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1013After Macintyre: Critical Perspectives on the Work of Alasdair Macintyre (edited book)University of Notre Dame Press. 1994.After MacIntyre contains original essays by leading moral and political philosophers who assess both the merits and limitations of Alasdair MacIntyre's work. Among the themes explored here are MacIntyre's historical arguments about the sources of the failure of modernity; the validity and relevance of his attempt to reinstate the ideas of Aristotle and Aquinas as central to any satisfactory moral understanding; the effectiveness of his critique of modern liberalism; and the adequacy of key conce…Read more
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140On toleration (edited book)Oxford University Press. 1987.Is toleration a requirement of morality or a dictate of prudence? What limits are there to toleration? What is required of us if we are to promote a truly tolerant society? These themes--the grounds, limits, and requirements of toleration--are central to this book, which presents the W.B. Morrell Memorial Lectures on Toleration, given in 1986 at the University of York. Covering a wide range of practical and theoretical issues, the contributors--including F.A. Hayek, Maurice Cranston, and Karl Po…Read more
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140John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor on Women and MarriageUtilitas 6 (2): 287. 1994.This paper focuses on two works of nineteenth-century feminism: Harriet Taylor's essay, Enfranchisement of Women, and John Stuart Mill's The Subjection of Women. My aim is to indicate that these texts are more radical than is usually allowed: far from being merely criticisms of the legal disabilities suffered by women in Victorian Britain, they are important moral texts which anticipate central themes within twentieth-century radical feminism. In particular, The Subjection of Women is not merely…Read more
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122Aspects of toleration: philosophical studies (edited book)Methuen. 1985.Introduction JOHN HORTON AND SUSAN MENDUS The essays in this volume are concerned with the theoretical and conceptual issues involved in the idea of ...
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88Book ReviewsAnna Elisabetta. Galeotti, Toleration as Recognition.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. 242. $60.00 (review)Ethics 113 (3): 699-702. 2003.
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74Judith Shklar, The Faces of Injustice, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1990, pp. 144Utilitas 4 (2): 340. 1992.
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73Impartiality in moral and political philosophyOxford University Press. 2002.The debate between impartialists and their critics has dominated both moral and political philosophy for over a decade. Characteristically, impartialists argue that any sensible form of impartialism can accommodate the partial concerns we have for others. By contrast, partialists deny that this is so. They see the division as one which runs exceedingly deep and argue that, at the limit, impartialist thinking requires that we marginalise those concerns and commitments that make our lives meaningf…Read more
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72Saving One’s Soul or Founding a State: Morality and PoliticsPhilosophia 34 (3): 233-241. 2006.In his essay, ‘The Question of Machiavelli’, Isaiah Berlin notes the depth of Machiavelli's pluralism. Taking my cue from Berlin, I argue that much modern liberal political philosophy neglects this deep pluralism and, as a result, misunderstands modern political problems such as the phenomenon of religiously-motivated terrorism.
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71Politics and moralityPolity. 2009.In this book, Susan Mendus seeks to address these important questions to assess whether this apparent tension between morality and politics is real and, if so, ...
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68John Locke: A Letter Concerning Toleration -- In FocusPhilosophical Quarterly 43 (173): 539. 1993.
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59Out of the doll's house: Reflections on autonomy and political philosophyPhilosophical Explorations 2 (1). 1999.Much modern liberal political theory takes the concept of autonomy as central and argues that political arrangements are to be assessed, in some part, by their ability to foster the development of individual autonomy understood as being the author of one's own life. This paper argues that so understood, autonomy is less important than is usually thought The liberal requirement that we 'author' our own lives disguises the importance of also being accurate readers of our own lives. I explore the m…Read more
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58Toleration and recognition: Education in a multicultural societyJournal of Philosophy of Education 29 (2). 1995.Susan Mendus; Toleration and Recognition: education in a multicultural society, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 29, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 191–2.
