Jonathan Dancy

Biographic Data

ID489396
NAMEJonathan Dancy
GIVEN NAMESJonathan
FAMILY NAMEDancy
SIGNATUREDANCY J
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Reading
VERIFIEDNo
TOTAL WORKS65
TOTAL CITATIONS264
AUTHOR COUNT63
EDITOR COUNT2
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1967
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX4

  • A Companion to Epistemology

    Kurt Sylvan, Jonathan Dancy et al.BOOKCompanion to Epistemology 2…2025

    A Companion to Epistemology, 2 Volume Set, 3rd Edition A Companion to Epistemology provides a comprehensive, up-to-date reference for understanding the theory of knowledge. Edited by distinguished scholars, this expanded third edition explores classic questions about knowledge and justified belief alongside contemporary topics such as social and political epistemology, the ethics of belief, and the epistemology of perception. With contributions f…

  • Steven Pinker, Rationality

    Open AccessJonathan DancyARTICLESociety2022

  • Three for the price of two

    Jonathan DancyCHAPTERRoutledge Handbook of Practical…2020

    In this chapter, I recount how two views which it took me years to work up led me without further effort to see the possibility of a third. The first view is called the holism of reasons; this is the view that what is a reason in one case may be no reason in another. The second view is realism in the theory of motivation, that is, the view that the reason for which one acts need not be restricted to psychological facts about oneself, such as that…

  • Précis of Practical Shape

    Jonathan DancyARTICLEPhilosophical Explorations2020

    In Practical Shape, I give an account of practical reasoning whose main purpose is simply to convince people that there is, or at least can be, such a thing. Practical reasoning is reasoning whose

  • Responses to my critics

    Jonathan DancyARTICLEPhilosophical Explorations2020

    Section 1 of Raz’s contribution to this symposium, which has his characteristic combination of subtlety and directness, concerns the relation between: T1: PR is reasoning whose conclusion is an act

  • Honing Practical Judgement

    Open AccessJonathan DancyARTICLEJournal of Philosophy of Education2020References: 3

    Journal Article Honing Practical Judgement Get access Jonathan Dancy Jonathan Dancy Correspondence: Jonathan Dancy, Department of Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin, 2210 Speedway, Stop C3500, WAG 316, Austin, Texas 78712-1737, USA. Email: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 54, Issue 2, April 2020, Pages 410–424, https://doi.org/10.111…

  • Practical Shape

    Jonathan DancyBOOKPractical Shape2018

    This book offers a theory of practical reasoning which is Aristotelian in spirit, since it maintains that one can reason to action in very much the same ways as those in which one can reason to belief. But the book gives its own, non-Aristotelian account of what those ways are; the practical syllogism hardly appears at all. Instead, there are accounts of reasons as considerations favouring a certain response, and of other ways in which considerat…

  • Philosophy of action

    Jonathan Dancy, Constantine SandisBOOKPhilosophy of Action2015

  • Meta-Ethics in the Twentieth Century

    Jonathan DancyBOOKThe Oxford Handbook Of The…2013

    The main stream of academic philosophy, in Anglophone countries and increasingly worldwide, is identified by the name 'analytic'. The study of its history, from the 19th century to the late 20th, has boomed in recent years. These specially commissioned essays by forty leading scholars constitute the most comprehensive book on the subject

  • A Companion to Epistemology

    Open AccessJonathan Dancy, Ernest Sosa et al.BOOKCompanion to Epistemology2010

  • A companion to epistemology

    Jonathan DancyBOOKA companion to epistemology2010

    "Since its first publication, A Companion to Epistemology has established itself as the leading single-volume epistemology reference work in the field. This extended and revised edition brings the Companion up to date." "Part I, consisting of newly commissioned review essays, focuses on the major topics that have an abiding centrality for the field, including a priori justification, Bayesian epistemology, closure, contextualism, epistemic virtue,…

  • The thing to use

    Open AccessJonathan DancyARTICLEStudies in History and Philosophy…2006Cited by: 1

