-
280Women’s Human Rights, Then and Now: Symposium on Eileen Hunt Botting’s Wollstonecraft, Mill, and Women’s Human Rights (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016) (review)Political Theory 46 (3): 426-454. 2018.
-
239Rawlsian resources for animal ethicsEthics and the Environment 12 (1): 1-22. 2007.: This article considers what contribution the work of John Rawls can make to questions about animal ethics. It argues that there are more normative resources in A Theory of Justice for a concern with animal welfare than some of Rawls's critics acknowledge. However, the move from A Theory of Justice to Political Liberalism sees a depletion of normative resources in Rawlsian thought for addressing animal ethics. The article concludes by endorsing the implication of A Theory of Justice that we loo…Read more
-
236Back to the future: Marriage as friendship in the thought of Mary wollstonecraftHypatia 14 (3): 78-95. 1999.: If liberal theory is to move forward, it must take the political nature of family relations seriously. The beginnings of such a liberalism appear in Mary Wollstonecraft's work. Wollstonecraft's depiction of the family as a fundamentally political institution extends liberal values into the private sphere by promoting the ideal of marriage as friendship. However, while her model of marriage diminishes arbitrary power in family relations, she seems unable to incorporate enduring sexual relations…Read more
-
187The Roots of RessentimentNew Nietzsche Studies 3 (3-4): 47-61. 1999.Despite its centrality for an understanding of Nietzsche's thought, the term ressentiment does not appear in his writings before Beyond Good and Evil. This article argues that the roots of the idea of ressentiment appear in his middle period writings when he discusses vanity [die Eitelkeit].
-
170Reviews : Richard Rorty, Contingency, Irony and Solidarity (Cambridge University Press, 1989)Thesis Eleven 25 (1): 170-172. 1990.
-
159Back toward a Comprehensive Liberalism?Political Theory 35 (1): 5-28. 2007.This article examines the attempts by John Rawls in the works published after Political Liberalism to engage with some of the feminist responses to his work. Rawls goes a long way toward addressing some of the major feministliberal concerns. Yet this has the unintended consequence of pushing justice as fairness in the direction of a more comprehensive, rather than a strictly political, form of liberalism. This does not seem to be a problem peculiar to Rawls: rather, any form of liberalism hospit…Read more
-
147The chief inducement? The idea of marriage as friendshipJournal of Applied Philosophy 18 (1). 2001.A combination of social forces has thrown marriage into question in westernised societies at the end of the millennium. This uncertainty creates space for new ways of thinking about marriage. In this context, we examine the idea of marriage as friendship. We trace its genealogy in the work of Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor and then subject it to critical scrutiny using some of Michel de Montaigne’s ideas. We ask how applic- able the ideal of higher friendship is to marr…Read more
-
127Circles, Ladders and Stars: Nietzsche on friendshipCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 2 (4): 50-73. 1999.One of the major purposes of this article is to show that friendship was one of Nietzsche's central concerns and that he shared Aristotle's belief that it takes higher and lower forms. Yet Nietzsche's interest in friendship is overlooked in much of the secondary literature. An important reason for this is that this interest is most evident in the works of his middle period, and these tend to be neglected in commentaries on Nietzsche. In the works of the middle period, Nietzsche suggests that the…Read more
-
113Beyond misogyny and metaphor: Women in Nietzsche's middle periodJournal of the History of Philosophy 34 (2): 233-256. 1996.This article proposes a third way of reading Nietzsche's remarks on women, one that goes beyond misogyny and metaphor. Taking the depiction of women in the works of the middle period at face value shows that these works neither entirely demean women nor exclude them from the higher life. Nietzsche's middle period comprises HAH (1879-80, which includes "Assorted Opinions and Maxims" and "The Wanderer and His Shadow"), D (1881) and GS (1882). The works of this period do not disqualify women from f…Read more
-
107Willing and Nothingness: Schopenhauer as Nietzsche’s Educator (review)New Nietzsche Studies 5 (3/4/1/2): 220-224. 2003.
-
91Nietzsche's middle periodOxford University Press. 2000.Ruth Abbey presents a close study of Nietzsche's works, Human, All Too Human, Daybreak, and The Gay Science. Although these middle period works tend to be neglected in commentaries on Nietzsche, they repay careful attention. Abbey's commentary brings to light important differences across Nietzsche's oeuvre that have gone unnoticed, filling a serious gap in the literature.
-
90Pluralism in practice: the political thought of Charles TaylorCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 5 (3): 98-123. 2002.This review article outlines some of the major contributions made to political theory by Charles Taylor. It focuses on his relationship to liberalism, his contribution to the understanding of democracy and his analysis of the politics of recognition. Several lines of critique of Taylor's thought on these issues are also explored. Some reflections on Taylor's style of theorising about politics are offered, and the question of whether he is a conservative or critical theorist is examined
-
86Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka , Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights . Reviewed by (review)Philosophy in Review 33 (6): 446-448. 2013.
