For my current writings, please see my Academia.edu page:
Most of my publications are also available at Academia.edu, Google Scholar, PhilPapers , PhilPeople and PubMed. If the link below doesn't work, just Google the title or email me, please.
This page is currently a mess, in part due to Blogger's really poor text editor.
My writing and research areas are broad. Most of my publications are in in:
- meta-ethics (which concerns the 'nature' of morality),
- meta-epistemology (which concerns the 'nature' of judgments about rationality or knowledge),
- ethical theory (general explanations for what makes wrong actions wrong and how to think about morality, in general),
- philosophy of religion,
- bioethics,
- and other issues in applied or practical ethics,
- especially ethical issues concerning animals and abortion.
I am also very interested in issues concerning teaching and public philosophy. I have also been involved in a number of collaborative research projects with medical researchers, medical and mental health care providers, social scientists and legal scholars. I hope to eventually organize what's below to better present my writings and research.
New:
Thinking Critically About Abortion: Why Most Abortions Aren’t Wrong & Why All Abortions Should Be Legal. With Kristina Grob. (Open Philosophy Press, 2019).
"Abortion and Soundbites: Why Pro-Choice Arguments Are Harder to Make." With Kristina Grob. Areo Magazine.
New "popular" writings (4/28/19):
Update (8/9/18):
Thinking Critically About Abortion: Why Most Abortions Aren’t Wrong & Why All Abortions Should Be Legal. With Kristina Grob. (Open Philosophy Press, 2019).
- This book was developed out of two chapters for Introduction to Ethics: An Open Educational Resource.
"Abortion and Soundbites: Why Pro-Choice Arguments Are Harder to Make." With Kristina Grob. Areo Magazine.
New "popular" writings (4/28/19):
- "Thinking Critically About Abortion" at Decaturish.com
- Something reflective on philosophy of religion at PhilosophyofReligion.org.
- "Euthanasia, or Mercy Killing" at 1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology
Update (8/9/18):
- Early and Later Abortions: Ethics and Law - Early Abortions Are Not Wrong, Late Abortions Could Be Wrong, but probably All Abortions Should Be Legal, for Ethics, Left and Right, edited by Bob Fischer (Oxford University Press, 2019).
- Responding to Morally Flawed Historical Philosophers and Philosophies by Victor Fabian Abundez-Guerra and Nathan Nobis, at 1000-Word Philosophy
- Ethics and “Extra Credit” by Nathan Nobis, at 1000-Word Philosophy
- An amicus brief on why chimpanzees should be considered persons, not things (a co-author).
- Chimpanzee Rights: The Philosophers’ Brief
Some less recent publications (8/6/16):
- Nathan Nobis. Animals & Ethics 101: Thinking Critically About Animal Rights. Open Philosophy Press, 2016.
- "Abortion and Animal Rights: Does Either Topic Lead to the Other?" At What's Wrong? the not quite official blog of cu-boulder's center for values and social policy
- Review of SHERRY F. COLB AND MICHAEL C. DORF, Beating Hearts: Abortion and Animal Rights, Notre Dame Philosophy Reviews.
- "The Ethics of Abortion," 1000 Word Philosophy (also at The Philosophers' Magazine)
- “Tom Regan on ‘Kind’ Arguments against Animal Rights and for Human Rights” in The Moral Rights of Animals.
- Review of Jonathan Kahn, Race in a Bottle: The Story of BiDil and Racialized Medicine in the Post-Genomic Age, American Journal of Bioethics
Below are some papers, but this all needs to be redone; again, please see my Academia.edu page.
- A 2000 word version of my dissertation (!!!): "Moral Nihilism, Intellectual Nihilism & Practical Ethics"
- A review of my dissertation on an Ethical Realism blog.
- Making Moral Progress: An Ethical Arguments Workbook (in preparation)
- "Racial Health Disparities and Race-Based Bioethics: A Critique of a Critique," International Journal of Radical Critique (January 2013), Vol. 02 No. 01.
