Alastair Norcro
Biographic Data
| ID | 1197850 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alastair Norcro |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alastair |
| FAMILY NAME | Norcro |
| SIGNATURE | NORCRO A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Southern Methodist University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9613-4235 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 46 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Harm, Context, Blame, and Significance
Eggleston claims that my account of harm suffers from more problems than his preferred account. I clarify my account, and explain how his account suffers from some of the supposed problems he charges my account with. Sinnott-Armstrong suggests that his contrastivist approach is preferable to my contextualism. I clarify the role of linguistic context, and suggest that our positions are quite close to each other. Mason worries that my scalar approa…
Value Comparability
Value comparability, either in the form of the kind of quantitative comparability involved in (intrapersonal or interpersonal) aggregation, or in the form of the kind of qualitative comparability involved in comparing putatively different values, has been thought to threaten the theoretical soundness of consequentialist theories. In part 2, I argue that unrestricted axiological aggregation is supported by overwhelmingly plausible assumptions abou…
Animal Experimentation
This article takes the central issue concerning the ethics of animal experimentation to be the moral status of animals. Since most animal experimentation involves treating experimental subjects in ways that would clearly not be morally acceptable if the subjects were human, and since no animal experimentation involves the informed consent of the experimental subject(s), any attempt to justify such experimentation must include a defense of the cla…
Off Her Trolley? Frances Kamm and the Metaphysics of Morality
Frances Kamm's aptly titled Intricate Ethics is a tour de force of what Peter Unger calls the ‘preservationist’ approach to ethical theory. Here is some of what she says about her methodology: Consider as many case-based judgments of yours as prove necessary. Do not ignore some case-based judgments, assuming they are errors, just because they conflict with simple or intuitively plausible principles that account for some subset of your case-based …
Varieties of Hedonism in Feldman's Pleasure and the Good Life
In these comments on Fred Feldman's Pleasure and the Good Life , I first challenge the dichotomy between sensory and attitudinal hedonisms as perhaps presenting a false dilemma. I suggest that there may be a form of hedonism that employs the concept of a ‘feel’ that is not purely sensory. Next, I raise some problems for several of the versions of hedonism explored in the book
Puppies, Pigs, and People
Contractualism and Aggregation
In What We Owe to Each Other Tim Scanlon attempts to have his cake and eat it too. He claims both that his contractualist theory provides an intuitive way to block the aggregative feature of consequentialist theories that leads to counterintuitive results, and that it allows for at least the ap pearance of aggregation in those situations in which aggregative reasoning is intuitively acceptable. His argument is interesting and challenging, but, I …
Intransitivity and the Person-Affecting Principle
Philosophy journals and conferences have recently seen several attempts to argue that 'all-things-considered better than' does not obey strict transitivity. This paper focuses on Larry Temkin's argument in Intransitivity and Mere Addition Paradox. Although his argument is not aimed just at utilitarians or even consequentialists in general, it is of particular significance to consequentialists. If 'all-things-considered better than' does not obey …
Speed Limits, Human Lives, and Convenience
Good and Bad Actions
It is usually assumed to be possible, and sometimes even desirable, for consequentialists to make judgments about both the rightness and the goodness of actions. Whether a particular action is right or wrong is one question addressed by a consequentialist theory such as utilitarianism. Whether the action is good or bad, and how good or bad it is, are two others. I will argue in this paper that consequentialism cannot provide a satisfactory accoun…
Comparing Harms
A Reply to Margery Naylor
Margery Bedford Naylor, in Moral of the Trolley Problem,' suggests that the morally significant difference between the trolley and transplant cases is that the former involves an unavoidable violation of rights, whereas the latter involves an avoidable violation of rights. In the transplant case, she argues, it would be possible for the donor to decide for himself what is done to his organs. The surgeon could ask him. Granted, it could be that th…
Comparing Harms
Puppies, Pigs, and People
Off Her Trolley? Frances Kamm and the Metaphysics of Morality
Frances Kamm's aptly titled Intricate Ethics is a tour de force of what Peter Unger calls the ‘preservationist’ approach to ethical theory. Here is some of what she says about her methodology: Consider as many case-based judgments of yours as prove necessary. Do not ignore some case-based judgments, assuming they are errors, just because they conflict with simple or intuitively plausible principles that account for some subset of your case-based …
