In Defence of Moral Error Theory

Moral error theorists typically accept two claims - one conceptual and one ontological - about moral facts. The conceptual claim is that moral facts are or entail facts about categorical reasons (and correspondingly that moral claims are or entail claims about categorical reason); the ontological claim is that there are no categorical reasons-and consequently no moral facts-in reality. I accept this version of moral error theory and I try to unpack what it amounts to in section 2. In the course of doing so I consider two preliminary objections that moral error theory is (probably) false because its implications are intuitively unacceptable (what I call the Moorean objection) and that the general motivation for moral error theory is self-undermining in that it rests on a hidden appeal to norms. | Direct Link to PDF

Moral Minds: The Nature of Right and Wrong

THE CENTRAL IDEA of this book is simple: we evolved a moral instinct, a capacity that naturally grows within each child, designed to generate rapid judgments about what is morally right or wrong based on an unconscious grammar of action. Part of this machinery was designed by the blind hand of Darwinian selection millions of years before our species evolved; other parts were added or upgraded over the evolutionary history of our species, and are unique both to humans and to our moral psychology. These ideas draw on insightsfrom another instinct: language. | Direct Link to PDF (e-book)

Oxford Studies in Metaethics

The full book is available online for free:Oxford Studies in Metaethics is designed to collect, on an annual basis, some of the best new work being done in the field of metaethics. I’m very pleased to be able to present this third volume, one that has managed so successfully to fulfill the aims envisioned for the series. | Direct Link to Book

Moral Judgment

i. Moral rules are held to have an objective, prescriptive force; they are notdependent on the authority of any individual or institution.ii. Moral rules are taken to hold generally, not just locally; they not only proscribebehavior here and now, but also in other countries and at other times in history.iii. Violations of moral rules involve a victim who has been harmed, whose rightshave been violated, or who has been subject to an injustice.iv. Violations of moral rules are typically more serious than violations ofconventional rules. | Direct Link to PDF

The View from Tab 50 is Released

Jim Menick, Jon Cruz and your's truly sit down to discuss the Jan/Feb domestic violence topic controversy as well as the divide between the "clash of civilizations" in Lincoln-Douglas debate. Should LD become two different activities?

Battered Woman Syndrome: What is ‘Reasonable?’

Is an objective standard meaningless if the jury is not equipped to understand what is indeed reasonable behaviour for a woman who has experienced long-term battering?| Link

Distinction between Justification and Excuse

Battered Woman Syndrome, Expert Testimony, and the Distinction between Justification and Excuse; Schopp, Robert F.; Sturgis, Barbara J.; Sullivan, Megan 1994 U. Ill. L. Rev. 45 (1994) | Link

For elderly, stigma of domestic violence keeps it hidden

For elderly victims of domestic violence, physical, emotional and sexual abuse has often desecrated the relationship even before the couple married."Domestic violence can be present throughout a marriage of 40, 50, even 60 years, starting when the couple is dating, carrying on through the woman's pregnancies and continuing even when they are elderly," says Bonnie Brandl, a director with the Madison, Wis.-based National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life (ncall.us). | Link

Domestic violence cases on rise as women become more willing to report abuse

SYDNEY — Reports of domestic violence incidents are rising each year in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and one police official believes it is largely due to a greater willingness by victims to report their abuse to the authorities. | Link

Study finds how child abuse changes the brain

In a study in the journal Current Biology, researchers used brain scans to explore the impact of physical abuse or domestic violence on children's emotional development and found that exposure to it was linked to increased activity in two brain areas when children were shown pictures of angry faces. | Link to Reuters