• Contributors

  • Alastair Norcross
  • Alison Hills
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  • Antti Kauppinen
  • Bart Streumer
  • Brian McElwee
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  • David Enoch
  • David Wasserman
  • Fiona Woollard
  • Frances Kamm
  • Gerald Lang
  • Gilbert Harman
  • Guy Kahane
  • Helen Frowe
  • Iwao Hirose
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  • Rahul Kumar
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  • Sergio Tenenbaum
  • Shlomi Segall
  • Simon Kirchin
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  • Thom Brooks
  • Toby Ord
  • Tom Douglas
  • Tom Hurka
  • Ulrike Heuer
  • Wlodek Rabinowicz

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• Readings

  • 
    What Is Good and Why: The Ethics of Well-Being
    Richard Kraut
    
  • 
    Content and Justification
    Paul A. Boghossian
    
  • 
    Thoughts: Papers on Mind, Meaning, and Modality
    Stephen Yablo
    
  • 
    Normativity
    Judith Jarvis Thomson
    
  • 
    How We Get Along
    J. David Velleman
    
  • 
    Self-Constitution: Agency, Identity, and Integrity
    Christine M. Korsgaard
    
  • 
    Appearances of the Good: An Essay on the Nature of Practical Reason
    Sergio Tenenbaum
    
  • 
    Principled Ethics: Generalism As a Regulative Ideal
    Sean McKeever and Michael Ridge
    
  • 
    Reason and Prediction
    Simon Blackburn
    
  • 
    Killing in War
    Jeff McMahan
    
  • 
    Experimental Philosophy
    Joshua Knobe and Shaun Nichols
    
  • 
    Intention
    G. E. M. Anscombe
    
  • 
    Life and Action: Elementary Structures of Practice and Practical Thought
    Michael Thompson
    
  • 
    The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory
    David J. Chalmers
    
  • 
    The Constitution of Agency
    Christine M. Korsgaard
    
  • 
    Rescuing Justice and Equality
    G. A. Cohen
    
  • 
    Ethics: Twelve Lectures on the Philosophy of Morality
    David Wiggins
    
  • 
    Disadvantage
    Jonathan Wolff and Avner de-Shalit
    
  • 
    Reconciling Our Aims: In Search of Bases for Ethics
    Allan Gibbard
    
  • 
    Moral Dimensions: Permissibility, Meaning, Blame
    T. M. Scanlon
    
  • 
    The Philosophy of Philosophy
    Timothy Williamson
    
  • 
    A Virtue Epistemology
    Ernest Sosa
    
  • 
    Fear of Knowledge
    Paul Boghossian
    
  • 
    Morality without Foundations
    Mark Timmons
    
  • 
    Authority and Estrangement
    Richard Moran
    
  • 
    Moral Psychology, Volume 2
    Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
    
  • 
    Moral Psychology, Volume 1
    Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
    
  • 
    Moral Psychology, Volume 3
    Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
    
  • 
    The Reflective Life
    Valerie Tiberius
    
  • 
    Moral Literacy
    Barbara Herman
    
  • 
    Ethics and the Environment: An Introduction
    Dale Jamieson
    
  • 
    On Human Rights
    James Griffin
    
  • 
    Experiments in Ethics
    Kwame Anthony Appiah
    
  • 
    Reasons without Rationalism
    Kieran Setiya
    
  • 
    Moral Realism: A Defence
    Russ Shafer-Landau
    
  • 
    The Way We Eat
    Peter Singer and Jim Mason
    
  • 
    Metaphysical Essays
    John Hawthorne
    
  • 
    Knowledge and Practical Interests
    Jason Stanley
    
  • 
    10 Moral Paradoxes
    Saul Smilansky
    
  • 
    Normativity and the Will
    R. Jay Wallace
    
  • 
    Ethics without Principles
    Jonathan Dancy
    
  • 
    Neuroethics
    Neil Levy
    
  • 
    Ideal Code, Real World
    Brad Hooker
    
  • 
    Self to Self: Selected Essays
    J. David Velleman
    
  • 
    The Nature of Normativity
    Ralph Wedgwood
    
  • 
    Structures of Agency: Essays
    Michael E. Bratman
    
  • 
    The Second-Person Standpoint
    Stephen Darwall
    
  • 
    Ethics and the A Priori
    Michael Smith
    
  • 
    The Practice of Value
    Joseph Raz
    
  • 
    The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life
    Jeff McMahan
    
  • 
    Weighing Lives
    John Broome
    
  • 
    Intricate Ethics: Rights, Responsibilities, and Permissible Harm
    F. M. Kamm
    
  • 
    Reasons and the Good
    Roger Crisp
    
• 
  This blog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
  

JOURNAL OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY:
An International Journal of Moral, Political, and Legal Philosophy
(ISSN 1740-4681)

Volume 6, Number 3 (2009)

ARTICLES

Alex Friedman, ‘Intransitive Ethics’, pp. 277-97

David Lefkowitz, ‘Partiality and Weighing Harm to Non-Combatants’, pp. 298-316

Gerald Lang, ‘Luck Egalitarianism, Permissible Inequalities, and Moral Hazard’, pp. 317-38

Heath White, ‘Fitting Attitudes, Wrong Kinds of Reasons, and Mind-Independent Goodness’, pp. 339-64

Leo Zaibert, ‘The Paradox of Forgiveness’, pp. 365-93

REVIEW ARTICLE

Robert Stern, ‘The Autonomy of Morality and the Morality of Autonomy’, pp. 395-415

Those who plan to attend the Aims of Belief conference might be interested in knowing about another conference in Oslo earlier that week, on June 8 and 9.

