Academic Publications
Academic Publications
Embedded Files
On Taking Offence.
Oxford University Press (2023).
Available online here: https://academic.oup.com/book/45860?login=false
You can listen to discussions of the book in podcast interviews:
Why? Philosophical Discussions about Everyday Life, Prairie Public Radio
Read about it:
The p. 99 Test blog
Institute of Art and Ideas magazine.
Read its reviews:
In Ethics by Paul-Mikhail Catapang Podosky
In Mind by Cecile Fabre
In Journal of Applied Philosophy by Simon Goldstraw
Or replies from critics:
Macalester Bell “The emotion(s) of offense and victimhood culture”
Christopher Bennett “Should I get angry, or just take offence”
Richard Child "On the "only joking" defence against offence"
Miriam Ronzoni "Taking Offence as a civic virtue, on and offline”.
Academic papers, by topic
Associations and the value of our encounters:
With Rob Simpson. Hecklers, free speech, and freedom of association. Mind (2024)
Freedom, spontaneity, and our encounters, Political Philosophy, 1(2) (2024).
Together again: The value of encounters, offline, Journal of Practical Ethics (2025).
Against visitor bans: Freedom of association, COVID-19, and the hospital ward. Journal of Medical Ethics, 49 (2023): 288-291.
Taking Offence (the emotion, ethics of comedy):
Taking offense: An emotion reconsidered. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 49 (2) (2021), 179-208.
The Ethics of Offensive Comedy: Punching Down and the Duties of Comedians. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement. 96 (2024), 81-100.
With Farrow A, & Kirchin S. Discussion of Emily McTernan’s ‘The ethics of offensive comedy’. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement. 96, (2024): 101-115.
In defence of taking offence: A reply to my critics. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy (2024).
Social norms, social practices, and equality:
& microaggressions:
Microaggressions, equality, and social practices. Journal of Political Philosophy, 26 (3) (2018): 261-281.
In the eyes of the beholders: Microaggressions, lived experience, and the collective. Analysis, 83 (2) (2023), 329–34.
& theories of equality:
How to be a responsibility-sensitive egalitarian: From metaphysics to social practice. Political Studies, 64 (3) (2016): 748-764.
The inegalitarian ethos: Incentives, respect, and self-respect. Politics, Philosophy & Economics, 12 (1) (2013): 93-111
& social psychology:
How to make citizens behave: Social psychology, liberal virtues, and social norms. Journal of Political Philosophy, 22 (1) (2014): 84-104.
Civic education, moral character, and liberal states. In Doris, J. & M. Vargas (eds), The Handbook of Moral Psychology (Oxford University Press, 2022).
On philosophically puzzling debates:
With Christian Barry A puzzle of enforceability: Why do moral duties differ in their enforceability?. Journal of Moral Philosophy 19 (2021): 229-253.
Justice, feasibility, and social science as it is. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 22 (2019): 27–40.
Those who forget the past: An ethical challenge from the history of treating deviance. In Treatment for Crime: Philosophical Essays on Neurointerventions in Criminal Justice, eds. David Birks & Tom Douglas. (Oxford University Press, 2018).
Infertility and parenthood:
With Katy Wells. Against parental devotion: On power, friendships, and flourishing, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (2025)
Uterus transplants and the insufficient value of gestation. Bioethics, 32 (2018): 481– 488.
Should fertility treatment be state funded? Journal of Applied Philosophy, 32 (2015): 227- 240.
Projects in progress
Projects in progress
I have two research projects underway:
1. Freedom, the values of association, and spaces to associate.
What does a rich and free associational life offer us? What does it require of us, and of our online and offline spaces?
You can read the first publications emerging from this research, Together again: The value of encounters, offline,
‘Against Visitor Bans’ and ‘Heckling, Free Speech, and Free Association’ Or you can read about a new collaborative project with Prof. Ben Colburn and Dr. Jane Clossick, here: ‘Spaces of Birth and Death’.
2. The ethics and politics of social interaction.
I am beginning work on a new monograph on social equality, the nature of social hierarchy, and the significance of social norms and social emotions.
I am currently writing pieces on the ethics of sexual advances, the nature of structural injustice, and the right way to conceptualise respect.
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