Philosophy that’s changed minds

Once upon a time, I asked a bunch of philosophers for books and papers that had changed their minds. On the left are the answers they gave. On the right are a list of books and journal articles that I really like. I hope you like them too.

Philosophy that has changed minds

Anderson, Elizabeth S. “What Is the Point of Equality?” Ethics 109, no. 2 (January 1, 1999): 287–337. https://doi.org/10.1086/233897.
Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Penguin, 2006.
Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism. Later Edition reprint edition. Penguin Classics, 2017.
Benatar, David. Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence. Oxford University Press, 2008.
Brownlee, Kimberley. “Reasons and Ideals.” Philosophical Studies 151, no. 3 (December 1, 2010): 433–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-009-9462-y.
Buchanan, Allen. “Justice and Charity.” Ethics 97, no. 3 (April 1, 1987): 558–75. https://doi.org/10.1086/292866.
Cartwright, Nancy. How the Laws of Physics Lie. Oxford : New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 1983.
Cohen, G. A. “Are Freedom and Equality Compatible?” Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality, October 1995. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511521270.006.
Dembroff, Robin A. “What Is Sexual Orientation?” Philosopher’s Imprint 16, no. 3 (January 29, 2016). http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3521354.0016.003.
Deutsch, David. The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform The World. Penguin UK, 2011.
Foot, Philippa. “Utilitarianism and the Virtues.” Mind XCIV, no. 374 (April 1, 1985): 196–209. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/XCIV.374.196.
Gaita, Raimond. A Common Humanity: Thinking About Love and Truth and Justice. 1 edition. London ; New York: Routledge, 2002.
Hare, Caspar. “Should We Wish Well to All?” The Philosophical Review 125, no. 4 (October 1, 2016): 451–72. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-3624764.
Harsanyi, John C. “Cardinal Welfare, Individualistic Ethics, and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility.” Journal of Political Economy 63, no. 4 (1955): 309–21. https://doi.org/10.1086/257678.
Holtug, Nils. “The Harm Principle.” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 5, no. 4 (2002): 357–89.
Hume, David. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, 1779.
Hume, David. An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding. A Dissertation on the Passions. An. Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. The Natural History of Religion. T. Cadell, 1772.
Husserl, Edmund. Ideas : General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology. Routledge, 2012. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203120330.
Kripke, Saul A. “Naming and Necessity.” In Semantics of Natural Language, edited by Donald Davidson and Gilbert Harman, 253–355. Synthese Library. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 1972. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2557-7_9.
Latour, Bruno, and Steve Woolgar. Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts. Princeton University Press, 2013.
List, Christian, and Philip Pettit. Group Agency: The Possibility, Design, and Status of Corporate Agents. Oxford University Press, 2011.
Longino, Helen E. Science as Social Knowledge: Values and Objectivity in Scientific Inquiry. Princeton University Press, 1990.
MacIntyre, Alasdair. After Virtue. A&C Black, 2013.
May, Larry. Sharing Responsibility. University of Chicago Press, 1996.
May, Larry. The Morality of Groups: Collective Responsibility, Group-Based Harm, and Corporate Rights. University of Notre Dame Press, 1989.
McDowell, John. “The Disjunctive Conception of Experience as Material for a Transcendental Argument.” Teorema: Revista Internacional de Filosofía 25, no. 1 (2006): 19–33. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43046609.
McDowell, John. Mind and World. Harvard University Press, 1996.
Murphy, Jeffrie G. “Marxism and Retribution.” In Retribution, Justice, and Therapy: Essays in the Philosophy of Law, edited by Jeffrie G. Murphy, 93–115. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 1979. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9461-4_7.
Nagel, Thomas. “Death.” Noûs 4, no. 1 (1970): 73–80. https://doi.org/10.2307/2214297.
Parfit, Derek. Reasons and Persons. Clarendon Press, 1987.
Pettit, Philip. “Keeping Republican Freedom Simple: On a Difference with Quentin Skinner.” Political Theory 30, no. 3 (2002): 339–56. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3072589.
Putnam, Hilary. “Two Philosophical Perspectives.” Reason, Truth and History, December 1981. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511625398.005.
Raz, Joseph. The Morality of Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Rödl, Sebastian. “Acting as the Internal End of Acting.” In Theories of Action and Morality: Perspectives from Philosophy and Social Theory, edited by Mark Alznauer and José M. Torralba, 37–54. Zurich: Georg Olms Verlag, 2016.
Root, Michael. “Davidson and Social Science.” In Truth and Interpretation: Perspectives on the Philosophy of Donald Davidson, edited by Ernest LePore, New Ed edition., 272–304. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, 1989.
Sen, Amartya. “Equality of What?” Tanner Lectures on Human Values 1, 1979. https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_documents/a-to-z/s/sen80.pdf.
Singer, Peter. “All Animals Are Equal.” Philosophic Exchange 5, no. 1 (January 1, 1974). https://soar.suny.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.12648/3306/phil_ex/vol5/iss1/6/fulltext%20%281%29.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
Singer, Peter. “Famine, Affluence, and Morality.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 1, no. 3 (April 1, 1972): 229–43. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2265052.
Srinivasan, Amia. “Are We Luminous?” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 90, no. 2 (2015): 294–319. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12067.
Stevenson, Charles Leslie. “Persuasive Definitions.” Mind 47, no. 187 (1938): 331–50. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2250337.
Strawson, Galen. “Against Narrativity.” Ratio 17, no. 4 (December 1, 2004): 428–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9329.2004.00264.x.
Taylor, Charles. “Atomism.” In Philosophical Papers: Volume 2, Philosophy and the Human Sciences, 1St Edition edition., 187–210. Cambridge Cambridgeshire ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Weil, Simone. The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind. Routledge, 2003.
Williams, Bernard. Moral Luck: Philosophical Papers 1973-1980. Cambridge University Press, 1981.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations. John Wiley & Sons, 2010.
Wolf, Susan. “Moral Saints.” The Journal of Philosophy 79, no. 8 (1982): 419. https://doi.org/10.2307/2026228.

