Moral and political philosophy

I’m a philosophical anarchist. I think governments are bad, since (a) governments do many things that would be very wrong if done by any private individual, and, (b) governments and private individuals are subject to the same moral standards. But I’m on the fence when it comes to political anarchism; that is, I’m not sure that we’d be better off without government. I am pretty sure that very many of us would be better off with significantly less government than we presently have. I haven’t published anything about anarchism, but you can see me lecturing about it here.

When it comes to questions of value—of what is good (or bad) for its own sake—I’m inclined towards hedonism, the objections to which seem to me much weaker than commonly supposed. You can see me lecturing on hedonism here.

When it comes to questions of ethics—right and wrong—I vacillate between particularism and antirealism. If I were a non-particularist moral realist, I’d probably be some kind of utilitarian. But I’m pretty sure utilitarianism is false: if I negligently drive over an occupied outhouse, I do something blameworthy, but no more blameworthy than if the outhouse had been empty.