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1047The moral fixed points: new directions for moral nonnaturalismPhilosophical Studies 171 (3): 399-443. 2014.Our project in this essay is to showcase nonnaturalistic moral realism’s resources for responding to metaphysical and epistemological objections by taking the view in some new directions. The central thesis we will argue for is that there is a battery of substantive moral propositions that are also nonnaturalistic conceptual truths. We call these propositions the moral fixed points. We will argue that they must find a place in any system of moral norms that applies to beings like us, in worlds s…Read more
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725The Projectability Challenge to Moral NaturalismJournal of Moral Philosophy 17 (5): 471-498. 2020.The Projectability Challenge states that a metaethical view must explain how ordinary agents can, on the basis of moral experience and reflection, accurately and justifiably apply moral concepts to novel situations. In this paper, we argue for two primary claims. First, paradigm nonnaturalism can satisfactorily answer the projectability challenge. Second, it is unclear whether there is a version of moral naturalism that can satisfactorily answer the challenge. The conclusion we draw is that ther…Read more
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628Foundations of Ethics: An Anthology (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2006.A substantial collection of seminal articles, Foundations of Ethics covers all of the major issues in metaethics. Covers all of the major issues in metaethics including moral metaphysics, epistemology, moral psychology, and philosophy of language. Provides an unparalleled offering of primary sources and expert commentary for students of ethical theory. Includes seminal essays by ethicists such as G.E. Moore, Simon Blackburn, Gilbert Harman, Christine Korsgaard, Michael Smith, Bernard Williams, J…Read more
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364Argument for Moral Realism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, 263 pp., 46.99£, ISBN 978-0-19-921883-7. 1 (review)Grazer Philosophische Studien 80 (1): 333-337. 2010.
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356Recent Faces of Moral NonnaturalismPhilosophy Compass 2 (6): 850-879. 2007.Despite having occupied a peripheral position in contemporary metaethics, moral nonnaturalism has recently experienced a revival of sorts. But what is moral nonnaturalism? And what is there to be said in favor of it? In this article, I address these two questions. In the first place, I offer an account of what moral nonnaturalism is. According to the view I propose, nonnaturalism is better viewed not as a position, but as a theoretical stance. And, second, I critically engage with three recent a…Read more
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345Defending the Moral/Epistemic ParityIn C. McHugh J. Way & D. Whiting (eds.), Metaepistemology, . forthcoming.
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311The normative web: an argument for moral realismOxford University Press. 2007.Moral realism of a paradigmatic sort -- Defending the parallel -- The parity premise -- Epistemic nihilism -- Epistemic expressivism : traditional views -- Epistemic expressivism : nontraditional views -- Epistemic reductionism -- Three objections to the core argument.
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178Method in the Service of ProgressAnalytic Philosophy 60 (3): 179-205. 2019.Analytic Philosophy, EarlyView.
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162Review: Hallvard Lillehammer: Companions in Guilt: Arguments for Ethical Objectivity (review)Mind 118 (470): 492-497. 2009.
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154Moral facts as configuring causesPacific Philosophical Quarterly 87 (2). 2006.The overarching aim of this essay is to argue that moral realists should be "causalists" or claim that moral facts of certain kinds are causally efficacious. To this end, I engage in two tasks. The first is to develop an account of the sense in which moral facts of certain kinds are causally efficacious. After having sketched the concept of what I call a "configuring" cause, I contend that the exercise of the moral virtues is plausibly viewed as a configuring cause. The second is to show that th…Read more
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150An externalist solution to the "moral problem"Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 59 (2): 359-380. 1999.In his recent book, The Moral Problem , Michael Smith presents a number of arguments designed to expose the difficulties with so-called 'extcrnalist' theories of motivation. This essay endeavors to defend externalism from Smith's attacks. I attempt three tasks in the essay. First, I try to clarify and reformulate Smith's distinction between internalism and externalism. Second, I formulate two of Smith's arguments- what I call the 'reliability argument' and 'the rationalist argument' -and attempt…Read more
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135Christine Korsgaard’s Self-ConstitutionJournal of Moral Philosophy 11 (1): 97-110. 2014.Christine Korsgaard’s 1996 book, The Sources of Normativity, attracted a great deal of attention. And rightly so. It is a highly engaging attempt to answer what she calls the normative question, which is the question of what could justify morality’s demands. Korsgaard’s latest book, Self-Constitution, develops and defends the broadly Kantian account of action and agency that hovers in the background of Sources, drawing out its implications for the normative question. In this review, we present t…Read more
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123Can expressivism have it all?Philosophical Studies 177 (1): 219-241. 2020.Quasi-realist expressivists set themselves the task of developing a metaethical theory that at once captures what they call the “realist-sounding” elements of ordinary moral thought and discourse but is also distinctively antirealist. Its critics have long suspected that the position cannot have what it wants. In this essay, I develop this suspicion. I do so by distinguishing two paradigmatic versions of the view—what I call Thin and Thick expressivism respectively. I contend that there is a met…Read more
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122Ritual KnowledgeFaith and Philosophy 31 (4): 365-385. 2014.Most work in religious epistemology has concerned itself with propositional knowledge of God. In this essay, I explore the role of knowing how to engage God in the religious life. Specifically, I explore the role of knowing how to engage God in the context of ritualized liturgical activity, exploring the contribution that knowing how to perform liturgical rites of various sorts can make to knowing God. The thesis I defend is that the liturgy provides both activities of certain kinds and concepti…Read more
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122Philosophy Comes to Dinner: Arguments on the Ethics of Eating (edited book)Routledge. 2016.Everyone is talking about food. Chefs are celebrities. "Locavore" and "freegan" have earned spots in the dictionary. Popular books and films about food production and consumption are exposing the unintended consequences of the standard American diet. Questions about the principles and values that ought to guide decisions about dinner have become urgent for moral, ecological, and health-related reasons. In _Philosophy Comes to Dinner_, twelve philosophers—some leading voices, some inspiring new o…Read more
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122Another look at divine hiddennessReligious Studies 49 (2): 151-164. 2013.In his fine book The Wisdom to Doubt, J. L. Schellenberg builds a case for religious scepticism by advancing a version of the Hiddenness Argument. This argument rests on the claim that God could not love, in an admirable way, those who seek God while also remaining hidden from them. In this article, I distinguish two arguments for this claim. Neither argument succeeds, I contend, as each rests on an unsatisfactory understanding of the nature of admirable love, whether human or divine
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120Themes from G.e. Moore: New essays in epistemology and ethics • by Susana Nuccetelli and Gary SeayAnalysis 69 (1): 167-169. 2009.G.E. Moore's philosophical legacy is ambiguous. On the one hand, Moore has a special place in the hearts of many contemporary analytic philosophers. He is, after all, one of the fathers of the movement, his broadly commonsensical methodology informing how many contemporary analytic philosophers practise their craft. On the other hand, many contemporary philosophers keep Moore's own substantive positions at arm's distance. According to many epistemologists, one can find no finer example of how to…Read more
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114Taking Morality Seriously: A Defense of Robust Realism, by David EnochMind 121 (484): 1059-1064. 2012.
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109Reconciling realism with humeanismAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 80 (4). 2002.The central purpose of this essay is to consider some of the more prominent reasons why realists have rejected the Humean theory of motivation. I shall argue that these reasons are not persuasive, and that there is nothing about being a moral realist that should make us suspicious of Humeanism.
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107Intuitionism's burden: Thomas Reid on the problem of moral motivationJournal of Scottish Philosophy 6 (1): 21-44. 2008.Hume bequeathed to rational intuitionists a problem concerning moral judgment and the will – a problem of sufficient severity that it is still cited as one of the major reasons why intuitionism is untenable.1 Stated in general terms, the problem concerns how an intuitionist moral theory can account for the intimate connection between moral judgment and moral motivation. One reason that this is still considered to be a problem for intuitionists is that it is widely assumed that the early intuitio…Read more
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97Reidian Moral PerceptionCanadian Journal of Philosophy 33 (2). 2003.It is a common antirealist strategy to reject realism about some domain of entities for broadly epistemological reasons. When this strategy is applied to realism about moral facts, it takes something like the following form
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90“Saying what we Mean: An Argument against ExpressivismOxford Studies in Metaethics 1 35-71. 2006.
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69Reidian Metaethics: Part IPhilosophy Compass 6 (5): 333-340. 2011.Does moral realism deserve to be the default metaethical position? The issue is contested. While many realists have maintained that theirs is the view to beat, others contend that realists have offered no satisfactory argument for this position. In this essay and its companion, ‘Reidian Metaethics, Part II’, I maintain that Thomas Reid’s moral epistemology can help us make headway on the issue. Reid, I claim, offers an interesting line of argument, that when conjoined with some other assumptions…Read more
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69Signs of value: Reid on the evidential role of feelings in moral judgementBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 14 (1). 2006.This Article does not have an abstract
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62Destabilizing the Error TheoryIn Pedro Schmechtig & Martin Grajner (eds.), Epistemic Reasons, Norms, and Goals, De Gruyter. pp. 71-94. 2016.
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59If These Walls Could Only SpeakFaith and Philosophy 27 (2): 123-141. 2010.This essay is in the philosophy of Christian liturgy. Specifically, it explores the liturgical practice, at home in the Eastern Orthodox Church, of venerating icons, asking: What is it about the liturgical role of icons that would make behavior such as touching and kissing them appropriate? After arguing that the standard answers to this question offered by Western and Eastern Christians are inadequate, I develop an account according to which the icons are instruments of divine action. More exac…Read more
Burlington, Vermont, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Value Theory |
History of Western Philosophy |
Philosophy of Religion, Miscellaneous |
Areas of Interest
Value Theory |
History of Western Philosophy |
Philosophy of Religion, Miscellaneous |