Here is a video presentation of my working paper “Quasi-naturalism and the problem of alternative normative concepts,” which I have prepared for the 2021 Joint Session.
Read MoreNormative reference as a normative question
I am currently writing another paper on metasemantic challenges to normative naturalism. This paper is largely critical: I examine various non-expressivist versions of naturalism and argue that they cannot fully make good on the intelligibility of radical normative disagreement and the objectivity of normative truths. At the end of the paper, I defend again a quasi-naturalist approach to these issues.
Read MoreQuasi-naturalism and the problem of alternative normative concepts
In a new working paper, I develop a quasi-naturalist response to Eklund’s (2017) problem of alternative normative concepts. Here is a detailed summary of this paper.
Read MoreNew publication: "Is There a Good Moral Argument against Moral Realism?"
My paper “Is There a Good Moral Argument against Moral Realism?” is now forthcoming at Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. The online-first version of the article is available here (open access).
Metasemantics for soft naturalists
As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my working papers examines two epistemological challenges to normative realism and argues that a certain kind of naturalism can successfully address these challenges while avoiding the problems faced by other versions of realism. While that previous blog post focused on quasi-naturalism, these epistemological advantages can be attributed more generally to a family of views that I call soft naturalism.
Read MoreNormative quasi-naturalism and its virtues
In this video, I introduce normative quasi-naturalism and briefly explain how it can address a variety of problems in metaethics.
Read MoreThe epistemological benefits of quasi-naturalism
I am currently exploring the philosophical benefits of normative quasi-naturalism, a view that combines expressivism about normative discourse with a naturalist metaphysics of normativity in a deflationary framework. This view is largely inspired by Allan Gibbard’s discussion of naturalism in Thinking How to Live (2003). One of my working hypotheses is that quasi-naturalism can successfully deal with important epistemological challenges to normative realism, while avoiding problems faced by other naturalist views and by standard versions of non-naturalist realism.
Read MoreIs there a good moral argument against moral realism?
In connection with my project on expressivism and normative realism, I have been working on a paper that examines some recent arguments according to which there is something morally objectionable about moral realism, or normative realism more broadly.
Read MoreNew publication: "Representation, Deflationism, and the Question of Realism"
Introduction to moral subjectivism
As part of my Marie Curie project, I am also creating a series of short introductory videos on topics in metaethics, which should be suitable for use in introductory ethics classes. Here is the first video, on moral subjectivism and its problems.
Read MoreMetasemantic expressivism and the question of realism (part 2)
In his 2004 paper “Meta-ethics and the problem of creeping minimalism,” Jamie Dreier argued that quasi-realism and realism diverge in their explanations of normative content: realists appeal to normative facts and properties when explaining what it is to have a normative belief or to make a normative claim, while expressivist explanations appeal instead to desire-like attitudes.
As I noted in my previous post, this “explanation” explanation of the divide between quasi-realism and realism seems to fit well with the new understanding of expressivism as a metasemantic view…
Read MoreMetasemantic expressivism and the question of realism (part 1)
I’m currently working on a paper that examines whether expressivism understood as a theory of the metasemantics of normative discourse is compatible with normative realism. Here is how I came to be interested in this question.
Read MoreWelcome to my research blog
I will post here regular updates and occasionally short videos on the main themes of my Marie Curie research project on expressivism and normative realism.