- Also see: "Taking it to the Streets: Bioethics and Health Disparities" for the First Bioethics Conference on Cancer Health Disparities Research, January 2012, Tuskegee, AL 36088
- "Rational Engagement, Emotional Response and the Prospects for Progress in Animal Use 'Debates'" in Jeremy Garrett, ed., Animal Research in Theory and Practice (MIT Basic Bioethics Series, 2012), pp. 237-265. Draft of an APPENDIX that addresses more arguments that couldn't be addressed in the chapter.
- "Abortion, Metaphysics and Morality: A Review of Francis Beckwith’s Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice," Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 2011 Jun;36(3):261-73.
- "The Harmful, Nontherapeutic Use of Animals in Research Is Morally Wrong," Symposium Article, American Journal of the Medical Sciences, October 2011, Volume 342, Issue 4, pp 297-304; Powerpoint for Pitts Conference in Medical Ethics, Medical University of South Carolina, lecture on animal experimentation. October 29, 2010.
- "R.M. Hare’s Irrationalist 'Rationalism': A Critique of Universal Prescriptivism," Southwest Philosophy Review, Volume 27, Issue 1, January 2011, pp. 205-214.
- "Ethical Science, Scientific Ethics and Animal Ethics," Animals, Research and Alternatives conference, Washington, DC, August 2010.
- "Moral Progress and Moral Argument Analysis," American Association of Philosophy Teachers 2010 Summer Conference.
- A critique of arguments in Robert P. George and Christopher Tollefson's Embryo book against embryo experimentation. (Presented at the NC/SC philosophy conference, Feb. 2010.)
- "Do Zoos and Aquariums Promote Attitude Change in Visitors? A Critical Evaluation of the American Zoo and Aquarium Study," Marino, Lori; Lilienfeld, Scott O.; Malamud, Randy; Nobis, Nathan; Broglio, Ron; Society and Animals, Volume 18, Number 2, 2010, pp. 126-138(13)
- "Reasonable Humans and Animals: An Argument for Vegetarianism," Between the Species, Fall 2008; (3 page version, ideal for classroom use!)
- "Animals & Medicine: Do Animal Experiments Predict Human Responses?" Niall Shanks, Ray Greek, Nathan Nobis, and Jean Swingle-Greek, Skeptic: The Magazine , Volume 13, No. 3, Fall 2007, 44-51.
- A Reply, and a Reply to the Reply.
- "The 'Babe' Vegetarians: Bioethics, Animal Minds and Moral Methodology," for Bioethics at the Movies, ed. Sandra Shapshay (Johns Hopkins Press, 2009).
- "Ayer and Stevenson's Epistemological Emotivism,"Croatian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. IV, No. 10, April, 2004, pp. 61-81. [HTML]
- "Feminist Ethics without Feminist Ethical Theory (or, more generally, phi-ethics without phi-ethical theory)" in Ethical Issues for the 21st Century, ed. Frederick Adams, special issue of the Journal of Philosophical Research, 2005, pp. 213-225. [PDF]
- "Carl Cohen's 'Kind' Argument For Animal Rights and Against Human Rights"Journal of Applied Philosophy, March 2004, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 43-59. [PDF]).
- Reprinted in Clare Palmer, ed., Animal Rights (Ashgate 2008).
- Neil Levy, "Cohen and Kinds: A Response to Nathan Nobis," Journal of Applied Philosophy, August 2004, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 213-217.
- "The Real Problem of Infant and Animal Suffering", Philo, a journal of the philosophy of religion Vol. 5, No. 2, Fall-Winter 2002, pp. 216-225. [PDF]
- "Vegetarianism and Virtue: Does Consequentialism Demand Too Little?"Social Theory and Practice : An International and Interdisciplinary Journal of Social Philosophy , vol. 28, no. 1, January 2002, pp. 135-56.
- An edited and improved version version of this paper is reprinted in the second edition of 2nd edition of Moral Issues In Global Perspective (Broadview Press, ed.Christine Koggel).
- "What would be so bad about rejecting libertarian 'free will'?" De Philosophia, Vol. XVI, No. 2, 21-34, 2002.
