Research
Research
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My research investigates problems at the intersection of normative ethics, moral psychology, metaethics, and applied ethics. I'm interested in moral agents, both ordinary and extraordinary: what they're like, what morality demands of them, and the relationship between what they're like and what morality demands of them. An early focus of mine was "moral saints" and what they tell us about these questions. I have also written about how knowledge creates moral demands, how demands vary by person, how demands are modulated by (self) sacrifice, how sacrifice relates to well-being, and how well-being can be relational.
The socially mediated nature of the moral landscape is of special interest to me lately. My recent work has considered social constraints on moral address, the moral invisibility of socially marginalized individuals including those with dementia and intellectual disabilities, and the way physical artifacts and technologies can materialize oppression.
I have additional teaching and research interests in bioethics, including medical technologies, markets and advertising in medicine, prescription drug regulation, organ donation, dementia caregiving, decision-making, and pandemic ethics.
Abstracts and preprints of many of my papers can be found in the PhilPapers archive.
Moral Theory
Moral Theory
"Moral Invisibility and Institutionalized Care" in Recognition: Historical and Philosophical Perspectives, M. Congdon and T. Khurana, eds., Routledge, forthcoming.
"Malicious Moral Envy" in The Moral Psychology of Envy, S. Protasi, ed., Rowman and Littlefield, 2022, 129-146.
“Social Constraints on Moral Address” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 98(1), 2019: 167-189.
“Sacrifice and Relational Well-being” International Journal of Philosophical Studies 26(3), 2018: 335-353. Reprinted (2020) in Sacrifice and Moral Philosophy, M. van Ackeren and A. Archer, eds. Routledge.
“Differential Demands” in The Limits of Moral Obligation: Moral Demandingness and Ought Implies Can, M. Kuhler and M. van Ackeren, eds. Routledge, 2016: pp. 36-50.
“Sacrifices of Self” The Journal of Ethics 19(1), 2015: 53-72.
“What We Know and What We Owe” Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics III, 2013: 235-259.
“De Dicto Desires and Morality as Fetish” Philosophical Studies 163(2), 2013: 459-477.
“The Ratcheting-Up Effect” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 93(2), 2012: 228-254.
“What Moral Saints Look Like” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 39(3), 2009: 371-398.
“Review of C. Daniel Batson’s What’s Wrong with Morality?” in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, April 10, 2016.
“Review of Lisa Tessman’s Moral Failure: On the Impossible Demands of Morality” in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, May 24, 2015.
Bioethics
Bioethics
"Addressing Prescription Drug Costs in a Broken System" American Journal of Bioethics 25(8), 2025: 131-133.
Edited Volume: Ohio under COVID: Lessons from America's Heartland in Crisis. Edited by Katherine Sorrels, Vanessa Carbonell, Danielle Bessett, Lora Arduser, Edward Wallace, and Michelle McGowan. University of Michigan Press, 2023.
"COVID's First Wave in Ohio: National Trends and Local Realities" by Vanessa Carbonell, Katherine Sorrels, Danielle Bessett, Lora Arduser, Edward Wallace, and Michelle McGowan. In Ohio under COVID, University of Michigan Press, 2023.
"Oppressive Medical Objects and Spaces: Response to Commentaries" with Shen-yi Liao, American Journal of Bioethics, 2023.
"Materialized Oppression in Medical Tools and Technologies" with Shen-yi Liao, American Journal of Bioethics 23(4), 2023: 9-23.
"Materializing Systemic Racism, Materializing Health Disparities" with Shen-yi Liao, American Journal of Bioethics 21(9), 2021: 16-18.
"Some Medical Devices Don't Mean to Be Racist, But They Are" with Shen-yi Liao, Psyche, 6/9/2021.
“How to Put Prescription Drug Ads on Your Syllabus” Teaching Philosophy 37(3), 2014: 295-319.
“If Healthcare Advertising is a Problem, FDA-Style Regulation is Not the Solution” American Journal of Bioethics 14(3), 2014: 46-47.
“Amnesia, Anesthesia, and Warranted Fear” Bioethics 28(5), 2014: 245-254.
“Interactive Capacity, Decisional Capacity, and a Dilemma for Surrogates” American Journal of Bioethics: Neuroscience 4(4), 2013: 36-37.
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