-
29Beyond Ideals of FriendshipJournal of Applied Philosophy. forthcoming.What makes a friendship a good friendship? One way of answering that question, taken by Aristotle and many philosophers since, is to describe an ideal friendship, and then say that a friendship is a good friendship insofar as it resembles the ideal. An ideal of friendship, so presented, is intended to capture the qualities that all good friendships share, regardless of who the friends are and regardless of their circumstances. This approach to good friendship, I argue, fails to capture the varie…Read more
-
6David Lewis's Social and Political PhilosophyIn Barry Loewer & Jonathan Schaffer (eds.), A companion to David Lewis, Wiley-blackwell. 2015.This chapter considers David Lewis's views about toleration, deterrence, punishment, and obligations to the distant poor, and asks what overall perspective in social and political philosophy we might take him to hold. It tries to make Lewis's views clear and emphasizes points suggestive of his overall perspective. The chapter highlights that Lewis's major claim about toleration does not take him as far as he thinks, and his major suggestion about punishment does not ultimately succeed on its own…Read more
-
849Presentists should believe in time-travelAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 79 (3). 2001.This Article does not have an abstract
-
9Kommunikation des Vertrauens (edited book)Evangelische Verlagsanstalt. 2012.Wie wird in unterschiedlichen Berufsfeldern Vertrauen geweckt und stabilisiert? Der vorliegende Studienband, der im Rahmen des interdisziplinaren Zurcher Forschungsprojektes "Vertrauen verstehen. Grundlagen, Formen und Grenzen des Vertrauens" entstanden ist, gibt darauf bereichsspezifische Antworten. Auf der Basis bisheriger Forschung werden typische Formen und Probleme professioneller Vertrauenskommunikation beleuchtet. Im Fokus sind die Bereiche Medizin, Psychotherapie, Seelsorge, (Religions-)…Read more
-
28Shared Belief and the Limits of EmpathyPacific Philosophical Quarterly 102 (2): 267-291. 2021.To show affective empathy is to share in another person's experiences, including her emotions. Most philosophers who write about emotions accept the broadly cognitivist view that emotions are rationally connected with beliefs. We argue that affective empathy is also rationally connected with belief; you can only share in another's emotions insofar as you can share certain of her beliefs. In light of that claim, we argue that affective empathy brings both epistemic dangers and epistemic benefits,…Read more
-
67The Virtue of Self-CompassionEthical Theory and Moral Practice 24 (2): 443-458. 2021.To be self-compassionate is to show compassion not (only) for others but for yourself. Research in psychology suggests that self-compassion leads to improved well-being and functioning. With the psychological research in the background, we give a philosophical account of self-compassion and its ethical significance. We build a definition of self-compassion, suggesting that self-compassion is different from but closely analogous to compassion for others. Our definition departs from the most promi…Read more
-
91What does mental health have to do with well‐being?Bioethics 34 (3): 228-234. 2020.Positive mental health involves not the absence of mental disorder but rather the presence of certain mental goods. Institutions, practitioners, and theorists often identify positive mental health with well‐being. There are strong reasons, however, to keep the concepts of well‐being and positive mental health separate. Someone with high positive mental health can have low well‐being, someone with high well‐being can have low positive mental health, and well‐being and positive mental health somet…Read more
-
12The Limits of LoyaltyCambridge University Press. 2007.We prize loyalty in our friends, lovers and colleagues, but loyalty raises difficult questions. What is the point of loyalty? Should we be loyal to country, just as we are loyal to friends and family? Can the requirements of loyalty conflict with the requirements of morality? In this book, originally published in 2007, Simon Keller explores the varieties of loyalty and their psychological and ethical differences, and concludes that loyalty is an essential but fallible part of human life. He argu…Read more
-
68Belief for Someone Else’s SakePhilosophical Topics 46 (1): 19-35. 2018.You care about what others believe about you. What others believe about you determines whether you have a good reputation, whether you have the respect of your peers, and whether your friends genuinely like you. Your caring about others’ beliefs makes sense, because others’ beliefs bear directly upon your level of well-being. Your beliefs can influence others’ well-being, as much as their beliefs can influence yours. How your beliefs influence another’s well-being is a different matter from whet…Read more
-
112Love and the Moral Error Theory: Is Love a Mistake?Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 95 (3): 709-721. 2017.
-
31Fiduciary Duties and Moral BlackmailJournal of Applied Philosophy 35 (3): 481-495. 2018.In meeting legal or professional fiduciary obligations, a fiduciary can sometimes come to share a special moral relationship with her beneficiary. Special moral relationships produce special moral obligations. Sometimes the obligations faced by a fiduciary as a result of her moral relationship with her beneficiary go beyond the obligations involved in the initial fiduciary relationship. How such moral obligations develop is sometimes under the control of the beneficiary, or of an outside party. …Read more
-
54The limits of loyalty * by Simon Keller (review)Analysis 69 (2): 392-394. 2009.Simon Keller's The Limits of Loyalty makes an important and valuable contribution to a neglected area of moral psychology, both in presenting a clear and subtle account of loyalty in its various manifestations, and in challenging some assumptions about the role of loyalty in a morally decent life. Loyalty's domain is that of special relationships, and for some relationship types, Keller argues that these relationships rightly carry some motivational force, as in his analysis of filial duties. In…Read more
-
Unmittelbare Gegenwart Gottes? Zur Theologie der Mystik bei Bernard McGinnFreiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie Und Theologie 51 (1-3): 253-276. 2004.
-
On WelfareDissertation, Princeton University. 2002.Something enhances an individual's welfare if it makes her better off, or serves her best interests. The dissertation is an investigation into the nature of welfare, and the role that the notion of welfare should play in moral and political theory. Much discussion of these questions, I suggest, is predicated on some unhelpful assumptions about what welfare is, along with an impoverished conception of the sort of philosophical work that it can do. The main goal of the dissertation is to show that…Read more
-
658Friendship and BeliefPhilosophical Papers 33 (3): 329-351. 2004.I intend to argue that good friendship sometimes requires epistemic irresponsibility. To put it another way, it is not always possible to be both a good friend and a diligent believer
-
I restate the view defended in my ‘Patriotism as Bad Faith’, offer a different argument for it, and respond to some objections from Steve Nathanson and Keith Horton.
-
Victoria University of WellingtonSchool of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International RelationsRegular Faculty
Parkville, Victoria, Australia