Nicholas Drake
Photo by Dennis Buurman
PUBLICATIONS
1. “Utilitarianism.” Ethical Theory in Global Perspective (provisional title), edited by Michael Hemmingson. SUNY Press. (Commissioned book chapter.)
2. "Love, Reasons, and Desire" in: Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 23 (3), 2020, pp. 591-605
This paper defends subjectivism about the reasons we have to treat those we love especially well.
3. “Choosing Normative Concepts, written by Matti Eklund” in: Journal of Moral Philosophy, 17 (4), 2020, pp. 441-444. (Book review.)
4. "A Humean Constructivist Reading of J. S. Mill's Utilitarian Theory" in: Utilitas 28 (2), 2016, pp. 189-214.
This paper was a section of my Honours thesis, which was on the metaethical views of utilitarian philosophers. I argue that Mill is not a moral realist and does not believe in certain kinds of obligations, those involving external reasons and obligations with a particular, strong kind of practical authority. In this paper I argue that Mill’s metaethical position can be interpreted as a Humean constructivist view, but I'd now describe it more simply as moral subjectivism.
For an excellent critique of this paper, see Peter Zuk, "Mill's Metaethical Non-cognitivism," Utilitas 30 (3), 2018, pp. 271-293.
5. "Is Moral Bioenhancement Dangerous?" in: Journal of Medical Ethics 42 (1), 2016 (published online first, 2015), pp. 3-6.
This paper was written for a course I did in my Honours year. The course had three modules, and one was on moral bioenhancement, led by Nick Agar. This a response to his paper "Moral Bioenhancement is Dangerous".