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52Pragmatism for PacifistsContemporary Pragmatism 4 (2): 93-115. 2007.Many believe some version of all three of the following. It is strongly presumptively wrong to kill children intentionally. Modern war involves killing children intentionally. Most modern wars are morally justified. These three sentences comprise an inconsistent triad. War Realism denies 1. Just War Theory denies 2. Pragmatic or Conditional Pacifism denies 3. Scrutiny reveals that one can justify, depending on the rest of what one believes, any one of the three positions but they cannot all be t…Read more
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48Nuclear Deterrence and the Limits of Moral TheoryThe Monist 70 (3): 357-376. 1987.The best of twentieth century philosophy questions the basic assumptions of modernity. These works reject the classical enterprise of epistemology by undermining the twin notions of foundationalism and essentialism, as well as the perceptual metaphors for the mind upon which they have rested. In addition, they expose the supposedly value-neutral, ahistorical methods of philosophy, including conceptual analysis. The demise of the analytic/synthetic distinction, the rejection of the appeal to the …Read more
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32Neutrality and the Academic EthicRowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1994.In Neutrality and the Academic Ethic, distinguished philosopher Robert L. Simon explores the claim that universities can and should be politically neutral. He examines conceptual questions about the meaning of neutrality, distinguishes different conceptions of what neutrality involves, and considers in what sense, if any, institutional neutrality is both possible and desirable. In Part II, a collection of original and previously published essays provides different views on these and related issu…Read more
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21Burdens of WarismThe Acorn 17 (1): 82-87. 2017.Robert Holmes’ Pacifism is the most complete, most detailed in argument, and most compelling book on pacifism I have read. It is not an easy book, for “all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.” It deserves a careful read, many reads, by anyone who cares about war and the war system we are. It is a fitting testimony to Holmes’ excellence as a philosopher in the truest sense of that word--so uncommon in the halls of the academy, yet so inspiring to his students still.
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13Just war, nonviolence, and nuclear deterrence: philosophers on war and peace (edited book)Longwood Academic. 1991.
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11Going to War and collective self-deception1In Fritz Allhoff, Nicholas Evans & Adam Henschke (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Ethics and War: Just War Theory in the 21st Century, Routledge. pp. 35. 2013.
Areas of Specialization
Value Theory |
History of Western Philosophy |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Other Academic Areas |