The Pursuit of Unhappiness (Oxford University Press, 2008), chapter 8.
Originally published in Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy volume 2, number 2 (2007), pages 1-27.
Main authors discussed: Daniel Haybron
In this essay, Daniel Haybron discusses what he calls “Aristotelian perfectionism,” which he takes to be a central feature of Aristotelian theories…
Public Affairs Quarterly, Volume 23, Number 2, April 2009. pp. 161-180
Taking his lead from Robert Nozick (who observes that “the fundamental question … one that precedes questions about how the state should be organized, is whether there should be any state at all”), Jeremy Garrett investigates, not how the institution of civil marriage should be organized, but whether there should be any such institution at all. Finding there to be a compelling prima facie case against the institution, and finding two important arguments against this prima facie case to be wanting, Garrett concludes that we should not, in fact, have the institution of civil marriage. Instead, he defends a view called Marital Contractualism (henceforth ‘MC’), a proposal for a ‘privatized’, ‘dis-established’ marriage regime.
The Independent Review, Volume 14, Number 3 (Winter 2010), pages 325-340.
Main authors discussed: Lysander Spooner, Edmund Burke, David Hume, Henry Sumner Maine.
In this brief but provocative article, Casey, a professor of philosophy at University College Dublin, revisits the radical argument Lysander Spooner made in his 1867 No Treason: The Constitution…
The Pursuit of Unhappiness (Oxford University Press, 2008), chapter 9.
Originally published in Utilitas volume 20, number 1 (2008), pages 21-49.
Main Authors Discussed: Daniel Haybron
This essay offers a provisional account of Haybron’s “self-fulfillment” view of well-being: well-being is the fulfillment of one’s nature as a unique individual. Haybron argues that such a view…
Faith and Philosophy, Volume 26, number 1 (January 2009), pages 87-94.
Main authors discussed: John Calvin, Alvin Plantinga, William Rowe
Reformed epistemology often is thought to be on the opposite end of the theological spectrum from, if not outright opposed to, natural theology. Johnson, however, aims to demonstrate that Calvin’s view of…
Faith and Philosophy, Volume 26, number 1 (January 2009), pages 42-63.
Main authors discussed: Søren Kierkegaard, Johannes Climacus, William L. Rowe, Cardinal Newman, Karl Rahner
According to the standard reading, Søren Kierkegaard is a staunch critic of natural theology. Johannes Climacus, the pseudonymous author of Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragments, lampoons all attempts to…
Synthese, Online First (September 2009)
Main authors discussed: Keith DeRose, John Hawthorne, Jason Stanley, and Timothy Williamson
Hawthorne and Stanley (2008) defend the Knowledge-Action Principle:
(KA) It is proper to treat p as a reason for action (for some p-dependent choice) iff you know p.
Mikkel Gerken defends the…
Philosopher's Imprint, Volume 9, Number 11 (October 2009), pages 1-24.
Main authors discussed: Anscombe, Velleman, Setiya, Davidson
Anscombe was the first philosopher in modern times to note that when we act intentionally, we know what we are doing without observation, under the description(s) on which the action is intentional. Paul calls…
Philosophy and Public Affairs, Volume 37, Number 1 (2009)
Joshua Cohen argues that a political conception of truth plays a role in public political justification. He draws a distinction between a conception of truth, which consists in a “set of claims about truth—for example, that truth is distinct from warrant,…
Analysis, Volume 69, Number 4 (October 2009), pages 677-684.
Main authors discussed: David Oderberg, Galen Strawson, Alexander Bird, Mark Heller
Oderberg’s article is a response to Galen Strawson’s “The identity of the categorical and the dispositional” (reviewed previously). Strawson, following Descartes, assumes…
1 Comment 