  • Nonnaturalism

    Jonathan Dancy, David CoppCHAPTERThe Oxford handbook of ethical…2005

  • Essentially Comparative Concepts

    Open AccessJonathan DancyARTICLEJournal of Ethics and Social…2005

    This paper examines Larry Temkin’s notion of an "essentially comparative" concept and the uses to which he puts it. It is suggested that this notion is a conflation of two distinct notions which need not go together. This leads to a critical examination of Temkin’s arguments that certain central ethical concepts (equality, maximin, utility) are essentially comparative. These arguments are often found wanting, as is Temkin’s treatment of the Perso…

  • Rationality, Value, and Meaning

    Jonathan DancyCHAPTEREthics without principles2004

    Suggests that particularist conceptions of rationality, in general, can be applied to the philosophy of language. Semantic competence does not require that each distinct semantic unit makes the same contribution in all contexts. Distinguishes weak and strong forms of compositionalism, arguing for the former.

  • Holism and its Consequences

    Jonathan DancyCHAPTEREthics without principles2004

    Gives the best argument for holism in the theory of reasons, and then considers how best to establish ethical particularism on that basis. Also considers various ways of accepting holism without going so far as the particularist wants to go.

  • Principles of Rational Valuing

    Jonathan DancyCHAPTEREthics without principles2004

    Considers the prospects of a form of holism in the theory of choice, which holds that the value of one alternative can be affected by the mere presence of others. Argues that this position (also know as the Indifference of Independent Alternatives) is true for independent reasons, though it is also congenial to particularism. The consequence is that there is no possibility of a Full Ordering of values.

  • Knowing Reasons

    Jonathan DancyCHAPTEREthics without principles2004

    A chapter on moral epistemology. Asks what, for the particularist, will count as a basic moral fact. Considers the modal status of such facts, arguing that they are contingent, but known a priori. Claims that this position is neither foundationalist nor coherentist. Ends by considering various suggestions that particularism cannot avoid some form of general scepticism in ethics.

  • Are there Organic Unities?

    Jonathan DancyCHAPTEREthics without principles2004

    Argues against G. E. Moore’s conception of organic unities, attempting to replace it with a conception more amenable to particularism. Considers the possibility of a form of default value acceptable to particularism. Ends by contrasting the views expressed here with those of Kagan.

  • Intrinsic and Extrinsic Value

    Jonathan DancyCHAPTEREthics without principles2004

    Considers the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic value. Suggests ways in which a particularist can accept a notion of intrinsic value.

  • Beyond Favouring

    Jonathan DancyCHAPTEREthics without principles2004

    Suggests ways of characterising the favouring relation by contrasting it with other forms of relevance, such as enabling and intensifying. Offers examples of the distinction between favouring and enabling in the theory of explanation and in epistemology.

  • Competing Pictures

    Jonathan DancyCHAPTEREthics without principles2004

    Argues against views alternative to particularism in detail, including the views of McNaughton and Rawling, Crisp, Raz, Scanlon, Hooker, Parfit, and also appeals to Aristotelian philosophy of science.

  • Contributory Reasons

    Jonathan DancyCHAPTEREthics without principles2004

    Considers the nature of contributory reasons, contrasting the contributory with the overall. Also considers attempts to characterise the nature of the contributory in terms of overall oughts, arguing that all such attempts fail. Also considers arguments that there can be oughts without reasons, and rejects these too. Concludes that reasons are best understood in terms of the relation of favouring.

  • Can Holism be True?

    Jonathan DancyCHAPTEREthics without principles2004

    Considers various attempts to show that holism in the theory of reasons must be false. Distinguishes various forms of atomism, considers various appeals to notions of complete reasons and full explanations, asks whether moral reasoning is a form of inference and whether conceptual competence requires the existence of natural patterns, and ends by asking whether a particularist can allow that some moral considerations have a default relevance.

  • Dropping the Catch

    Jonathan DancyCHAPTEREthics without principles2004

    Argues that various standard meta-ethical positions have great difficulty in understanding the notion of a contributory reason, being largely formulated to deal with overall oughts. These positions are those of M. Smith, A. Gibbard, F. Jackson, B. Brandom, and I. Kant.