Intransitivity and the Person-Affecting Principle
Philosophy journals and conferences have recently seen several attempts to argue that 'all-things-considered better than' does not obey strict transitivity. This paper focuses on Larry Temkin's argument in Intransitivity and Mere Addition Paradox. Although his argument is not aimed just at utilitarians or even consequentialists in general, it is of particular significance to consequentialists. If 'all-things-considered better than' does not obey …
A Reply to Margery Naylor
Margery Bedford Naylor, in Moral of the Trolley Problem,' suggests that the morally significant difference between the trolley and transplant cases is that the former involves an unavoidable violation of rights, whereas the latter involves an avoidable violation of rights. In the transplant case, she argues, it would be possible for the donor to decide for himself what is done to his organs. The surgeon could ask him. Granted, it could be that th…
Good and Bad Actions
It is usually assumed to be possible, and sometimes even desirable, for consequentialists to make judgments about both the rightness and the goodness of actions. Whether a particular action is right or wrong is one question addressed by a consequentialist theory such as utilitarianism. Whether the action is good or bad, and how good or bad it is, are two others. I will argue in this paper that consequentialism cannot provide a satisfactory accoun…
Comparing Harms
Speed Limits, Human Lives, and Convenience
Intransitivity and the Person-Affecting Principle
Philosophy journals and conferences have recently seen several attempts to argue that 'all-things-considered better than' does not obey strict transitivity. This paper focuses on Larry Temkin's argument in Intransitivity and Mere Addition Paradox. Although his argument is not aimed just at utilitarians or even consequentialists in general, it is of particular significance to consequentialists. If 'all-things-considered better than' does not obey …
Contractualism and Aggregation
In What We Owe to Each Other Tim Scanlon attempts to have his cake and eat it too. He claims both that his contractualist theory provides an intuitive way to block the aggregative feature of consequentialist theories that leads to counterintuitive results, and that it allows for at least the ap pearance of aggregation in those situations in which aggregative reasoning is intuitively acceptable. His argument is interesting and challenging, but, I …
Puppies, Pigs, and People
Varieties of Hedonism in Feldman's Pleasure and the Good Life
In these comments on Fred Feldman's Pleasure and the Good Life , I first challenge the dichotomy between sensory and attitudinal hedonisms as perhaps presenting a false dilemma. I suggest that there may be a form of hedonism that employs the concept of a ‘feel’ that is not purely sensory. Next, I raise some problems for several of the versions of hedonism explored in the book
Off Her Trolley? Frances Kamm and the Metaphysics of Morality
Frances Kamm's aptly titled Intricate Ethics is a tour de force of what Peter Unger calls the ‘preservationist’ approach to ethical theory. Here is some of what she says about her methodology: Consider as many case-based judgments of yours as prove necessary. Do not ignore some case-based judgments, assuming they are errors, just because they conflict with simple or intuitively plausible principles that account for some subset of your case-based …
Animal Experimentation
This article takes the central issue concerning the ethics of animal experimentation to be the moral status of animals. Since most animal experimentation involves treating experimental subjects in ways that would clearly not be morally acceptable if the subjects were human, and since no animal experimentation involves the informed consent of the experimental subject(s), any attempt to justify such experimentation must include a defense of the cla…
Value Comparability
Value comparability, either in the form of the kind of quantitative comparability involved in (intrapersonal or interpersonal) aggregation, or in the form of the kind of qualitative comparability involved in comparing putatively different values, has been thought to threaten the theoretical soundness of consequentialist theories. In part 2, I argue that unrestricted axiological aggregation is supported by overwhelmingly plausible assumptions abou…
Harm, Context, Blame, and Significance
Eggleston claims that my account of harm suffers from more problems than his preferred account. I clarify my account, and explain how his account suffers from some of the supposed problems he charges my account with. Sinnott-Armstrong suggests that his contrastivist approach is preferable to my contextualism. I clarify the role of linguistic context, and suggest that our positions are quite close to each other. Mason worries that my scalar approa…
Philosophy (9 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics (5 works) · Philosophical Ethics and Theory (5 works) · Contemporary philosophy (4 works) · Free Will and Agency (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Analytic philosophy (3 works)