What We Ought and What We Can
Are we able to do everything we ought to do? According to the important but controversial Ought Implies Can principle, the answer is yes.
In this book Alex King sheds some much-needed light on this principle. She argues that it is flawed because we are obligated to perform some actions that we cannot perform, and goes on to present a suggested theory for anyone who would deny t...
Are we able to do everything we ought to do? According to the important but controversial Ought Implies Can principle, the answer is yes.
In this book Alex King sheds some much-needed light on this principle. She argues that it is flawed because we are obligated to perform some actions that we cannot perform, and goes on to present a suggested theory for anyone who would deny the principle. She examines the traditional motivations for Ought Implies Can, and finds that they to a large degree do not support it. Using examples like gay rights, addiction, and disability, she argues that we can preserve many of the motivations that led us to the principle by thinking more about what we, as individuals or institutions, can fairly demand of ourselves and each other.
Alex King is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at Simon Fraser University. Before that, she was at SUNY Buffalo for several years.
Her primary areas of interest are ethics, metaethics, and aesthetics. Her current research (2021.5) concerns moral and aesthetic normativity, the 'ought implies can' principle, and practical reasoning. She is also interested in a variety of issue...
Alex King is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at Simon Fraser University. Before that, she was at SUNY Buffalo for several years.
Her primary areas of interest are ethics, metaethics, and aesthetics. Her current research (2021.5) concerns moral and aesthetic normativity, the 'ought implies can' principle, and practical reasoning. She is also interested in a variety of issues in aesthetics, including subtlety and high and low art. For more, click over to Research.
She also runs the aesthetics and philosophy of art blog Aesthetics for Birds. There you can also find some interviews she's conducted as well as posts she's written on, for example, high and low art and the importance of cosplay.
She also wrote a guest post for Philosopher on multiracial identity and the different things it means to be a person of color. And she has been interviewed for the APA Blog.