Title: The Atypical Perpetrator
Date: 8. jun. 2009 09:30 - 9. jun. 2009 15:30
Place: Auditorium 14, Domus Biblioteca Legg til i kalender
Theme: This conference is concerned with the relationships between ethics, psychiatry and criminal responsibility.

The full program and registration information can be found here:

http://www.jus.uio.no/ikrs/arrangementer/2009/2009_psychiatry_June.html

To register, please contact Per Jørgen Ystehede: p.j.ystehede@jus.uio.no

August 25th – 27th, 2010
University of Sheffield, UK

Keynote Speakers:

Frances Kamm (Harvard)
Jeff McMahan (Rutgers)
David Rodin (Oxford)

Recent years have seen a rapid growth of interest in just war theory. The current political climate has confronted us with important and difficult questions about, amongst other things, the moral status of combatants, the moral status of non-combatants, the possibility of wars waged by non-state actors, and the conditions under which one can be said to have a just cause for war. Many writers take the answers to these questions to be based, at least in part, on considerations about what individuals may do in self-defence, or other-defence. Others have denied the existence of any substantive relationship between the ethics of self-defence and the ethics of national-defence. This conference, hosted by the Sheffield Philosophy department, will bring together leading researchers in the field, and offer an opportunity for scholars to present recent research in this area. Submissions from those working in related fields, such as Law, Politics and International Relations, are also welcome.

PETTIT AND HIS CRITICS

Saturday, 14th March 2009

Research Beehive 2.21
Old Library Building
Newcastle University

Philip Pettit is one of the most significant moral and political philosophers today. This conference will bring together new work on Pettit’s many philosophical contributions by three philosophers-Thom Brooks (Newcastle), Cecile Laborde (University College London), and Michael Ridge (Edinburgh)-with replies to each by Philip Pettit.

PROGRAMME

10.30-11.00am
Registration (tea/coffee)

11.00-12.30pm
Speaker: Michael Ridge (Edinburgh), An Opportunity for Expressivists? Sincerity, Belief Expression and Ecumenical Expressivism
Respondent: Philip Pettit (Princeton)

12.30-1.15pm
Lunch

1.15-2.45pm
Speaker: Thom Brooks (Newcastle), Moral and Political Freedom
Respondent: Philip Pettit (Princeton)

The 2nd annual Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress (RoME) will be held in Boulder, Colorado August 6-9 2009. Note that this is a congress, not just a conference. That means it’s more important. There may even be a sexual connotation to “congress” for those whose minds work like that. Who am I to judge?

Some have called the first RoME Congress (August 2008) “the best damn ethics conference or congress ever. Perhaps even the best damn philosophy conference or congress ever”. I am supremely confident that the 2nd RoME Congress will be even better.

At the James Martin Seminar in Oxford this week, Melbourne philosopher Rob Sparrow presented an argument against enhancement and procreative beneficence. His work had raised some interest in the popular media when he presented it a few months ago, and I posted a short potential response to his argument at Practical Ethics News.

In this post, and (if I can find time) subsequent posts I would like to explore the implications and possible responses to Rob’s intriguing reductio argument. First, an outline of the argument. Rob’s presentation was based upon a series of cases. I will reproduce them as faithfully as I can (from memory).

Professor Steven P. Lee, Donald R. Harter ‘39 Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, gave a talk recently at the Oxford Moral Philosophy Seminar on “Is the Principle of Discrimination a Mere Convention?” Here is an abstract of his talk:

SOCIETY FOR APPLIED PHILOSOPHY Annual Conference 2009
University of Leeds, 26-28 June

CALL for PAPERS
The Society for Applied Philosophy (UK) was founded in 1982 with the aim of promoting philosophical study and research that has a direct bearing on areas of practical concern. It arose from an increasing awareness that many topics of public debate are capable of being illuminated by the critical, analytic approach characteristic of philosophy, and by direct consideration of questions of value. These topics come from a number of different areas of social life - law, politics, economics, science, technology, medicine and education are among the most obvious. The purpose of the SAP is foster and promote philosophical work that is intended to make a constructive contribution to problems in these areas. It does so through events, conferences, and lecture programmes.

