Volume I
Issue 1
The Myth of Instrumental Rationality
by Joseph Raz
The paper distinguishes between instrumental reasons and instrumental rationality. It argues that instrumental reasons are not reasons to take the...
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April, 2005
"The Government Beguiled Me": The Entrapment Defense and the Problem of Private Entrapment
by Gideon Yaffe
Defendants who are being tried for accepting a temptation issued by the government sometimes employ the entrapment defense. Acquittal of some of...
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April, 2005
Two Approaches to Instrumental Rationality and Belief Consistency
by John Brunero
R. Jay Wallace argues that the normativity of instrumental rationality can be traced to the independent rational requirement to hold consistent...
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April, 2005
Volume I
Issue 2
The Good, the Bad, and the Blameworthy
by Neil Levy
Accounts of moral responsibility can be divided into those that claim that attributability of an act, omission, or attitude to an agent is sufficient...
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June, 2005
Essentially Comparative Concepts
by Jonathan Dancy
This paper examines Larry Temkin’s notion of an ‘essentially comparative’ concept and the uses to which he puts it. It is suggested that this notion...
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June, 2005
Is Gibbard a Realist?
by Laura Schroeter and Francois Schroeter
In Thinking How to Live, Allan Gibbard claims that expressivists can vindicate realism about moral discourse. This paper argues that Gibbard’s...
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August, 2005
Volume I
Issue 3
Cudworth and Normative Explanations
by Mark Schroeder
Moral theories usually aspire to be explanatory – to tell us why something is wrong, why it is good, or why you ought to do it. So it is worth...
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October, 2005
First Force
by William A. Edmundson
The state’s very existence seems morally problematic: there may be a justification, but there had better be. A vivid way of putting this is to say...
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November, 2005
Explaining Reasons: Where Does the Buck Stop?
by Ulrike Heuer
The buck-passing account of values offers an explanation of the close relation of values and reasons for action: of why it is that the question...
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March, 2006
Volume II
Issue 1
Strict Liability and the Mitigation of Moral Luck
by Greg Keating
The general problem of moral luck—that responsibility is profoundly affected by factors beyond the control of the person held responsible—is often...
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August, 2006
Egalitarian Justice and Innocent Choice
by Nir Eyal
In its standard formulation, luck-egalitarianism is false. Disadvantages that result from free choice to take a risk can constitute egalitarian...
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January, 2007
A Unified Moral Terrain?
by Stephen Everson
In his book What We Owe to Each Other, Thomas Scanlon proposes what he calls a ‘contractualist’ explanation of what he describes as ‘a central part...
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July, 2007
Volume II
Issue 2
Well-Being and Virtue
by Dan Haybron
Perfectionist views of well-being maintain that well-being ultimately consists, at least partly, in excellence or virtue. This paper argues that such...
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August, 2007
Welfare, Achievement, and Self-Sacrifice
by Douglas W. Portmore
Many philosophers hold that the achievement of one's goals can contribute to one's welfare apart from whatever independent contributions that the...
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September, 2007
'Simply in Virtue of Being Human': the Whos and Whys of Human Rights
by John Gardner
In this paper I raise some questions about the familiar claim, recently reiterated by James Griffin, that human rights are rights that humans have...
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February, 2008
Volume II
Issue 3
Contractualism, Reciprocity, Compensation
by David Alm
I argue that it is not possible to give an adequate account, within a Scanlon-style contractualist moral theory of the moral duties to reciprocate...
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March, 2008
Hume's Internalism Reconsidered
by Dale Dorsey
A standard reading of Hume on the nature of practical reasons holds that he is a normative internalist; that, for Hume, legitimate practical reasons...
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August, 2008
Moral Principles Are Not Moral Laws
by Luke Robinson
What are moral principles? The assumption underlying much
of the generalism–particularism debate in ethics is that they are (or
would be)...
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November, 2008
Volume III
Issue 1
Caring and the Boundary-Driven Structure of Practical Deliberation
by Jeffrey Seidman
When a reasonable agent deliberates about what to do, she entertains only a limited range of possible courses of action. A theory of practical...
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November, 2008
Saving People and Flipping Coins
by Ben Bradley
Suppose you find yourself in a situation in which you can either save both A and B or save only C.
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March, 2009
Volume III
Issue 2
Moorean Arguments and Moral Revisionism
by Tristram McPherson
G. E. Moore famously argued against skepticism and idealism by appealing to their inconsistency with alleged certainties, like the existence of his...
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June, 2009
In Defense of the Primacy of Virtues
by Jason Kawall
In this paper I respond to a set of basic objections often raised against those virtue theories in ethics which maintain that moral properties such...
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August, 2009
Implanted Desires, Self-Formation, and Blame
by Matthew Talbert
Some theories of moral responsibility assert that whether a person is accountable for her behavior depends partly on facts about her personal...
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August, 2009
Volume III
Issue 3
Preferentism and the Paradox of Desire
by Bradford Skow
The basic idea behind actualist preferentism is that getting what one wants makes one's life go better. A recent objection to preferentism is the...