- "Vagueness, Borderline Cases, and Moral Realism: Where's the Incompatibility?"Philosophical Writings, No. 14, Summer 2000, pp. 29-39.
- "Cultivating Philosophical Skills and Virtues in Philosophy of Education" (Midwest Philosophy of Education Society, Fall 1999, Proceedings). [PDF].
- Nobis, Nathan and Jarr-Koroma, Abubakarr Sidique (2010) "Abortion and Moral Arguments From Analogy," The American Journal of Bioethics, 10: 12, 59 — 61, First published on: 14 December 2010
- "Ought We Accept What Neuroscience Might Imply? Many Questions, Incommensurable Answers?", AJOB Neuroscience, 1:4, October, 2010, 45-47
- "Cut the Fat! Defending Trans Fats Bans" by Nathan Nobis, Molly Gardner; 2010. The American Journal of Bioethics. 10(3):39 [PDF]
- "Interests and Harms in Primate Research," The American Journal of Bioethics 2009; 9(5):27-29.
- Discussion with the "On the Human" project of the National Humanities Center.
- An invited letter to the editor for Food Ethics magazine.
- "In Defense of 'How We Treat Our Relatives",' a letter to the editor in the the American Biology Teacher [PDF] November-December 2004.
- "Who Needs the 'Actual Future Principle'? Harman on Abortion,"Southwest Philosophy Review, Vol. 18, No. 2, July, 2002, pp. 55-63. [PDF]
- "Animal Dissection and Evidence-Based Life-Science & Health-Professions Education: A Response to Jonathan Balcombe's Commentators,"Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 5(2), 2002, pp. 155-159.
- '"Balancing Off" Infant Torture and Death: A Reply to Andrew Chignell," Religious Studies: An International Journal of Philosophy of Religion, Vol. 37, March (2001), pp. 103-108.
- Russ Shafer-Landau's Moral Realism: A Defence (Teaching Philosophy, 29:2, June 2006, pp. 178-181) [PDF]
- Review (with David Graham) of Putting Humans First: Why We Are Nature's Favorite by Tibor Machan, (The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, Fall 2006, Vol. 8, No. 1, 85-104). [ PDF of final version]
- Reply to John Altick's reply to our review Putting Humans First by Tibor Machan, The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies (with David Graham, Spring 2007). [PDF]
- Review of Why Animal Experimentation Matters: The Use of Animals in Medical Research,American Journal of Bioethics, Winter 2003, Vol. 3, No. 1, online Bioethics Education Network [PDF].
- An encyclopedia article on Peter Singer for an Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy, Macmillan Reference USA 2008. The final copy is here, scanned in from the encyclopedia.
- A talk at a "Science Tavern" meetup.
- In Socrates Wake, a blog about teaching philosophy: InSocratesWake.blogspot.com
- Webmaster for the Georgia Philosophy Society: http://sites.google.com/site/gaphilosophy/
On March 5, 2010, I created a survey to try to identify which topics are most commonly addressed in introductory ethics courses that have a contemporary moral issues or problems component. If (and only if) you teach a course that focuses on practical issues (with little to no discussion of moral theory) or has a mix of theory and problems (either a unit on theory and then problems or a mix of theory and problems throughout), please fill out this survey below: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ethics-course-survey Results have been posted here, since I closed the survey:
I am currently at work on a (text)book entitled Making Moral Progress: A Moral Arguments Workbook. This book evaluates moral arguments using basic formal logic and starts with common arguments, what ordinary people often say about the issues, before moving on to arguments from developed by philosophers. The book will be useful for a variety of audiences and contexts.
Dissertation (2005): Truth in Ethics and Epistemology: A Defense of Normative Realism
Synopsis: I argue that common reasons to think that no moral judgments are true suggest that epistemic judgments, e.g., that some belief is rational, justified or should be held, are not true either. I argue that these epistemic anti-realisms are rationally unacceptable and that the major premises that entail them are false. Thus, I undercut the case against moral realism, which rests on these premises.
Note: This page is not a publication of Morehouse College. It has not been edited or examined for content by Morehouse College. The author of the page are solely responsible for the content. See http://www.NathanNobis.com for my old page and older papers.