ASSOCIATION FOR LEGAL AND SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY (ALSP)
2009 Annual Conference ‘Ethics for the 21st Century’

Date: July 2-4, 2009
Location: University of Edinburgh – Department of Politics and IR, ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum
URL: http://www.lifelong.ed.ac.uk/alsp2009/
Theme:
The last two decades have seen profound social and economic changes in all areas of our lives. To name but a few: borders have become both more open and more closed. We have witnessed unprecedented levels of technological development: from new medical technologies such as genetic engineering and cloning, to communication technologies such as the internet and new modes of warfare. Environmental degradation and climate change are now seen as pressing issues by most.

Christian Barry and Matt Peterson have just launched an interesting new audio podcast series:

“We’re pleased to announce the launch of our new program, Public Ethics Radio and its website, www.publicethicsradio.org. The idea of this (roughly) 30 minute audio program is to engage ethicists in discussion of pressing practical dilemmas. Each program will focus on a particular theme—military intervention, international trade, political corruption—and take as its starting point some more specific issue that is prominent in the public consciousness. We see this as an opportunity for intellectually rigorous discussion within a range of topics that can also appeal to listeners who are not academics or ethicists. We hope that the programs can also be a valuable teaching resource.

The Stony Brook University Department of Philosophy is hosting a conference on “Cognitive Disability: A Challenge to Moral Philosophy.” The conference features a fantastic group of speakers and panelists. Those who are interested in this topic should definitely consider attending.

JOURNAL OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY:

An International Journal of Moral, Political, and Legal Philosophy http://www.brill.nl/jmp

(ISSN 1740-4681)

Volume 5, Number 2 (2008)

EDITORIAL

Thom Brooks, ‘Editorial’, p. 177

ARTICLES

Burke A. Hendrix, ‘Authenticity and Cultural Rights’, pp. 181-203

Igor Primoratz, ‘Patriotism and Morality: Mapping the Terrain’, pp. 204-226

Rex Martin, ‘Two Concepts of Rule Utilitarianism’, pp. 227-255

Jessica Spector, ‘The Grounds of Moral Agency: Locke’s Account of Personal Identity’, pp. 256-281

Paul Weirich, ‘Utility Maximization Generalized’, pp. 282-299

A Special Issue on the Ethics of Enhancement guest-edited by me and two other Contributors of Ethics Etc, Julian Savulescu and David Wasserman, has just come out with the Journal of Applied Philosophy. Here are the links to the papers if you have institutional access:

The Ethics of Enhancement: Guest Editors’ Introduction
S. MATTHEW LIAO, JULIAN SAVULESCU, DAVID WASSERMAN

The Perils of Cognitive Enhancement and the Urgent Imperative to Enhance the Moral Character of Humanity
INGMAR PERSSON, JULIAN SAVULESCU

Issues in the Pharmacological Induction of Emotions
DAVID WASSERMAN, S. MATTHEW LIAO

Today, we have learned the news that the Journal of Moral Philosophy will be a quarterly publication from 2009. This is a major change that I have been hoping to achieve for some time. The JMP was launched in April 2004 and since this time we have published three issues per year. I am particularly delighted that we will be able to publish accepted work more quickly and provide more articles, review articles, discussion pieces, and book reviews to our readers.

Recently, British MP’s voted to allow the creation of hybrid embryos for medical research. These embryos would be 99.9% “human” but 0.1% “cow” or “rabbit” — the animal element is simply the use of animal eggs, from which animal DNA is extracted, human DNA implanted, the “hybrid” embryo is then given an electric shock, and then stem cells harvested for use in research. All matter must be destroyed within 14 days. (Q&A on hybrid embryos can be found here.)

This move has been highly controversial for several reasons. Some of these reasons include the following:

I have recently noticed a strange asymmetry between our attitudes to avoiding climate change and to eliminating poverty. Both are important moral concerns and both can be advanced through private donations. In the case of eliminating poverty, we can do so via donations to any of a wide number of aid organizations. In the case of climate change, we can do so via payments to carbon offsetting companies.

It is true that some such schemes are of dubious value, but we are beginning to get reliable authorities that check up on the companies (see the Gold Standard) and there are many ways in which they really can reduce carbon emissions. For example, many people in developing countries use highly polluting stoves and water pumps because they are a bit cheaper. Offset companies can pay the difference, thus achieving substantial carbon savings at a relatively small cost.

The concept of human nature is an interesting one. This is partly because, although it’s a familiar concept, and one of which most people have at least a prima facie grasp; there are problems with arriving at a satisfactory, robust definition of it that will support normative philosophical claims. (For an account of some problems associated with defining human nature, see David Hull (1986) ‘On Human Nature‘, PSA 2: 3-13). In trying to understand it and work out how to tackle such problems, it’s interesting to look at similar concepts. One that I keep coming back to is the concept ‘physical’.

1. I don’t especially mind death, but I’m scared of pain. As Epicurus reminds us, death doesn’t hurt. Epicurus may have been mistaken to think that this was enough to show that death isn’t bad, but it is good to know that death is at least not bad in this one important respect.

There are paradoxical sounding remarks by David Velleman that seem to imply that even pain itself, when it is as its worst, may not be bad in this one respect. In his paper ‘A Right to Self-Termination’, Velleman writes

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