Papers
'Modal Rationalism' [html] [pdf] explores the relation between apriority and metaphysical necessity.
'Global Rationality' [html] [pdf] argues for rational holism, the view that in any given situation: one rationally ought to act and reason as one would recommend from a timeless perspective.
Work in Progress
'Value Holism' [pdf] considers the relation between the value of a whole (person, society) and its parts (timeslices, individuals), arguing that the contributory value of a part cannot be determined in isolation. For example, the value of an additional life may depend on what other lives there are. This has important implications for population ethics, and especially Parfit's 'repugnant conclusion'.
'What is Democracy?' explores the conditions under which a state might be described as genuinely 'ruled by the people'.
'Rationality and Time' seeks to defend temporal neutrality, or the view that a mere difference in timing can have no rational influence over our preferences.
Introductory Essays (just for fun)
- Why Be Moral?
- Political Vigilantism
- Positive and Negative Rights
- Fatalism and the Idle Argument
- Hempel's Raven Paradox
- What Behaviour is About: ascribing intentionality to animals
- Ethics exam: (i) Valoric Consequentialism, (ii) Standard Reasons, Adaptive Reasons, (iii) Permissibility and Meaning.
Contact
Richard ChappellPhilosophy Department
1879 Hall, Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
Feedback welcome!