Dilemmas of Political Correctness
The cliché is that political correctness tramples on rights to free-speech, as if the potential loss were merely expressive; the real issue is that in filtering public discourse, political correctness may defeat our own substantive aims. Journal of Practical Ethics PDF
Justice and the Wealth of Nations
Philosophers often emphasize injustices in trying to make sense of global poverty, but they tend to overlook the fact that poverty has been the default option for nearly all of human history. And the so-called Great Divergence that brought wealth to some but not others wasn't itself caused by morally culpable factors. This should lead us to reconsider normative accounts of global poverty. Public Affairs Quarterly PDF
Drunk and in the Mood: Affect and Judgment
What we should do is often subject to our affective shifts, at least if how much we care about something is an important element of practical reasoning. Journal of Moral Philosophy PDF
The Epistemology of Popularity and Incentives
"Faced with a pick of accountants at a firm, sound epistemology overwhelmingly suggests barreling past attractive, polite workers and urgently seeking out the ugliest, shortest, most boorish one available, yet this strategy is rarely even considered." Thought PDF
Wealth, Disability and Happiness
The Easterlin paradox says that higher income makes individuals happier within a country, even though the population of a country doesn’t seem to get happier with higher average income. The Disability paradox says that people with significant disabilities experience far less of an impact on their happiness than one would predict. I argue that these results can’t easily be dismissed, and that they tell us something interesting about the nature of happiness and practical reasoning. Philosophy & Public Affairs PDF
Abortion and Moral Risk
Reasonable people will admit that there is a non-trivial possibility that one of the arguments against abortion goes through. That seems to leave room for worrying about moral risk–the thought that abortion is risky even if we believe the pro-life position to be wrong. Philosophy PDF
A Simple Argument against Design
God seems to have had many more options by which to bring about life than were available under natural selection. If so, then mundane features of the world, like that the earth is very old, would actually be evidence that the world was not designed, since that outcome was "optional" on the design hypothesis but nearly inevitable on natural selection. Theists like myself might find this evidence unwelcome, but as I stress, this is only one piece of evidence among many. Religious Studies PDF
An Argument against Marriage
Consider the Bachelor's Argument: assume that marriage involves a promise to be in a lifelong relationship with another person. Either that promise has lifelong binding force or it doesn't. If it does, marriage is crazy, since it commits us to a relationship with someone even if we cease to love or even like them. Alternatively, if the promise loses its force once we cease to love our spouse, then the commitment lacks authority in the only circumstance in which it is needed and is therefore pointless. People should get married (the author did!), but not for reasons related to oaths and vows. Philosophy PDF