•  14
    Moral Conscience through the Ages (review)
    Review of Metaphysics 69 (2): 412-413. 2015.
  •  17
    Reification (review)
    Review of Metaphysics 62 (3): 662-663. 2009.
  •  45
    The Rejection of Skepticism
    The Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy 6 25-28. 2007.
    There is a widespread belief among contemporary philosophers that skeptical hypotheses—such as that we are dreaming, or victims of an evil demon, or brains in a vat—cannot definitively be ruled out as false. This belief is ill-founded. In fact it is based on a failure to see that skeptical arguments beg the question. Such arguments assume that reality is not an immediate given of experience in order to prove that reality is not an immediate given of experience. This point is explained and justif…Read more
  •  1
    Ernest Barker wrote two books on the political thought of Plato, both of which were also directly related to his study of the political thought of Aristotle. This essay examines the way Barker’s readings of Plato changed, first from the earlier to the later of his two books, and then from the later of these books, written during WWI, to his translation of Aristotle’s Politics, written during WWII. The contention is that, as Barker himself partly confessed, WWI led him to read hopes into Plato’s …Read more
  •  21
    Aristotle’s Defensible Defence of Slavery
    Polis 23 (1): 95-115. 2006.
    This article is an attempt to break down Aristotle’s arguments in favour of slavery into what I take to be their constituent premises and conclusions, to set these out schematically in syllogistic form, and to display both how each of the arguments works on its own and how all of them fit together to form one overarching argument. The purpose of this exercise is to make as evident as possible the structure, coherence, and validity of Aristotle’s reasoning. This is something that is lacking in sc…Read more
  •  12
    On Karol Wojtyła
    Cengage Learning. 2001.
    This brief text assists students in understanding Karol Wojtyla's philosophy and thinking so they can more fully engage in useful, intelligent class dialogue and improve their understanding of course content. Part of the Wadsworth Notes Series, (which will eventually consist of approximately 100 titles, each focusing on a single "thinker" from ancient times to the present), ON KAROL WOJTYLA is written by a philosopher deeply versed in the philosophy of this key thinker. Like other books in the s…Read more
  •  7
    On The Text Of Some Disputed Passages In Aristotle's Ethica Eudemia
    Classical Quarterly 62 (2): 541-552. 2012.
  •  37
    God (review)
    International Philosophical Quarterly 52 (1): 121-123. 2012.
  •  8
    Aristotle's Ethica Eudemia and Ethica Nicomachea, as is well known and much discussed, contain three books in common. Less well known, at least until Dieter Harlfinger alerted scholars to the fact in 1971, is that some of the manuscripts of Eth. Eud. do, contrary to the then prevailing consensus, contain the text of these common books. Even less well known is that Harlfinger's discovery was anticipated some 50 years before by Walter Ashburner, who had uncovered this fact about Eth. Eud. MSS in t…Read more
  •  8
    14. Contemporary Virtue Ethics and Aristotle
    In Daniel Statman (ed.), Virtue Ethics: A Critical Reader, Edinburgh University Press. pp. 245-259. 1997.
  •  5
    Among the works on ethics in the Aristotelian corpus, there is no serious dispute among scholars that the "Eudemian Ethics "is authentic. The "Eudemian Ethics "is" "increasingly read and used by scholars as a useful support and confirmation and sometimes contrast to the "Nicomachean Ethics." Yet, it remains a largely neglected work in the study of Aristotle's ethics, both among scholars and moral philosophers. Peter L. P. Simpson provides an analytical outline of the entire work together with su…Read more
  •  4
    A Philosophical Commentary on the Politics of Aristotle
    Univ of North Carolina Press. 1998.
    Philosophical Commentary on the Politics of Aristotle.
  •  33
    The Virtuous Life in Greek Ethics—ed. Burkhard Reis and Stella Haffmans (review)
    International Philosophical Quarterly 48 (1): 109-111. 2008.
  •  29
    Wittgenstein's City (review)
    Review of Metaphysics 44 (2): 399-401. 1990.
    The title of this book is taken from one of Wittgenstein's own images. In Philosophical Investigations §18, Wittgenstein writes: "Our language can be seen as an ancient city: a maze of little streets and squares, of old and new houses, and of houses with additions from various periods." Ackerman maintains that this image gives us the clue to seeing Wittgenstein's thought as a whole. The two periods of Wittgenstein's thinking are nowhere near as opposed as scholars are wont to make out. They diff…Read more
  •  3
    Ernest Barker wrote two books on the political thought of Plato, both of which were also directly related to his study of the political thought of Aristotle. This essay examines the way Barker's readings of Plato changed, first from the earlier to the later of his two books, and then from the later of these books, written during WWI, to his translation of Aristotle's Politics, written during WWII. The contention is that, as Barker himself partly confessed, WWI led him to read hopes into Plato's …Read more
  • Review of Eckart Schütrumpf's Aristotoles Politik, uberstetzt und erlautern (review)
    American Journal of Philology 114 (2): 320-323. 1993.
  •  22
    Reasons and Persons (review)
    Review of Metaphysics 39 (2): 370-372. 1985.
    The aim and result of this book may perhaps be best described as the dissolution of the idea of persons, at least as 'person' is ordinarily understood. Parfit wishes, partly in response to the impersonalism of modern life, to establish impersonalism in moral theory. But such impersonalism will in fact, he maintains, make things go better for persons.
  •  22
    Practical Knowing
    Modern Schoolman 67 (2): 111-122. 1990.
  •  30
    Meier, Heinrich. The Lesson of Carl Schmitt (review)
    Review of Metaphysics 65 (4): 885-887. 2012.
  •  19
    Justice, Scheffler and Cicero
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 65 (2): 203-211. 1991.
  •  29
    Consequentialism, Incoherence and Choice
    with Robert McKim
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 66 (1): 93-98. 1992.
  •  15
    Aristotle’s Defensible Defence of Slavery
    Polis 23 (1): 95-115. 2006.
    This article is an attempt to break down Aristotle's arguments in favour of slavery into what I take to be their constituent premises and conclusions, to set these out schematically in syllogistic form, and to display both how each of the arguments works on its own and how all of them fit together to form one overarching argument. The purpose of this exercise is to make as evident as possible the structure, coherence, and validity of Aristotle's reasoning. This is something that is lacking in sc…Read more
  •  1
    On History and Ideology — A Response to Edge
    Polis 28 (2): 320-324. 2011.
  •  2
    The Rejection of Consequentialism (review)
    Philosophical Studies (Dublin) 31 525-528. 1986.
  •  7
    Vom Gesichtspunkt Der PhäNomenologie Ii, by Rudolf Boehm
    Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 15 (2): 203-205. 1984.
  •  4
    The Great Chain of Being and it Alian Phenomenology, edited by Angela Ales Bello
    Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 13 (2): 202-203. 1982.
  •  46
    The Nature and Origin of Ideas: The Controversy over Innate Ideas Reconsidered
    International Philosophical Quarterly 25 (1): 15-30. 1985.
    Locke and descartes only disagree about innate knowledge because they both accept the principle that knowledge that comes through the senses is sensible knowledge or reducible to such knowledge. Other philosophers from berkeley to wittgenstein share the same principle. This principle is rejected by aristotle and the aristotelian tradition; consequently aristotle is able to give a more convincing account of knowledge and its acquisition. A summary of this account is given and defended