The Philosophy Site

Articles

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• A Refutation of Anti-Perfectionist or 'Neutralist' Liberalism
  

In this article, I argue that the concept of 'value' neutrality espoused by leading liberals including John Rawls, Charles Larmore and Ronald Dworkin, is untenable. I maintain that neutralist liberalism itself espouses a non-neutral theory of human well-being, thus violating its own neutrality injunction.

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• An Argument against the Relativism of 'Inner' Moral Judgments
  

I argue against a form of moral relativism defended by Gilbert Harman in an essay entitled "Moral Relativism Defended" (1982). Harman argues that moral 'ought' judgments are meaningless unless both the speaker and the agent share the same moral 'world'. I argue in response that moral 'ought' judgments remain meaningful even where the moral agent lacks the requisite motivation or does not accept the moral principles adduced by the speaker.

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• Civil Law: A Coercive Institution or a Promotor of the Good Life?
  

In this article, I show how a Thomistic model of political order might overcome the age-old liberal problem of reconciling the demands and interests of the individual with the needs and interests of the wider political community

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• Friendship in Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics: An Essential Component of the Good Life
  

Is friendship really necessary for someone who wants to be a good person? Can the hermit, removed from society, attain the 'good life' more easily than somebody living in the midst of society? Aristotle thinks not. In this essay, I explain why Aristotle believes that friendship is essential in order to lead a 'good life'.

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• Is Metaphysics an Essential Buttress or a Dispensable Luxury for a Theory of Human Rights?
  

The principal question which this paper addresses is, ‘can a philosophical defence of rights as widely understood in the Western world be credibly undertaken to the exclusion of metaphysical premises, as intended by Rawls?’ I will examine widely held and respected beliefs about human rights with a view to establishing whether their logical conditions include the acceptance of a ‘metaphysics’ of sorts, that is, the acceptance of a particular account, or part of an account, of the fundamental nature of reality.

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• Should Good Rulers Require Citizens to be Good People?
  

It is commonplace in contemporary Western societies to hear laws condemned for being ‘paternalistic’ or excessively ‘moralistic.’ It seems that at the heart of the debate over ‘morals’ legislation and its permissibility is the question, to what extent ought the goals of government include the moral flourishing of individual citizens; and which means, if any, are legitimate for furthering such an end? In this paper, I propose to examine the relationship between good government and the moral flourishing of the individual, as understood by St. Thomas Aquinas.

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