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September, 2009
A danger of definition: Polar predicates in moral theory
by Mark Alfano
In this paper, I use an example from the history of philosophy to show how independently defining each side of a pair of contrary predicates is apt...
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September, 2009
What Is Wrong with Kamm's and Scanlon's Arguments Against Taurek
by Tyler Doggett
Abstract: In forced choices between lives, where one group is larger than the other, Taurek claims you can save the few. Kamm and Scanlon argue that...
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October, 2009
Volume IV
Issue 1
Beyond History: The Ongoing Aspects of Autonomy
by Steven Weimer
Historical accounts of autonomy hold that the autonomy of pro-attitudes depends, at least in part, on the way in which they came about. ...
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November, 2009
Rossian Minimalism
by Ned Markosian
The main question addressed in this paper is: What is the most promising ethical theory (specifying necessary and sufficient conditions for any...
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December, 2009
Moral Intuitions, Reliability, and Disagreement
by David Killoren
There is an ancient, yet still lively, debate in moral epistemology about the epistemic significance of disagreement. One of the important questions...
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January, 2010
Volume IV
Issue 2
What Knowledge is Necessary for Virtue?
by Olivia Bailey
Critics contend that Aristotelianism demands too much of the virtuous person in the way of knowledge to be credible. This general charge is usually...
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February, 2010
When Will Your Consequentialist Friend Abandon You for the Greater Good?
by Scott Woodcock
According to a well-known objection to consequentialism, the answer to the preceding question is alarmingly straightforward: your consequentialist...
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February, 2010
Desire Satisfactionism and the Problem of Irrelevant Desires
by Mark Lukas
Desire-satisfaction theories about welfare come in two main varieties: unrestricted and restricted. Both varieties hold that a person's welfare is...
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June, 2010
Volume IV
Issue 3
Four Solutions the the Alleged Incompleteness of Virtue Ethics
by Sean McAleer
In “Virtue and Right,” Robert Johnson argues that virtue ethics that accept standards such as Virtuous Agent (A’s x-ing is right in circumstances c...
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August, 2010
Should Desert Replace Equality? Replies to Kagan
by Michael Weber
Many people are moved by the thought that if A is worse off than B, then if we can improve the condition of one or the other but not both that it is...
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August, 2010
Agent-Relative Value and Agent-Relative Restrictions
by Stephen Emet
In this article I pose a challenge for attempts to ground all reasons in considerations of value. Some believe that all reasons for action are...
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October, 2010
Volume V
Issue 1
The Enforcement Approach to Coercion
by Scott Anderson
This essay differentiates two approaches to understanding the concept of coercion, and argues for the relative merits of the one currently out of...
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October, 2010
Is a Feminist Political Liberalism Possible?
by Christie Hartley, Lori Watson
Is a feminist political liberalism possible? Political liberalism’s regard for a wide range of comprehensive doctrines as reasonable makes some...
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October, 2010
Character Traits, Social Psychology, and Impediments to Helping Behavior
by Christian Miller
In a number of recent papers, I have begun to develop a new theory of character which is conceptually distinct both from traditional Aristotelian...
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November, 2010
Volume V
Issue 2
Saving Lives and Respecting Persons
by Greg Bognar, Samuel J. Kerstein
In the distribution of resources, persons must be respected, or so many philosophers contend. Unfortunately, they often leave it unclear why a...
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November, 2010
Meriting Concern and Meriting Respect
by Jon Garthoff
Recently there has been a somewhat surprising interest among Kantian theorists in the moral standing of animals, coupled with a no less surprising...
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February, 2011
In Defense of the Wide-Scope Instrumental Principle
by Simon Rippon
I make the observation that English sentences such as “You have reason to take the bus or to take the train” do not have the logical form that they...
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February, 2011
Volume V
Issue 3
Deviant Formal Causation
by Sarah Paul
What is the role of practical thought in determining the intentional action that is performed? Donald Davidson’s influential answer to this question...
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April, 2011
Self-Evidence and Disagreement in Ethics
by Ryan Fanselow
Moral epistemology, like general epistemology, faces a regress problem. Suppose someone demands to know why I am justified in holding a moral belief....
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August, 2011
'Ought' and the Perspective of the Agent
by Benjamin Kiesewetter
Objectivists and perspectivists disagree about the question of whether what an agent ought to do depends on the totality of facts or on the agent’s...
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October, 2011
Volume VI
Issue 1
The Humean Theory of Practical Irrationality
by Neil Sinhababu
Christine Korsgaard has argued that Humean views about action and practical rationality jointly imply the impossibility of irrational action....
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November, 2011
The Locative Analysis of Good For Formulated and Defended
by Guy Fletcher
THE STRUCTURE OF THIS PAPER IS AS FOLLOWS. I begin
§1 by dealing with preliminary issues such as the different relations
expressed by the “good...
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January, 2012
Gender Justice
by Anca Gheaus
I propose, defend and illustrate a principle of gender justice meant to capture the nature of a variety of injustices based on gender:
A society is...
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January, 2012
