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Title: Epistemic Ethics: Methods, Motivations, and the Malcontents Abstract: Philippa Foot (1972, 316) once remarked upon “an element of deception in the official line about morality”. An element, she argues, that causes some to turn away from talk about the authority of the moral law “with a sense of distrust.” This paper is about an element in the official line about epistemology that has made some turn away from it with a similar sense of distrust. The official line being that there…

Title: Liberal Feminism, Social Critique, and Moral Methodology: What Can Reflective Equilibrium Accomplish?   Abstract: This paper brings together two strands of opposition to liberalism: First is the substantive strand, concerning liberalism’s feminist, anti-racist, and egalitarian credentials. Second is the methodological strand, concerning liberalism’s method of moral justification, reflective equilibrium. In response to the substantive strand of opposition to liberalism, left-liberal feminists have argued that, properly understood, liberal values entail a deep critique of sexism, racism, and economic inequality, and…

Title:  Who Killed Agent Causation? A Murder Mystery   Abstract:  It’s a familiar claim in recent philosophy that causation is a relationship between events. But, famously, things didn’t used to be that way. Throughout antiquity, the Middle Ages and the early modern period, causation was understood as a relationship between substances and/or powers.  When did this sort of “agent causation” die? And who killed it? The answer turns out to be surprising.   reception to follow in Caldwell 106