research themes

praise

Main topics include: moral worth; esteem, pride & other praising attitudes; and the ethics of distributing praise. I also have a long-standing fascination with praiseworthy and elective phenomena more generally (e.g., forgiveness, mercy). 

blame

Much of my work in this area concerns the ethics of blame; for instance, the non-hypocrisy condition on blaming, and procedural norms of blame. More recently, I have been thinking about moral redemption and how blameworthiness changes over time. 

 relationships

I am interested in conflicts between moral demands and demands of friendship. I take these to have important implications for debates concerning the overridingness of morality, as well as questions about its demandingness. 

naturalism & nihilism

In addition to the above, some of my other work focuses on the choice-point between moral naturalism and moral nihilism in metaethics--mostly with the aim of convincing myself to embrace the former view over the latter.

Published and accepted papers

Pride and Investment
Published: Ethics (2025)
Click here for a link to the published version.
Moral Kombat: Analytic Naturalism and Moral Disagreement
Published: Canadian Journal of Philosophy (2024)
(Co-authored with Edward Elliott)
Click here for a link to the published version
Situational Dependence and Blame's Arrow
Published: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society (2024)
Click here for a link to the published online version
Self-Esteem: On the form of self-worth worth having
Published: Pacific Philosophical Quarterly (2023)
Click here for a link to the published online version
Naturalising Moral Naturalism
Published: Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (2023)
Click here for a link to the published online version
Should Moral Error Theorists Make Do with Make-Believe?
Published: Moral Fictionalism and Religious Fictionalism (2023)
(A collection of works edited by Richard Joyce and Stuart Brock)
Doubts about Duty as a Secondary Motive
Published: Philosophy & Phenomenological Research 105, 2: 276-298 (2022)
Click ​here for a link to the published version 
Subjunctive Hypocrisy
Published: Ergo 9, 7: 172-199 (2022)  
Click ​here for a link to the published version
Don't Stop Believing (Hold onto That Warm Fuzzy Feeling)
Published: Ethics 132: 4-37 (2021)
​(Co-authored with Edward Elliott)
​Click here for a link to the published version
Moral Worth: Having it Both Ways
Published: The Journal of Philosophy 117: 529-556 (2020)
Click here for a link to the published version
Moral Worth and Doing the Right Thing by Accident
Published: Australasian Journal of Philosophy 97: 251-264 (2019)
Click here for a link to the published version
Evolutionary Hypotheses and Moral Skepticism
Published: Erkenntnis 84: 1025–1045 (2019)
Click here for the penultimate draft | Click here for link to published version
Minimizing the Misuse of Morality
Published: The End of Morality ​(Routledge 2019)
(A collection of works edited by Richard Joyce and Richard Garner)
Click here for the penultimate draft
On Having Bad Persons as Friends  
Published: Philosophical Studies 175: 3099-3116 (2018)
​Click here for the penultimate draft | ​Click ​​here for a link to the published version
Hypocrisy and Moral Authority
Published: Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 12: 191-222 (2017)
​(Co-authored with Colin Klein)
​Click here for the penultimate draft ​| Click here for a link to the published version

book reviews & encyclopedia entries

Jules Holroyd, Oppressive Praise
Forthcoming: Ethics
(Book review)
Moral Hypocrisy
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online
(Encyclopedia entry)
Click here for a link to the online entry
Richard Joyce, Essays in Moral Skepticism
Published: Utilitas 32, 126-129 (2020)
(Book review)
Click here for a link to the online paper
Empathy and Morality
Published: Biology & Philosophy ​30: 597-608 (2015) ​
​(Book review)
​Click here for the penultimate draft | Click here for a link to the published version

papers Under review

Below are descriptions of work under review.
​Please feel free to e-mail me for a copy of any of these papers.
Holding people's pasts against them
This paper explores the phenomenon of holding people's pasts against them, and questions whether we are always justified in doing so. It also develops and defends a particular approach for thinking about moral redemption. 

Friendship and moral theory
This paper explores the relationship between moral duties and duties of friendship. 

​The Ethics of Praise
This paper explores the ways in which we can go morally wrong when extending praise to others.

work IN PROgRESS

Below are descriptions of works in progress.
These are still being translated from Mentalese to English, so I don't have drafts to share just yet--happy to discuss, though!
Social Duties 
This paper investigates the nature and scope of our duties to the socially deprived.

The Overridingness of Morality
This paper develops a critique of the idea that moral requirements normatively override reasons or requirements of other kinds.

Mercy
This paper develops an account of mercy that preserves its long-standing reputation as a gracious gift.