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53Life's ethical symphonyJournal of Philosophy of Education 42 (2): 201-218. 2008.Most modern moral theories are impartialist in character. They perceive the demands of morality as standing in opposition to partial concerns and acting as constraints upon them. In this paper I argue that our partial concerns in general, and our love and concern for others in particular, are not ultimately at odds with the demands of morality, impartially understood, but are the necessary preconditions of our being motivated by impartial morality. If we are to care about morality, we must first…Read more
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50Innocent Before God: Politics, Morality and the Case of Billy BuddRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 58 23-38. 2006.I begin with the story told by Herman Melville in his short novel, Billy Budd.The year is 1797. Britain is engaged in a long and bitter war against France, and the British war effort has been threatened by two naval mutinies: the Nore Mutiny and the mutiny at Spithead. The scene is His Majesty’s Ship, the Indomitable, and the central character is Billy Budd, sailor. Billy Budd is a young man of exceptional beauty, both physical and moral, whose only flaw is a stammer. He is loved by all his fell…Read more
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49John Locke's Letter on Toleration in Focus (edited book)Routledge. 1991.Though several editions of Locke's Letter of Toleration art available, the unique value of this volume lies in the fact that it conbines both the text of the Letter and interpretative, critical essays. Several essays are reprints of the most important articles on the Letter , but there is also new material , specially commissioned for the volume and published here for the first time. Given the importance of Locke's Letter on Toleration , this volume will be welcomed by both students and teachers…Read more
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42Professor Waldron Goes to WashingtonCriminal Law and Philosophy 8 (1): 123-134. 2014.In Torture, Terror and Trade-Offs: Philosophy for the White House Jeremy Waldron asks how moral philosophy can illuminate real life political problems. He argues that moral philosophers should remind politicians of the importance of adhering to moral principle, and he also argues that some moral principles are absolute and exceptionless. Thus, he is very critical of those philosophers who, post 9/11, were willing to condone the use of torture. In this article I discuss and criticize Waldron’s ab…Read more
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37Book Review: Why Tolerate Religion? by Brian LeiterWhy Tolerate Religion? By LeiterBrian, Princeton University Press, 2013, pp. 187 + xv (review)Political Theory 41 (5): 766-769. 2013.
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36Gender and Genius: Towards a Feminist Aesthetics By Christine Battersby The Women's Press, 1989, viii + 161 pp., £12.95 (review)Philosophy 65 (254): 525-. 1990.
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36Defending the bad against the worse: Education and democracyStudies in Philosophy and Education 12 (1): 21-31. 1993.Recent writings in philosophy of education have expressed pessimism about the possibility of educating students to think for themselves. Similarly, recent writings in political philosophy have expressed pessimism about the possibility of attaining democracy. In this paper, I suggest that such pessimism is premature and may be alleviated, if not removed, by interpreting both educational enlightenment and the democratic ideal as processes, rather than end states. They are, moreover, processes whic…Read more
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35Different Voices, Still Lives: Problems in the Ethics of CareJournal of Applied Philosophy 10 (1): 17-27. 1993.ABSTRACT Recent writings in feminist ethics have urged that the activity of caring is more central to women's lives than are considerations of justice and equality. This paper argues that an ethics of care, so understood, is difficult to extend beyond the local and familiar, and is therefore of limited use in addressing the political problems of the modern world. However, the ethics of care does contain an important insight: if references to care are understood not as claims about women's nature…Read more
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35All the King's horses and all the King's men: Justifying higher educationJournal of Philosophy of Education 26 (2). 1992.ABSTRACT This article addresses the question‘What is the justification of higher education in modern society?’ It takes issue with writers such as Alasdair Macintyre and Allan Bloom, who argue that the fragmentation of value characteristic of modernity has undermined the possibility of providing a coherent justification of higher education. Against MacIntyre and Bloom, I argue that we should understand education as a means of developing reflective consciousness in students, and that that will re…Read more
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32Kant’s Doctrine of the SelfKant Studien 75 (1-4): 55-64. 1984.I argue that, Pace bennett, Strawson and others, The paralogisms chapter of the "first critique" does not present a theory of personal identity. In particular, It is not an attempt to answer hume's questions in the 'of personal identity' chapter of the "treatise". Kant shows why hume's search for a continuing self is misguided, But his aim is to warn against inflating the conclusions of the paralogisms, Not to present a theory of personal identity
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30The Serpent and the DovePhilosophy 63 (245). 1988.In his essay ‘The Simple Art of Murder’, Raymond Chandler describes the world of the American detective story as ‘a world in which gangsters can rule nations and almost rule cities, in which hotels and apartment houses and celebrated restaurants are owned by men who made their money out of brothels, in which a screen star can be the fingerman for a mob, and the nice man down the hall is a boss of the numbers racket; a world where a judge with a cellar full of bootleg liquor can send a man to jai…Read more
Heslington, York, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Law |
Social and Political Philosophy |