

Philosophy, Literature and History of Art



PHILOSOPHY
(1) Moral Rules and Political Action: A Rule-Consequentialist Account of the Relationship between Ethics and Politics (2012)
​
For synopsis, click here
​For Chapter One (Introduction) click here
​I hope eventually to publish a second edition in electronic format. For updates to the 2012 published book (when available) click here.​
The printed book is occasionally available second-hand on Amazon, but I can supply a copy via my Contacts page.
​
(2) Ethics and Ideology
​
​A study of the relationship between normative theory and political ideology
(3) Kinds of Things: How we Classify the World
​
Synopsis: click here
​
(4) Philosophy and Literature: Case Studies
​
​The book includes chapters on the following
​(i) Introduction: Philosophy and, of, and in literature
​(ii) Degeneration in Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde, Wells's The Time Machine and Stoker's Dracula
​(iii) Luck and 'moral luck' in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles
​(iv) Derrida's Kafka
​(v) David Hume's influence on Woolf's To the Lighthouse
(v1) Theoretical approaches to the Ghost Story
​Conference papers, etc. (All given at University of Wales,Trinity Saint David, Lampeter)
(a) 'Three Forms of Collective Responsibility' (Philosophy Conference, 16 July 2018).
(b) ‘Rules and Consequences: A Fresh Look at Rule-Consequentialism’ (Philosophy Colloquium, 20 February 2019).
(c) 'Lévinas on Alterity and Suffering, and Implications for Medical Ethics' (‘Faith and Finitude’, 1-2 August 2019).
I also act as a reviewer for academic journals in the fields of ethics and environmental philosophy.
LITERATURE
​
Uneasy Dreams: Kafka's Influence on British and Irish Fiction
​
This is not yet another interpretation of Kafka’s work to add to the thousands of books and papers that make up the 'Kafka industry'. It focuses instead on British and Irish writers considered to have been significantly influenced by Kafka. Specifically, I offer detailed accounts of Kafkan elements in novels by Rex Warner, Anna Kavan, Samuel Beckett, James Kelman, Kazuo Ishiguro and W G Sebald, together with briefer studies of Edward Upward, Grahame Greene, Ruthven Todd, William Sansom, Henry Green, Flann O’Brien, John Banville, Alasdair Gray, Iain Banks, J G Ballard, China Miéville, Iris Murdoch, David Wheldon and Ian McEwan.
​
For detailed synopsis, click here
​