAmerican Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 89 (4): 730-733. 2015.
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1On the Habit of Seeing PersonsProceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 88 207-216. 2014.In Existence and the Existent, Jacques Maritain speaks about the difficulty of knowing persons as subjects. Typically we know persons as objects, or “from without,” and this explains why we describe people as instantiations of various qualities that can be shared in common with others. But according to Maritain, “To be known as object... is to be severed from oneself and wounded in one’s identity. It is to always be unjustly known.” In this paper, I consider the epistemological means by which kn…Read more
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Religion |
Normative Ethics |
Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy |