Research interests:

    My research falls into three broad categories. First, I work in a number of issues in health care ethics.  I am most interested in the extent to which we think that we should be able to use medicine to make ourselves better than we are normally.  I am especially interested in the justifications for modifying our brains to improve our memory, our cognition, our moods, and our personality.  But I am also interested in the broader implications of health decisions, the intersection of health care and political philosophy in public health ethics.

    Second, I have a continuing interest in the social and conceptual foundations of liberal institutions and practices. I am particularly interested in the philosophical justifications for toleration, which is the subject of my book Trust and Toleration.

    Third, I study the historical foundations of modern politics in the eighteenth century, particularly in the works of the great Scottish philosopher David Hume and in the works of the American Founders.

    In addition to my primary appointment in Philosophy, I also hold appointments in Neurology and Medical Humanities.

Publications:

                  Trust and Toleration

                   (Routledge, 2004)

Selected articles:

1. •with Jennifer Kwon, “Pediatric Screeing and the Public Good,” Cerebrum 2009, ed. Dan Gordon (New York: Dana Press, 2009), 121-29.
   

2. •with Eric Singer, “KidneyMatch.com: The Ethics of Solicited Organ Donations,” Journal of Clinical Ethics 19 (2008): 141-49.
   

3. •“Better Brains, Better Selves?:  The Ethics of Neuroenhancements.”  Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 17 (2007): 375-99.  A related interview can be found in the Escapist magazine.  Here I discuss the issues with 1370 Connection with Bob Smith on WXXI radio.
   

4. •"Of Socinians and Homosexuals: Trust and the Limits of Toleration," in Toleration on Trial,  ed. Ingrid Creppell, Russell Hardin, and Stephen Macedo (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2008), 85-109
   

5. • “The Bond of Friendship and Trust:  Liberal Societies in the Face of Evil,”  The Modern Schoolman 85 (2007): 71-87.
   

6. •  “’The Paradoxical Principle and Salutary Practice’: Hume on Toleration,”  Hume Studies 31 (2005): 145-64.
   

•  “Moral Ambiguity in a Black-and-White Universe,” in Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful Than You Can Possibly Imagine, ed. Kevin Decker and Jason Eberl (Indianapolis: Open Court Press, 2005), 39-53.

•  “Slippery Slopes, Wonder Drugs, and Cosmetic Neurology: The Neuroethics of Enhancements.“ Neurology 63 (2004): 951-52.  NPR  story about this issue.

•“Morality above Metaphysics: Friendship and Philo’s Stance in Dialogue XII.  Hume Studies 28 (2002): 131-47.

•“Establishing Toleration.”  Political Theory 27 (1999): 667-93.

•“Trust and Rationality of Toleration.” Noûs 32 (1998): 82-98.

•“Hume on the Characters of Virtue.”  Journal of the History of Philosophy 35 (1997): 45-64.

•“Moral Conversions.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 56 (1996): 531-50.

•"Living with Contextualism." Canadian Journal of Philosophy 24 (1994): 243-60.

•  “Liberalism in Context.”  Polity 25 (1993): 565-82

•  Hume and the Contexts of Politics.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 30 (1992): 219-42.