12 found
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  1.  22
    Particularism and the space of moral reasons.Benedict Smith - 2011 - New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.
    By explicitly addressing moral knowledge from a particularists perspective, this book can engage with an established and vibrant area of moral philosophy whilst making a distinctive and productive contribution to a relatively neglected dimension of it.
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  2. Depression and motivation.Benedict Smith - 2013 - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 12 (4):615-635.
    Among the characteristic features of depression is a diminishment in or lack of action and motivation. In this paper, I consider a dominant philosophical account which purports to explain this lack of action or motivation. This approach comes in different versions but a common theme is, I argue, an over reliance on psychologistic assumptions about action–explanation and the nature of motivation. As a corrective I consider an alternative view that gives a prominent place to the body in motivation. Central to (...)
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  3.  74
    Naturalism, Experience, and Hume’s ‘Science of Human Nature’.Benedict Smith - 2016 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 24 (3):310-323.
    A standard interpretation of Hume’s naturalism is that it paved the way for a scientistic and ‘disenchanted’ conception of the world. My aim in this paper is to show that this is a restrictive reading of Hume, and it obscures a different and profitable interpretation of what Humean naturalism amounts to. The standard interpretation implies that Hume’s ‘science of human nature’ was a reductive investigation into our psychology. But, as Hume explains, the subject matter of this science is not restricted (...)
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  4.  26
    Hume on Belief and Vindicatory Explanations.Benedict Smith - 2019 - Philosophy 94 (2):313-337.
    Hume's account of belief is understood to be inspired by allegedly incompatible motivations, one descriptive and expressing Hume's naturalism, the other normative and expressing Hume's epistemological aims. This understanding assumes a particular way in which these elements are distinct: an assumption that I dispute. I suggest that the explanatory-naturalistic aspects of Hume's account of belief are not incompatible with the normative-epistemological aspects. Rather, at least for some central cases of belief formation that Hume discusses at length, S's coming to believe (...)
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  5.  45
    Knowledge and the Justification of Values in Values-Based Medicine.Benedict Smith - 2008 - Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 15 (2):97-105.
    This paper critically evaluates central themes of values-based medicine (VBM). First, I discuss the 'non-descriptivist' conception of value judgments at the heart of VBM. According to it, no inferences can rationally be drawn from factual criteria to value judgments and the inferences that are naturally formed are a matter of human psychology. I argue, however, that it is an essential feature of value judgments that they are themselves subject to normative assessment. This implies an important role for an evaluatively rich (...)
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  6.  35
    Reasons, Responsibility, and Fiction.Benedict Smith - 2006 - Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 13 (2):161-166.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reasons, Responsibility, and FictionBenedict Smith (bio)Keywordsresponsibility, reflection, reasons, fictionCartwright's article considers two candidate theories of responsibility and examines their relative adequacy by assessing them in light of our reactions to a dramatic and horrifying set of circumstances. Cartwright initiates the dialectic by noting how our intuitions are in conflict. For instance, although we are instantly horrified by the murders Harris perpetrated, we might naturally experience quite different emotions and (...)
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  7. Particularism, perception and judgement.Benedict Smith - 2006 - Acta Analytica 21 (2):12-29.
    According to the most detailed articulation and defence of moral particularism, it is a metaphysical doctrine about the nature of reasons. This paper addresses aspects of particularist epistemology. In rejecting the existence and efficacy of principles in moral thinking and reasoning particularists typically appeal to a theory of moral knowledge which operates with a ‘perceptual’ metaphor. This is problematic. Holism about valence can give rise to a moral epistemology that is a metaethical variety of atomistic empiricism. To avoid what could (...)
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  8. Possible Worlds and Moral Philosophy.Benedict Smith - 2001 - Teorema: International Journal of Philosophy 20 (3):41-50.
     
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  9.  63
    Traditional Moral Knowledge and Experience of the World.Benedict Smith - 2008 - Analyse & Kritik 30 (1):139-155.
    MacIntyre shares with others, such as John McDowell, a broad commitment in moral epistemology to the centrality of tradition and both regard forms of enculturation as conditions of moral knowledge. Although MacIntyre is critical of the thought that moral reasons are available only to those whose experience of the world is conceptually articulated, he is sympathetic to the idea that the development of subjectivity involves the capacity to appreciate external moral demands. This paper critically examines some aspects of MacIntyre’s account (...)
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  10.  52
    What Mystery of Moral Experience?Benedict Smith - 2012 - Journal of Value Inquiry 46 (2):197-207.
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  11.  68
    Book review of Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s The Roots of Morality: Pennsylvania University Press, 2008. [REVIEW]Benedict Smith - 2011 - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 10 (3):419-422.
    Book review of Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s The Roots of Morality Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-4 DOI 10.1007/s11097-011-9206-2 Authors Benedict Smith, Department of Philosophy, Durham University, 50 Old Elvet, Durham, DH1 3HN UK Journal Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences Online ISSN 1572-8676 Print ISSN 1568-7759.
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  12.  29
    Review of Mario de Caro, David Macarthur (eds.), Naturalism and Normativity[REVIEW]Benedict Smith - 2011 - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2011 (2).
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