Anthony Skelton’s Home Page

I am currently Assistant Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario.

In 2004-2005, I was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Michigan. Steve Darwall supervised my research.

I received my PhD from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. My thesis is entitled Reasoning towards Utilitarianism: Learning from Sidgwick. My thesis committee comprised Wayne Sumner (supervisor) and Thomas Hurka.

Research Interests:

I am interested in ethics and the history of ethics.

Book:

Bioethics in Canada, eds. Charles Weijer, Anthony Skelton and Samantha Brennan (Oxford: University Press, forthcoming).

Scholarly Articles:

1. “Utilitarian Practical Ethics: Sidgwick and Singer”, Henry Sidgwick: Ethics, Psychics, and Politics, eds. P. Bucolo, R. Crisp, and B. Schultz (Catania: University of Catania Press, 2011), 592-633. (Solicited)

2. “Ideal Utilitarianism: Rashdall and Moore”, Underivative Duty: British Moral Philosophers from Sidgwick to Ewing, ed. Thomas Hurka (Oxford: University Press, 2011), 45-65. (Refereed)

3. “Henry Sidgwick’s Moral Epistemology”, Journal of the History of Philosophy 48 (2010), 491-519. (Refereed)

4. “William David Ross”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward N. Zalta (2010) (Solicited and Refereed)

5. “On Sidgwick’s Demise: A Reply to Professor Deigh”, Utilitas 22 (2010), 70-77. (Refereed)

For a rejoinder to this article, see John Deigh, “Some Further Thoughts on Sidgwick’s Epistemology”, Utilitas 22 (2010), 78-89.

6. “Sidgwick’s Philosophical Intuitions ”, Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics 10 (2008), 185-209. (Solicited)

7. Critical Notice of Robert Audi, The Good in the Right. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 37 (2007), 305-326. (Refereed)

8. “Schultz’s Sidgwick”, Utilitas 19 (2007), 91-103. (Refereed)

9. “Henry Sidgwick’s Practical Ethics: A Defense”, Utilitas 18 (2006), 199-217. (Refereed)

Selected Reviews and Encyclopedia Entries:

1. Review of Andrew Irvine and John Russell, eds., In the Agora: The Public Face of Canadian Philosophy, University of Toronto Quarterly 80 (2011). (Solicited)

2. Entries on “Hastings Rashdall”, “James Griffin”, “Ideal Utilitarianism” and “Intuitionism”, Encyclopedia of Utilitarianism, eds. James Crimmins and Douglas Long (Bristol: Thoemmes/Continuum, forthcoming). (Solicited)

3. “Sidgwick, Henry (1838-1900)”, Biographical Encyclopedia of British Idealism, ed. William Sweet (Bristol: Thoemmes/Continuum, 2010), 617-624. (Solicited)

4. Entries on “Abortion” & “Human Race (Death of the)” (In French), Dictionnaire de la Mort, ed. Philippe Di Folco (Larousse, 2010), 119-122, 409-411. (Solicited)

5. Review of Peter Singer, The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty, The Globe and Mail (Saturday, March 14, 2009), F11. The review can also be found here. (Solicited)

6. Review of Kwame Anthony Appiah, Experiments in Ethics, The Globe and Mail (Saturday, March 1, 2008), D3. (Solicited)

7. Review of Bart Schultz and Georgios Varouxakis (eds.), Utilitarianism and Empire, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, July 12, 2006. (Solicited)

8. “Liberty’s Godfather”, The Globe and Mail (Saturday, May 20, 2006), D19. (Solicited)

9. “Griffin, James (1933 -)”, The Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Philosophers, ed. Stuart Brown (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2005), 348-352. (Solicited)

10. Review of Bart Schultz, Henry Sidgwick: Eye of the Universe. An Intellectual Biography, Philosophy in Review 25 (2005), 231-234. (Solicited)

11. “Sidgwick, Henry (1838-1900)”, The Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Philosophers, eds. J. Mander and A. P. F. Sell (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2002), 1018-1028. (Solicited)

12. Review of Dale Jamieson (ed.), Singer and His Critics, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 79 (2001), 574-576. (Solicited)

Work In Progress:

1. “Faring Well as a Child” (In Draft)

2. “Henry Sidgwick and the Ethical Significance of the Free Will Controversy” (In progress)

3. “Reflective Equilibrium in Ethics” (In Draft)

4. “Sidgwick, Universality and Arguing for Utilitarianism” (In progress)

5. “The New Argument for Satisficing: Rather Less than the Best” (In progress)

6. “W. D. Ross and the Axiology of Pleasure” (In progress)

Fun: I have been known to cross-country ski.

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Last revised: 03 May 2011