Direct link to the Zotero library.

Philosophy that I love

Baier, Annette. 1986. “Trust and Antitrust.” Ethics 96 (2): 231–60. https://doi.org/10.1086/292745.
Brownlee, Kimberley. 2010. “Reasons and Ideals.” Philosophical Studies 151 (3): 433–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-009-9462-y.
Cocking, Dean, and Jeanette Kennett. 2000. “Friendship and Moral Danger.” The Journal of Philosophy 97 (5): 278–96. https://doi.org/10.2307/2678396.
Frankfurt, Harry. 1982. “The Importance of What We Care About.” Synthese 53:257–72. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00484902.
Gheaus, Anca. 2021. “Child-Rearing With Minimal Domination: A Republican Account.” Political Studies 69 (3): 748–66. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0032321720906768.
Gillespie, Kathryn. 2016. “Witnessing Animal Others: Bearing Witness, Grief, and the Political Function of Emotion.” Hypatia 31 (3): 572–88. https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12261.
Korsgaard, Christine. 2004. “Fellow Creatures: Kantian Ethics and Our Duties to Animals.” Tanner Lectures on Human Values, no. 24, 77–110.
Laing, James. 2017. “When Eyes Touch.” Philosopher’s Imprint 21 (9): 1–17. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3521354.0021.009.
Langton, Rae. 1992. “Duty and Desolation.” Philosophy 67 (262): 481–505. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819100040675.
Lawford-Smith, Holly. 2015. “Unethical Consumption and Obligations to Signal.” Ethics & International Affairs 29 (3): 315–30. https://doi.org/10.1017/S089267941500026X.
McDermott, Daniel. 2004. “Fair-Play Obligations.” Political Studies 52 (2): 216–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2004.00476.x.
Midgley, Mary. 1983. Animals and Why They Matter. Athens, America: University of Georgia Press.
Monsó, Susana. 2024. Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Moody-Adams, Michele M. 1999. “The Idea of Moral Progress.” Metaphilosophy 30 (3): 168–85. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24439208.
Murdoch, Iris. 1970. The Sovereignty Of Good. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
O’Neill, Onora. 1990. “Justice, Gender and International Boundaries.” British Journal of Political Science 20 (4): 439–59. www.jstor.org/stable/193805.
Schmidtz, David. 1994. “The Institution of Property*.” Social Philosophy and Policy 11 (2): 42–62. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0265052500004428.
Stauffer, Jill. 2015. Ethical Loneliness: The Injustice of Not Being Heard. Columbia University Press.
Suits, Bernard. 2014. The Grasshopper - Third Edition: Games, Life and Utopia. Broadview Press.
Tronto, Joan C. 1995. “Care as a Basis for Radical Political Judgments.” Hypatia 10 (2): 141–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.1995.tb01376.x.
Williams, Bernard. 1981. Moral Luck: Philosophical Papers 1973-1980. Cambridge University Press.
Wolf, Susan. 2012. Meaning in Life and Why It Matters. Princeton Oxford: Princeton University Press.

Direct link to the Zotero library.