I am usually referred to as a philosopher, but most of the time I’m writing about philosophy rather than actually doing it (although the line that divides the two activities is not sharp). If by ‘doing philosophy’ we mean writing original, substantive papers for an academic audience, since completing my PhD thesis on the philosophy of personal identity in 1996 (available here), I stopped doing philosophy for several years.
I have nonetheless published some academic papers, which are listed below. I have also written some textbooks, and in particular The Philosopher’s Toolkit (written with Peter Fosl) which has been very popular on undergraduate courses.
The rise, fall and rise again of secularism
Public Policy Research, January-March 2006, pp202-210
End of life: The humanist view
with Madeleine Pym, The Lancet, 365, October 2005
Tabloid Shocker
Think, No. 10, Summer 2005, pp87-92
Philosophy and Public Life
Situation Analysis, Issue 3, Spring 2004
Philosophy as Judgement
in Carel & Gamez, eds, What Philosophy Is (Continuum, 2004)
Faith on Trial
Think, No. 4, Summer 2003, pp81-84
Morality as a Rational Requirement
Philosophy vol. 77, no. 301, July 2002, pp447-453
Philosophical autobiography
Inquiry vol. 45, no 2, September 2002, pp1-18
Review articles
The Cambridge Companion to Atheism Edited by Michael Martin
Religious Studies, Vol.44, issue 03, September 2008
The Impossibility of God Edited by Michael Martin and Ricki Monnier
Internet Infidels, posted 20 April 2005
On Film by Stephen Mulhall
Film-Philosophy, vol. 7, no 24, August 2003 republished in Film and Philosophy, vol 9, 2005
On the Meaning of Life by John Cottingham
Metapsychology, 6 August 2003
Philosophical Reasoning by Nicholas Rescher
Philosophy in Review / Comptes rendus philosophiques, Vol 22, No 5, October 2002, pp 370-372
