Public Affairs Quarterly, Volume 23, Number 3 (July 2009), pages 241-260.
Gilboa argues that a genuinely liberal society should allow for same-sex marital ceremonies but would not be discriminating against same-sex couples by denying them the benefits and protections of the marriage license. (I review Jeremy Garrett’s response to this paper,…
0 Comments Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Volume 80, Number 3 (May 2010), pages 638-670.
I can see the broken window, but can I also see why the window is broken? In this ambitious and interesting paper, Church argues for an affirmative answer to this question. Just as we can have perceptual knowledge of a…
Journal of Consciousness Studies, 17, No. 3–4, 2010
Editor’s Note: this post is a not a review of a single article, but a shorter summary of a series of articles. If you are interested in further detail on any of these articles, we invite you to post to the…
The Philosopher's Annual 27, Patrick Grim, Ian Flora and Alex Plakias, eds, 2007. (This article first appeared in B. Leiter & N. Sinhababu, eds, Nietzsche and Morality, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 157-191.)
Most scholars agree that Nietzsche’s critique of morality is his most enduring philosophical legacy. However, there is no consensus on the precise nature of Nietzsche’s “positive ethical vision” (Leiter 2004). Moreover, there are thorny metaethical issues surrounding Nietzsche’s positive ethics…
Philosophical Quarterly, volume 60, number 239 (April 2010), pages 287-306
When attempting to determine whether the subject of an epistemology case has knowledge or mere true belief, many of us find that our judgments are influenced by whether the case explicitly describes a way in which the subject’s belief could…
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…
