Department of Philosophy

Ethics

Faculty and students in the Department of Philosophy are engaged in ongoing research in ethics and related areas such as moral psychology and theories of empathy

Faculty

Remy Debes (Ethics / history of ethics, moral psychology, human dignity, metaethics, empathy)
Shaun Gallagher (Empathy, practical wisdom)
Timothy Roche (Ethics, happiness in Aristotle)
Deborah Tollefsen (Collective responsibility)

Recent Publications and Work in Progress in this Area

Debes, R. (in press). Moral Rationalism and Moral Realism. In Aaron Garrett’s Routledge Companion to 18th Century Philosophy

Debes, R. 2015. From Einfühlung to Empathy: Sympathy in Early Phenomenology and Psychology. In E. Schliesser (ed.), Sympathy: A History. New York: Oxford University Press.

Debes, R. 2015. On Bertram Morris’s “The Dignity of Man”. Ethics, 125(3), 836-839.

Debes, R. 2013. "Moral Sentiments," International Encyclopedia of Ethics, ed. H. LaFollette, J. Deigh, and S. Stroud.

Debes, R. 2012. Adam Smith on Dignity and Equality, British Journal for the History of Philosophy.

Debes, R. 2012. Recasting Scottish Sentimentalism: The Peculiarity of Moral Approval. Journal of Scottish Philosophy, 10(1), 91-115.

Debes, R. 2010. Which Empathy? Limitations in the Mirrored 'Understanding' of Emotion, Synthese 175 (2) (2010): 219-39.

Debes, R. 2009. Neither Here Nor There: The Cognitive Nature of Emotion, Philosophical Studies 146 (1) (2009): 1-27.

Debes, R. 2009. Dignity's Gauntlet, Philosophical Perspectives 23 (2009)

Gallagher, S. (under review). Empathy and theories of direct perception. In H. Maibom (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy. London: Routledge.

Gallagher, S. (under review). Dilthey and empathy. In E. S. Nelson (ed.), Interpreting Dilthey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gallagher, S. (under review). Social interaction, autonomy and recognition. In L. Dolezal and D. Petherbridge. Body/Self/Other: The Phenomenology of Social Encounters. London: Routledge

Gallagher, S. 2014. Simulation ou narration: recherche sur les bases de l’empathie [Simulation and narrative accounts of empathy - in French]. Trans. B. Pachoud. In L’empathie: Au Carrefour des sciences et de la Clinique (Proceedings of the 2011 Conference at Cerisy-la-Salle) (47-75). Montrouge: Editions John Libbey Eurotext.

Gallagher, S. (2013). Phronesis and psychopathy: The moral frame problem. Philosophy, Psychology and Psychiatry 20(4): 345-348.

Gallagher, S. 2012. Empathy, simulation and narrative. Science in Context. 25(3), 301–327.

Gallagher, S. 2012. Neurons, neonates and narrative: From embodied resonance to empathic understanding. In A. Foolen, U. Lüdtke, J. Zlatev and T. Racine (eds.), Moving Ourselves, Moving Others (167-96). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Gallagher, S. 2007. Moral agency, self-consciousness, and practical wisdom. Journal of Consciousness Studies 14 (5-6): 199-223.

Gallagher, S., Morgan, B. and Rokotnitz, N. (under review). Relational authenticity. In O.

Flanagan and G. Caruso (eds.), Neuroexistentialism: Meaning, Morals, and Purpose in the Age of Neuroscience.

Roche, T. (in prep). "The Alleged Distinction Between Makariotēs and Eudaimonia in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: Happiness, the Goods of Fortune, and Solon's Maxim."

Roche, T. (in prep). "The Ugly, the Lonely, and the Lowly: Reply to Professor Cashen on Aristotle's Discussions of Eudaimonia and Ta Ektos Agatha."

Roche, T. (in prep). "Agathoi and Kalokagathoi in Aristotle's Eudemian Ethics."

Roche, T. 2014. "The Private Moral Life of Aristotle's Philosopher: A Defense of a Non-Intellectualist Interpretation of Nicomachean Ethics 10.7-8." In Contemplation in Aristotle's Ethics (a volume of the series Aristote. Traductions et Études), Pierre Destrée and M. Zingano, eds. Leuven: Peeters (2014) 207-239.

Roche, T. 2014. "Happiness and the External Goods." In The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, ed. Ronald Polansky. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2014) 34-63.

Roche, T. 2009. "Happiness and Agency in the Stoics and Aristotle: Commentary on Russell." In Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, XXIV, John J. Cleary and Gary M. Gurtler, S.J., eds. Leiden/Boston: Brill (2009) 112-125.

Tollefsen, D. (in progress) Deferring to Groups. The Routledge Handbook on Moral Epistemology

Tollefsen, D. (forthcoming) Peter French on Innocence Lost. Reflections on Responsibility: Essays in Honor of Peter French, edited by Zachary Goldberg (Springer).

Tollefsen, D. (with Michael Burroughs) 2016. Learning to Listen: Epistemic Injustice and the Child. Episteme 13 (3): 359-377.

Media, popular press, videos

Gallagher, S. and Stueber, K. 2012. On empathy. Philosophy TV. 

Tollefsen D. 2014. Group minds. Collaboration with Miranda Anderson, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Edinburgh, on the History of Distributed Cognition Project. Creation of video to introduce scholars in literary studies to concepts of embodied cognition.