It is the goal of my dissertation to explain our peculiar aesthetic fascination with architectural ruins and to show why ruins are worthy of our time and aesthetic appreciation. I propose a model of aesthetic appreciation specific to ruins, one that not only presents a methodology of interpreting and evaluating ruins, but ...

I argue that current projects in 'naturalized metaphysics' fail to be properly naturalistic, and thereby fail in their stated aim to take one's metaphysics from science. I argue that naturalism must involve the idea of taking science seriously, and that this can only be spelled out in terms of taking not only the theories of ...

I argue for an account of blame as a reactive attitude, claiming that respectful blaming attitudes are affective, evaluative attitudes of disapproval directed at the wrongdoer, and are primarily about the wrongness of the attitudes or actions at issue. Understanding blame as, primarily, a form of moral address, entails that ...

Is conscious reflection necessary for good moral judgment and decision-making? Philosophical attention to this question has increased in the last decade due to recent empirical work in moral psychology. I conclude that conscious reflection is not necessary for good moral judgment and decision-making, arguing that good moral ...

I argue for a nontraditional sufficiency thesis: virtuous activity is sufficient for happiness and some minimally favorable circumstances are necessary for virtuous activity. This view satisfies two intuitions from the ancient dispute that might at first seem in tension. Happiness depends on favorable external circumstances, ...

Philosophers have developed sophisticated theories of domestic legitimacy that discuss how a coercive state could be justified to its citizens. Yet, theorizing about global justice is characterized by a pervasive methodological failure: principles of justice are presented without any consideration of whether the current (or ...

Jealousy is an emotion that arises in diverse circumstances and is experienced in phenomenologically diverse ways. In part because of this diversity, evaluations of jealous subjects tend to be conflicting and ambiguous. Thus philosophers who are interested in the moral status of jealousy face a challenge: to explain how, ...

I argue that there are two sorts of pride--the emotion of pride and the character trait of pride--and defend descriptive and normative accounts of each sort of pride. The emotion of pride involves an evaluation that one is living in accordance with one's personal ideals; having the character trait of pride is having a firm ...

An intertheory comparison should be assessed with regards to what goals it seeks to accomplish. Traditionally reductions have sought to establish ontological primacy, and also to have the reducing theory explain features of the reduced. From a functionalist perspective, this dissertation assesses three major results: a reduction ...

Many people, if asked, would probably say that we are morally responsible only for actions we voluntarily and intentionally choose to perform. But the phenomenon of unintentional omission poses a special problem for this view about the preconditions of moral responsibility. Imagine a lifeguard who carelessly fell asleep while ...