my research in philosophy

In 2004-5, I am on a research fellowship at the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, working on a book project entitled Action Reconceptualized: Human Agency and Its Sources

I am active in doing research in a number of related areas of philosophy:

moral psychology and action theory

My M.A. thesis is entitled Weakness of Will: The Aristotelian Account and Beyond. My Ph.D. dissertation at Stanford was supervised by Michael Bratman and is entitled The Nature of Action: A Causal Account. My research on action theory has since led me to write on topics such as non-intentional action, the relation between intention and intentional action, belief conditions on intention, the nature of trying, volitional theories, the doctrine of double effect, the doctrine of doing and allowing, the nature of moral and practical reasoning, and the role of desire in action theory.

Work in progress:

• "Desire Ownership and the Hierarchical Model"
• "Three Problems Facing the Reward Theory of Desire"
• "Denying Incomparability"

virtue ethics

My approach to virtue ethics is basically Aristotelian, and focuses on the character of a virtuous agent.  I believe that virtue ethics must enable us to understand human nature, what human happiness means, and how reason, desire and emotion combine to motivate human action.

Work in progress:

• "The Possibility of Moral Reasoning"
• "Falling From Virtue: Natural Goodness and Human Nature"
• "Foot on Practical Rationality and Acting Well"

applied ethics

I have done a lot of work in biomedical ethics, where I examine the ethics of the doctor-patient relationship, and the ethical implications of new reproductive and genetic technologies.

Apart from biomedical ethics, I have been researching topics in the ethics of killing, such as the permissibility of killing in self-defense, the moral difference between intended and unintended killing, and the moral distinction between acts of killing and letting die.  My latest work is on the ethics of war from a virtue ethics perspective, and the role of religious faith in politics and international relations.

Work in progress:

• "Human Dignity and the Human Genome"
• "The Importance of Jus in Bello"
• "Faith and Leadership"

history of ethics

Plato (pointing up) and Aristotle (pointing down)

I specialize in the classical philosophy of ancient Greece, where my interest in the ethical ideas of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, has deepened into study of their views on metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind.  My interest has also broadened into study of the history of virtue ethics after Aristotle, passing through the Stoics, Augustine, and moral theologians around the time of Aquinas.

Work in progress:

• "Aquinas, Intention, and the Doctrine of Double Effect"

Go to research publications and conferences

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