Recent kadish items

"The Self-Preference Principle: Bentham’s Transition to Epistemological and Democratic Radicalism"

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"The Self-Preference Principle: Bentham’s Transition to Epistemological and Democratic Radicalism"

"Interpreting Mill"

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Interpreting Mill"

"Defending the Dualism of the Practical Reason Against Parfit’s"

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Defending the Dualism of the Practical Reason Against Parfit’s"

"Reconciling Consequentialism with Ordinary Moral Knowledge"

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Reconciling Consequentialism with Ordinary Moral Knowledge"

Consequentialism in Transition

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Consequentialism in Transition

Political and Philosophical Radicalism: The place of the utility principle in Jeremy Bentham's Early writings on critical jurisprudence.

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Political and Philosophical Radicalism: The place of the utility principle in Jeremy Bentham's Early writings on critical jurisprudence.

“What the Utilitarian Cannot Think”

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

“What the Utilitarian Cannot Think”

"The Teleological Conception of Practical Reasons"

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"The Teleological Conception of Practical Reasons"

"Bentham's Three 'Rules of Moral Duty'"

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Bentham's Three 'Rules of Moral Duty'"

"Utilitarianism and Dewey’s 'Three Independent Factors in Morals'”

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Utilitarianism and Dewey’s 'Three Independent Factors in Morals'”

"The Cooperation Argument for Fairness in International Trade"

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"The Cooperation Argument for Fairness in International Trade"

"The Principles of Asceticism and Sympathy and Antipathy in Patterns of Abuse"

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"The Principles of Asceticism and Sympathy and Antipathy in Patterns of Abuse"

"Mass Atrocities, Retributivism, and the Threshold Challenge"

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Jesper Ryberg Roskilde Universitetscenter

Consequentialism and Moral Responsibility

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Consequentialism and Moral Responsibility

"The Utilitarian Influence on American Legal Science in the Early Republic"

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"The Utilitarian Influence on American Legal Science in the Early Republic"

"Mill’s Conception of Human Rights"

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Mill’s Conception of Human Rights"

“Mill’s Extraordinary Utilitarian Moral Theory”

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

“Mill’s Extraordinary Utilitarian Moral Theory”

"Utilitarian Political Economy, Natural Rights and the Poor"

Tue, 2 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Utilitarian Political Economy, Natural Rights and the Poor"

"Amartya Sen's Misleading Conception of Utilitarianism"

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Amartya Sen's Misleading Conception of Utilitarianism"

“Can Consequentialization Advance the Cause of Consequentialism?”

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

“Can Consequentialization Advance the Cause of Consequentialism?”

"Non-consequentialist Utilitarianism"

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Non-consequentialist Utilitarianism"

“Leveling the Playing Field: Equality of Opportunity and Counterfactual Responsibility”

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

“Leveling the Playing Field: Equality of Opportunity and Counterfactual Responsibility”

"The Reception of Peter Singer’s Theories in France"

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"The Reception of Peter Singer’s Theories in France"

"Happiness, Well-Being, and William Thompson’s Social(ist) Utilitarianism"

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Happiness, Well-Being, and William Thompson’s Social(ist) Utilitarianism"

“How Politicians Mislead Us; Jeremy Bentham on Political Fallacies”

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

“How Politicians Mislead Us; Jeremy Bentham on Political Fallacies”

"How To Be a Consequentialist About Everything"

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"How To Be a Consequentialist About Everything"

"Patron-Client Relationships in the Radical Enlightenment"

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Patron-Client Relationships in the Radical Enlightenment"

"Moral Uncertainty and the Principle of Equity among Moral Theories"

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Moral Uncertainty and the Principle of Equity among Moral Theories"

"Utility, Determinism, and Possibility: Context to the Rescue"

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Utility, Determinism, and Possibility: Context to the Rescue"

"Utilitarian Adjudication"

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Utilitarian Adjudication"

"How Not to Argue for Rule-Consequentialism"

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"How Not to Argue for Rule-Consequentialism"

"Murphy’s Collective Principle of Beneficence"

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Murphy’s Collective Principle of Beneficence"

"Can There Be a Utilitarian Theory of the Reactive Attitudes"

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"Can There Be a Utilitarian Theory of the Reactive Attitudes"

“Two Utilitarian Approaches to Human Rights”

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

“Two Utilitarian Approaches to Human Rights”

“José del Valle: a Benthamite in Central America”

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

“José del Valle: a Benthamite in Central America”

“The Consequences of Rejecting the Moral Relevance of the Doing-allowing Distinction"

