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  1. The Ethics of Inquiry, Scientific Belief, and Public Discourse.Lawrence Torcello - 2011 - Public Affairs Quarterly 25 (3):197-215.
    The scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic climate change is firmly established yet climate change denialism, a species of what I call pseudoskepticism, is on the rise in industrial nations most responsible for climate change. Such denialism suggests the need for a robust ethics of inquiry and public discourse. In this paper I argue: (1) that ethical obligations of inquiry extend to every voting citizen insofar as citizens are bound together as a political body. (2) It is morally condemnable for public officials (...)
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  2. Is the state endorsement of any marriage justifiable? Same-sex marriage, civil unions, and the marriage privatization model.Lawrence Torcello - 2008 - Public Affairs Quarterly 22 (1):43-61.
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  3. What's the Harm? Why the Mainstreaming of Complementary and Alternative Medicine is an Ethical Problem.Lawrence Torcello - 2013 - Ethics in Biology, Engineering and Medicine 4 (4):333-344.
    This paper argues that it is morally irresponsible for modern medical providers or health care institutions to support and advocate the integration of CAM practices (i.e. homeopathy, acupuncture, energy healing, etc.) with conventional modern medicine. The results of such practices are not reliable beyond that of placebo. As a corollary, it is argued that prescribing placebos perceived to stand outside the norm of modern medicine is morally inappropriate. Even when such treatments do no direct physical harm, they create unnecessary barriers (...)
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  4. Sophism and Moral Agnosticism, or, How to Tell a Relativist from a Pluralist.Lawrence Torcello - 2011 - The Pluralist 6 (1):87-108.
    Is it possible to recognize the limits of rationality, and thus to embrace moral pluralism, without embracing moral relativism? My answer is yes; nevertheless, certain anti-foundational positions, both recent and ancient, take a cynical stance toward the possibility of any critical moral judgment, and as such, must be regarded as relativistic.1 It is such cynicism, I argue, whether openly announced or unknowingly implied, that marks the distinction between relativism and pluralism.2 The danger of this cynicism is not so much that (...)
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  5. On the Virtues of Inhospitality: toward an Ethics of Public Reason and Critical Engagement.Lawrence Torcello - 2014 - Philo 17 (1):99-115.
    This article seeks to re-conceptualize Rawlsian public reason as a critical tool against ideological propaganda. The article proposes that public reason, as a standard for public discourse, must be conceptualized beyond its mandate for comprehensive neutrality to additionally emphasize critique of ideologically driven ignorance and propaganda in the public realm. I connect uncritical hospitality to such ideological propaganda with Harry Frankfurt’s concept of bullshit. This paper proposes that philosophers have a unique moral obligation to engage bullshit critically in the public (...)
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  6. Singer, Peter.Lawrence Torcello - 2015 - In Robert Audi (ed.), Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 3rd Edition. Cambridge University Press.
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  7. The Trouble with Pseudoskepticism.Lawrence Torcello - 2012 - Skeptical Inquirer 36 (3).
    The continuing rejection of anthropogenic global warming by non-experts despite overwhelming scientific consensus is rationally untenable and best described as “pseudoskeptical;” it is akin to AIDS denialism, the advocacy of intelligent design, and anti-vaccination movements.
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  8. The Acceleration of Global Warming as Crime Against Humanity: A Moral Case for Fossil Fuel Divestment.Lawrence Torcello - 2018 - In David Boonin (ed.), Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Public Policy. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 779-793.
    This chapter constructs the argument that corporate and political policies known to accelerate anthropogenic global warming, and subsequent climate change, constitute crimes against humanity—predicated on failures to avoid reasonably foreseeable threats to sustained human existence. Given the moral gravity of crimes against humanity it follows that financial divestment is ethically obligatory for institutions wishing to avoid moral association. The moral case for fossil fuel divestment, in the wake of such crimes, derives from (a) the ethical implications of negative responsibility, or (...)
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  9. Seperation of Church and State.Lawrence Torcello - 2011 - In Deen Chatterjee (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Global Justice Vol. 2. pp. 995-999.
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  10. Peter Singer.Lawrence Torcello - 2011 - In Deen Chatterjee (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Global Justice Vol. 2. pp. 1005-1009.
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  11. Animal Rights.Lawrence Torcello - 2011 - In Deen K. Chatterjee (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer. pp. 40-43.
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  12. Liberal Pluralism.Lawrence Torcello - 2011 - In Deen K. Chatterjee (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer. pp. 647-650.
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