3. Animal knowledge is essentially apt belief, to be distinguished from the more demanding reflective knowledge. This is not to say that the word ‘knows’ is ambiguous. Maybe it is, but distinguishing a kind of knowledge as “animal” knowledge requires no commitment to that linguistic thesis. Indeed it requires no definition of the word ‘knows’ at all. One might take this to be primitive and stil...

The number of interleavings that a concurrent program can have is typically given as the key difficulty in automatic analysis of concurrent software. Weak memory, as implemented by modern multiprocessors such as Intel x86, IBM Power and ARM, is generally believed to make this problem even harder. On the contrary, we believe that by embracing rather than fleeing from weak memory, we can obtain e...

In this paper, we question whether hypervisors are really acting as a disruptive force in OS research, instead arguing that they have so far changed very little at a technical level. Essentially, we have retained the conventional Unix-like OS interface and added a new ABI based on PC hardware which is highly unsuitable for most purposes. Despite commercial excitement, focus on hypervisor design...

We introduce a simple solution to help consumers manage choices between healthy and unhealthy food options: vice-virtue bundles. Vice-virtue bundles are item aggregates with varying proportions of both vice and virtue, holding overall quantity constant. Four studies compare choice and perceptions of differently composed vice-virtue bundles relative to one another and to pure vice and pure virtu...

The sort of ethical theory derived from Aristotle, variously described as virtue ethics, virtue-based ethics, or neo-Aristotelianism, is becoming better known, and is now quite widely recognized as at least a possible rival to deontological and utilitarian theories. With recognition has come criticism, of varying quality. In this article I shall discuss nine separate criticisms that I have fr...

Environmental ethics is concerned with the articulation and defence of what I shall call 'the green belief-the belief, namely, that a fairly radical change in the way we engage with nature is imperative. Environmental virtue ethics, then, is concerned with articulating and defending the green belief in virtue ethics terms, rather than in the terms of its two rivals, utilitarianism and deontolog...

In sub-subunit 1.4.2, it is made clear that for Aristotle a crucial precondition of virtue is that actions must be intentional. For Aristotle, voluntary action—or intention—is required if praise or blame is to be appropriate. Praise and blame are important in that they testify to that which is virtuous in the polis, which substantiates the virtues among the citizenry and subsequent generations ...

If one would tackle any major problem in life it is helpful to observe the comprehensive nature of the thing from an external vantage point before diving into the gritty details. This is also described as grasping the “big picture” or getting a birds-eye-view on the problem. I think that this holistic approach is helpful when dealing with ethical issues as well. In this paper I will first defin...

Philosophers have recently argued that traditional discussions of virtue and character presuppose an account of behaviour that experimental psychology has shown to be false. Behaviour does not issue from global traits such as prudence, temperance, courage, or fairness, they claim, but from local traits such as sailing-in-rough-weather-with-friends-courage and office-party-temperance. The data e...