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

“The Consequences of Rejecting the Moral Relevance of the Doing-allowing Distinction"

“Intentions and Moral Permissibility”

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

“Intentions and Moral Permissibility”

“From Utilitarianism To Kantism: Bentham’s Proof of Utilitarianism, Mill and Kant”

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

“From Utilitarianism To Kantism: Bentham’s Proof of Utilitarianism, Mill and Kant”

“Consequentialism, Time, and Value”

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

“Consequentialism, Time, and Value”

"The Asymmetry Argument"

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

"The Asymmetry Argument"

“The Problem of Well-Being: Respect, Equality, and the Self”

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

“The Problem of Well-Being: Respect, Equality, and the Self”

Laws of Cultural Cognition and the Cultural Cognition of Law

Wed, 15 Dec 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Can empirical data generate consensus about how to regulate firearms? If so, under what conditions? Previously, we presented evidence that individuals’ cultural worldviews explain their positions on gun control more powerfully than any other fact about them, including their race or gender, the type of community or region of the country they live in, and even their political ideology or party affiliation. On this basis, we inferred that culture is prior to facts in the gun debate: empirical data can be expected to persuade individuals to change their view on gun policies only after those individuals come to see those policies as compatible with their core cultural commitments. We now respond to critics. Canvassing the psychological literature, we identify the mechanisms that systematically induce individuals to conform their factual beliefs about guns to their culturally grounded moral evaluations of them. To illustrate the strength and practical implications of...

Justification and Alienation

Wed, 15 Dec 2004 00:00:00 +0000

The paper argues that there is a hazard to avoid when offering a moral justification: the hazard of relying on what I call "extrinsic reasons." Extrinsic reasons count in favor of performing an action and yet are not reasons for which one can directly perform that action. They are rather reasons for acting upon oneself to make it the case that one performs the action of which they count in favor. Acting upon yourself in this way is the alienation of the paper's title. I argue that, when extrinsic reasons are relied upon in the justification offered by a moral theory, this form of alienation threatens the coherence of the agent. The upshot is that, in offering moral justifications, moral theory must be extremely attentive to the ordinary motivations of the actions it hopes to justify.

In addition to the 27 pages of main text, there are an additional 16 or so pages of appendix, providing an interpretation of Williams' criticisms of moral theories according to which...

Torture and Positive Law: Jurisprudence for the White House

Wed, 15 Dec 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Revelations of ill-treatment of prisoners by American forces at Abu Ghraib and the publication of memoranda showing that Bush administration lawyers have been seeking to narrow the application of the Convention against Torture and other similar provisions – these developments make it necessary for us to think afresh about the character and significance of the various legal prohibitions on torture. This paper argues that the prohibition on torture is not just one rule among others, but a legal archetype – a rule which is emblematic of our larger commitment to break the link between law and brutality. Characterizing the prohibition as a legal archetype affects how we think about the implications of authorizing torture (or interrogation methods that come close to torture); it affects how we think about issues of definition in regard to torture; and it affects how we think about the fragility and contingency of the provisions of positive law that stand between us and...

The Constitutionalization of Democratic Politics

Wed, 15 Dec 2004 00:00:00 +0000

In the last generation, the American Supreme Court has constitutionalized an increasing number of issues concerning the structure of elections and the design of democratic governance institutions. Similar developments are emerging in the courts of other countries. This Foreword critiques the current premises and methodology that underlie this emerging new domain of constitutional law. The Foreword offers an alternative, functional foundation for judicial review of democratic politics in which the central task should be ensuring that political processes are appropriately competitive and in which conventional understandings of individual rights, associational rights, and political equality should play a diminished role. The Foreword then applies these ideas to several central, recent constitutional issues concerning the structure of democracy: the design of election districts, the issue of groups and political representation, the legal regulation of political parties, and...

Beyond the Harm Principle

Wed, 15 Dec 2004 00:00:00 +0000

In On Liberty, just a few sentences after he introduces his famous "harm principle," John Stuart Mill writes "The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is answerable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his body and mind, the individual is sovereign." My aim is to argue that a commitment to individual sovereignty and a sphere of action in which you are answerable only to yourself requires that we abandon the harm principle.

The only way to unseat a time honoured principle is to provide a superior alternative. Following the sentence of Mill just quoted, I will call the alternative "the sovereignty principle." Liberalism is fundamentally a doctrine about the legitimate uses of state power, and the sovereignty principle articulates the basis for those limits in terms of ideas of individuality and independence. It provides a narrow rationale...