-
83Charles Taylor (edited book)Routledge. 2000.Charles Taylor is one of the most influential and prolific philosophers in the English-speaking world today. The breadth of his writings is unique, ranging from reflections on artificial intelligence to analyses of contemporary multicultural societies. This thought-provoking introduction to Taylor's work outlines his ideas in a coherent and accessible way without reducing their richness and depth. His contribution to many of the enduring debates within Western philosophy is examined and the argu…Read more
-
70Back to the Future: Marriage as Friendship in the Thought of Mary WollstonecraftHypatia 14 (3): 78-95. 1999.If liberal theory is to move forward, it must take the political nature of family relations seriously. The beginnings of such a liberalism appear in Mary Wollstonecraft's work. Wollstonecraft's depiction of the family as a fundamentally political institution extends liberal values into the private sphere by promoting the ideal of marriage as friendship. However, while her model of marriage diminishes arbitrary power in family relations, she seems unable to incorporate enduring sexual relations b…Read more
-
68Turning or Spinning? Charles Taylor's Catholicism: A Reply to Ian FraserContemporary Political Theory 5 (2): 163-175. 2006.Charles Taylor's work has recently taken a religious turn, with Taylor becoming more explicit about his own religious faith and its influence on his thinking. Ian Fraser offers a systematic, critical exploration of the nature of Taylor's Catholicism as it appears in his writings. This reply to Fraser endorses his belief in the importance of looking carefully at Taylor's religious views. However, it raises doubts about some of Fraser's particular arguments and conclusions, and aims to foster a cl…Read more
-
65Susan Okin's Justice, Gender, and the Family: Twenty‐Five Years LaterHypatia 31 (3): 636-637. 2016.
-
65Swanton and Nietzsche on Self-LoveJournal of Value Inquiry 49 (3): 387-403. 2015.Most of Christine Swanton’s quotations from and references to Nietzsche are drawn The Genealogy of Morals, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and Beyond Good and Evil. I suggest that Human, All too Human and Daybreak, two of Nietzsche’s most neglected works, provide rich resources for Swanton’s interpretation of Nietzsche’s view of self-love and its defining role in genuinely ethical action. Self-love assumes a central place in these writings, as do its cognate concepts of egoism and vanity. I outline some…Read more
-
62Closer kinships: Rortyan resources for animal rightsContemporary Political Theory 16 (1): 1-18. 2017.This article considers the extent to which the debate about animal rights can be enriched by Richard Rorty’s theory of rights. Although Rorty’s work has enjoyed a lot of scholarly attention, commentators have not considered the implications of his arguments for animals. Nor have theorists of animal rights engaged his approach to rights. This paper argues that Rorty’s thinking holds a number of attractions for proponents of animal rights. It also considers some of its drawbacks. It is further arg…Read more
-
60Elizabeth Brake , Minimizing Marriage: Marriage, Morality and the Law . Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 33 (1): 9-15. 2013.
-
59The Impossibility of Perfection: Aristotle, Feminism, and the Complexities of Ethics, by Michael Slote (review)Mind 121 (482): 529-532. 2012.
-
56The Articulated Life: An Interview with Charles TaylorPhilosophy of Management 1 (3): 3-9. 2001.Charles Taylor is one of the most prolific and wide-ranging philosophers in the English-speaking world today. He writes with authority in the fields of moral theory, political philosophy, theories of language, the history of western thought, epistemology and hermeneutics.1 Currently an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at McGill University, he has enjoyed a distinguished academic career which includes being Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford University. He has also been a…Read more
-
52Odd bedfellows: Nietzsche and Mill on marriageHistory of European Ideas 23 (2-4): 81-104. 1997.This paper examines Nietzsche's views on love and marriage in the works of his middle period. Contrary to the general consensus in the secondary literature regarding Nietzsche's ideas on these matters, it shows that he offers several positive reflections on love and marriage. Indeed, at times he accepts that friendship is possible between the genders and even models marriage on friendship. Modelling marriage on friendship creates an overlap between Nietzsche's thought and that of John Stuart Mil…Read more
-
50No country for older people? Age and the digital divideJournal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society 7 (4): 225-242. 2009.PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on age and the digital divide by examining the uses of and attitudes toward information and communication technologies by 26 politically senior citizens.Design/methodology/approachThe approach taken involved in‐depth face‐to‐face interviews.FindingsThe majority of the respondents are informed and balanced cyber‐enthusiasts who have embraced the opportunities afforded by ICTs to enhance their lives in general, including their pol…Read more
-
47Nietzsche and the Invention of InventionJournal of Nietzsche Studies 15 (Spring): 1-14. 1998.Friedrich Nietzsche is typically seen as a radical critic of the western philosophical tradition. This article considers why this image is so widely accepted. It argues that part of the reason for its acceptance is that Nietzsche paints a picture of himself as the independent, radical innovator in his later writings. If we look at the works of the middle period, we find that by contrast, he repeatedly situates himself within wider traditions and discusses what he has learned from them.
-
University of Notre DameRegular Faculty
-
Notre Dame, Indiana, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Social and Political Philosophy |
Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality |