•  151
    Why Tugendhat's critique of Heidegger's concept of truth remains a critical problem
    Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 50 (2). 2007.
    With what right and with what meaning does Heidegger use the term 'truth' to characterize Dasein's disclosedness? This is the question at the focal point of Ernst Tugendhat's long-standing critique of Heidegger's understanding of truth, one to which he finds no answer in Heidegger's treatment of truth in §44 of Being and Time or his later work. To put the question differently: insofar as unconcealment or disclosedness is normally understood as the condition for the possibility of propositional t…Read more
  •  82
    Robert Sokolowski: Phenomenology of the Human Person Content Type Journal Article DOI 10.1007/s10743-010-9079-1 Authors William / H. Smith, Department of Philosophy, Seattle University, 901 12th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122, USA Journal Husserl Studies Online ISSN 1572-8501 Print ISSN 0167-9848 Journal Volume Volume 26 Journal Issue Volume 26, Number 3.
  •  76
    Reclaiming the Revolutionary Spirit
    European Journal of Political Theory 9 (2): 149-166. 2010.
    This article examines Hannah Arendt’s bold and provocative proposal to institutionalize civil disobedience. First, I argue that the proposal follows from Arendt’s peculiar interpretation of this mode of protest. She sees it as an unexpected yet welcome echo of the revolutionary spirit that accompanied the foundation of the American republic. In seeking to bring civil disobedience into government, she aims to embed this spirit within the very institutional fabric of the polity. Second, I suggest …Read more
  •  74
    The topic of this book is a fundamental philosophical question: why should I be moral? Philosophers have long been concerned with the legitimacy of morality's claim on us, especially with morality's ostensible aim to motivate certain actions of all persons unconditionally. While the problem of moral normativity - that is, the justification of the binding force of moral claims - has received extensive treatment analytic moral theory, little attention has been paid to the potential contribution t…Read more
  •  71
    Religious Accommodation in Bioethics and the Practice of Medicine
    Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 46 (2): 188-218. 2021.
    Debates about the ethics of health care and medical research in contemporary pluralistic democracies often arise partly from competing religious and secular values. Such disagreements raise challenges of balancing claims of religious liberty with claims to equal treatment in health care. This paper proposes several mid-level principles to help in framing sound policies for resolving such disputes. We develop and illustrate these principles, exploring their application to conscientious objection …Read more
  •  53
    Civil Disobedience
    Contemporary Political Theory 19 (3): 202-205. 2020.
  •  46
    The Ethics of (Un)Civil Resistance
    Ethics and International Affairs 33 (3): 363-373. 2019.
    Civil disobedience is a conscientious, unlawful, and broadly nonviolent form of protest, which most political philosophers and many non-philosophers are inclined to treat as potentially defensible in democratic societies. In recent years, philosophers have become more receptive to long-standing complaints from activists that civil disobedience is an unduly restrictive framework for considering the ethics of dissent. Candice Delmas and Jason Brennan have written important books that illustrate an…Read more
  •  38
    Jurgen Habermas's Theory of Cosmopolitanism
    Constellations 10 (4): 469-487. 2003.
    In this paper we explore the sustained and multifaceted attempt of Jürgen Habermas to reconstruct Kant's theory of cosmopolitan right for our own times. In a series of articles written in the post‐1989 period, Habermas has argued that the challenge posed both by the catastrophes of the twentieth century, and by social forces of globalization, has given new impetus to the idea of cosmopolitan justice that Kant first expressed. He recognizes that today we cannot simply repeat Kant's eighteenth‐cen…Read more
  •  35
    The Phenomenology of Moral Normativity
    Comparative and Continental Philosophy 9 (3): 274-279. 2017.
    This symposium collects together five essays reflecting on The Phenomenology of Moral Normativity by William H. Smith. This work is an original monograph bridging the phenomenological tradition and contemporary moral theory in an attempt to articulate a phenomenological theory of moral normativity. The first piece in the symposium, by Smith, offers a précis of the book’s argumentative structure, including its central theses, methodological commitments, and pluralistic orientation. The next three…Read more
  •  29
    Moral expertise without moral elitism
    Bioethics 37 (6): 564-574. 2023.
    Skepticism about ethical expertise has grown common, raising concerns that bioethicists’ roles are inappropriate or depend on something other than expertise in ethics. While these roles may depend on skills other than those of expertise, overlooking the role of expertise in ethics distorts our conception of moral advising. This paper argues that motivations to reject ethical expertise often stem from concerns about elitism: either an intellectualist elitism, where some privileged elite have supp…Read more
  •  23
    Piero Moraro, Civil Disobedience: A Philosophical Overview
    Criminal Law and Philosophy 16 (3): 651-656. 2022.
    Piero Moraro offers an illuminating and insightful survey of the philosophical literature on civil disobedience, illustrating how the conversation has evolved since the debates triggered by the social movements of the 1960s. The principal value of the book is that it showcases the multifaceted complexion of the emerging philosophical terrain, thus correcting the erroneous but still common perception that civil disobedience is a mere adjunct to interminable debates about the duty to obey. The boo…Read more
  •  11
    Religious pluralism and the ethics of healthcare
    Bioethics 37 (1): 42-51. 2022.
    Democratic societies that separate church and state face major challenges in accommodating religious convictions. This applies especially to determining healthcare policies. Building on our prior work on the demands and limits of religious accommodation in democratic societies, we propose a set of ethical standards that can guide societies in meeting this challenge. In applying and defending these standards, we explore three topics: vaccine resistance, abortion, and concerns about rights to heal…Read more
  •  3
    Jürgen Habermas's Theory of Cosmopolitanism
    Constellations 10 (4): 469-487. 2003.
    In this paper we explore the sustained and multifaceted attempt of Jürgen Habermas to reconstruct Kant's theory of cosmopolitan right for our own times. In a series of articles written in the post‐1989 period, Habermas has argued that the challenge posed both by the catastrophes of the twentieth century, and by social forces of globalization, has given new impetus to the idea of cosmopolitan justice that Kant first expressed. He recognizes that today we cannot simply repeat Kant's eighteenth‐cen…Read more