Michael B Gill

Books

• A Philosophy of Beauty: Shaftesbury on Nature, Virtue, and Art. Princeton University Press 2022.
• Humean Moral Pluralism. Oxford University Press 2014.
• The British Moralists on Human Nature and the Birth of Secular Ethics. Cambridge University Press 2006.  

Articles on history of philosophy (mainly 18th century British moral philosophy)

• “Responses to the Denial of Virtue in Butler and his Contemporaries,” in Vice, Sin and Sociability in Early Modern Philosophy, edited by Alexandra Chadwick and Juhana Toivanen (Brill), 2025.
• “Of Racist Philosophers and Ravens,” Journal of Controversial Ideas 3, 2023.
• “Shaftesbury on the Beauty of Nature,” Journal of Modern Philosophy 3, pp. 1-28, 2021.
• “Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Third Earl of Shaftesbury,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2021.
• “Shaftesbury’s Claim that Beauty and Good Are One and the Same,” Journal of the History of Philosophy 59, pp. 69-92, 2021.
• “Shaftesbury on Selfishness and Partisanship,” Social Philosophy and Policy 37, pp. 55-79, 2020.
• “Shaftesbury on Life as a Work of Art,” British Journal for the History of Philosophy 26, pp. 1110-1131, 2018.
• “Hume on Moral Motivation,” Humean Moral Philosophy and Contemporary Psychology, ed. P. Reed & R. Vitz (Routlege), pp. 263-86, 2018.
• “Love of Humanity in Shaftesbury’s Moralists,” British Journal for the History of Philosophy 24, pp. 1117-35, 2016.
• “Shaftesbury on Politeness, Honesty, and the Reason to be Moral,” New Ages, New Opinions: Shaftesbury in his World and Today, edited by Patrick Muller (Peter Lang), pp. 167-84, 2014.
• “Moral Pluralism in Smith and his Contemporaries,” Revue Internationale de Philosophie 3, pp. 275-306, 2014.
• “A Sentimentalist Account of Moral Pluralism,” Iride: Filosophia e Discussione Pubblica 25, pp. 571-588, December 2012. (Translated into Italian.)
• “Humean Sentimentalism and Non-Consequentialist Moral Thinking,” Hume Studies 37, pp. 165-88, November 2011. 
• “Humean Moral Pluralism,” History of Philosophy Quarterly 28 (1), pp. 45-64, January 2011.
• “From Cambridge Platonism to Scottish Enlightenment,” Journal of Scottish Philosophy 8 (1), pp. 13-31, March 2010.
• “Ethics and Sentiment,“ in The Routledge Companion to Ethics, edited by John Skorupski (Routledge), 2010.
• “Moral Phenomenology in Hutcheson and Hume, Journal of the History of Philosophy 47 (4), pp. 569-94, October 2009.
• “Moral Rationalism vs. Moral Sentimentalism: Is Morality More like Math or Beauty?” Philosophy Compass 2 (1), pp. 16-30, January 2007.
• “Rationalism, Sentimentalism, and Ralph Cudworth,” Hume Studies 30 (1), pp. 149-181, April 2004. 
• “Shaftesbury’s Two Accounts of the Reason to be Virtuous,” Journal of the History of Philosophy 38 (4), pp. 529-548, October 2000. 
• “Hume’s Progressive View of Human Nature, Hume Studies 26 (1), pp. 87-108, April 2000. 
• “The Religious Rationalism of Benjamin Whichcote,” Journal of the History of Philosophy 27 (2), pp. 271-300, April 1999. 
• “On the Alleged Incompatibility between Sentimentalism and Moral Confidence,” History of Philosophy Quarterly 15 (4), pp. 411-440, October 1998.
• “A Philosopher in his Closet: Reflexivity and Justification in Hume’s Moral Theory,” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 26, pp. 231-256, June 1996. 
• “Fantastick Associations and Addictive General Rules: A Fundamental Difference between Hutcheson and Hume,” Hume Studies 22, pp. 23-48, April 1996. 
• “Nature and Association in the Moral Theory of Francis Hutcheson,” History of Philosophy Quarterly 12 (3), pp. 281-301, July 1995. 

Articles on contemporary ethical issues (mainly medical ethics)

• “When is Self-Perceived Burden an Acceptable Reason to Hasten Death?” New Directions in the Ethics of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia 2nd edition, edited by Michael Cholbi and Jukka Varelius (Springer), pp. 315-226, 2023.
• “The Theoretical and Practical Arguments Against Unilateral Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment During Crisis Standards of Care: Does the Knobe Effect Apply to Unilateral Withdrawal?” with Fabian Maldonaldo, Bioethics 9 (9), pp. 964-969, 2022.
• “Implanted Medical Devices and End-of-Life Decisions,” New Directions in the Ethics of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, edited by Michael Cholbi and Jukka Varelius (Springer), pp. 193-215, 2015. 
• “On Eating Animals,” Social Philosophy and Policy 30, pp. 201-07, January 2013.
• “Is a Commitment to Good End-of-Life Care Compatible with Physician-Assisted Suicide?” Journal of Applied Philosophy 26 (1), pp. 27-45, January 2009.  
• “PICU Prometheus: Ethical Issues in the Treatment of Very Sick Children in Pediatric Intensive Care,” Mortality 10 (4), pp. 262-275, November 2005. 
• “A Moral Defense of Oregon’s Physician-Assisted Suicide Law,” Mortality 10 (1), pp. 53-67, February 2005.
• “Presumed Consent, Informed Consent and Organ Procurement Policy,” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 29 (1), pp. 37-59, January 2004.
• “Paying for Kidneys: The Case against Prohibition,” with Robert M. Sade, Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 12 (1), pp. 17-45, January 2002. 

Articles on moral theory and meta-ethics

• "Humean Constructivism and the Authoritative Ought," Philosophical Studies forthcoming.
• “Morality is not like Mathematics: The Weakness of the Math-Moral Analogy,” Southern Journal of Philosophy 57, pp. 194-216, 2019.
• “The Non-Consequentialist Force of Promises,” Analysis 72 (2), pp. 506-13, May 2012.
• “Agonizing Decisions and Moral Pluralism,” in Conduct and Character, edited by Mark Timmons (Oxford), 2011.
• “Side Constraints and the Structure of Commonsense Ethics” with Theresa Lopez, Jennifer Zamzow and Shaun Nichols, Philosophical Perspectives 32 (1), pp. 305-319, December 2009.  
• “Indeterminacy and Variability in Meta-Ethics,” Philosophical Studies 145 (2), pp. 215-234, August 2009.
• “Sentimentalist Pluralism: Moral Psychology and Philosophical Ethics,” Philosophical Topics 18, pp. 143-167, 2008. With Shaun Nichols.
• “Variability and Moral Phenomenology,” Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 7 (1), pp. 88-113, March 2008.
• “Meta-Ethical Variability, Incoherence, and Error,” in Moral Psychology: The Cognitive Science of Morality (volume 2), edited by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (MIT Press), 2008.
• “Relativism and the Concept of Morality,” Journal of Value Inquiry 33 (2), pp. 171-182, June 1999.