Books by Stephen Kershnar

People consider desert part of our moral world. It structures how we think about important areas such as love, punishment, and work. This book argues that no one deserves anything. If this is correct, then claims that people deserve general and specific things are false.

This book argues that there is no morality and that people are not morally responsible for what they do. Morality and moral responsibility lie at the heart of how we view the world. The philosophical costs of denying moral responsibility and morality are enormous.

This book provides a philosophical analysis of adultchild sex and pedophilia. This sex intuitively strikes many people as sick, disgusting, and wrong. The problem is that it is not clear whether these judgments are justified and whether they are aesthetic or moral. By analogy, many people find it disgusting to view images of obese people having sex, but it is hard to see what is morally undesirable about such sex: here the judgment is aesthetic. This book looks at the moral status of such adult-child sex. In particular, it explores whether those who engage in adult-child sex have a disease, act wrongly, or are vicious. In addition, it looks at how the law should respond to such sex given the above analyses.

Gratitude toward Veterans: Why Americans Should Not Be Very Grateful to Veterans looks at whether veterans typically satisfy these conditions and argues that they do not. The book should be taken seriously not only by scholars in military ethics and ethics in general, but also by anyone interested in the question of how much gratitude is owed to people holding different roles.

On some accounts, punishment is justified by the good results that it brings about. In particular, punishment deters, incapacitates, and may, in some cases, rehabilitate criminals. On a retributivist theory, punishment is not justified on the basis of these desirable results, but rather on the fact that the wrongdoer has done something that deserves punishment. In Desert, Retribution, and Torture, Stephen Kershnar provides an in-depth defense of retributivism. Kershnar then uses this theory to provide support for the notion that very harsh forms of punishment, including torture, are morally justified.

This book is about how the systematic application of some basic principles of applied ethics yields some surprising and very unpopular results. In particular, Kershnar investigate three areas: sex, discrimination, and violence. These controversial conclusions will no doubt spur animated and thoughtful discussion amongst readers.

Desert and Virtue: A Theory of Intrinsic Value presents a comprehensive examination of desert and what makes people deserve things. Stephen Kershnar demonstrates how desert relates to virtue, good deeds, moral responsibility, and personal change and growth through the life process. He persuasively argues that desert is a function that relates well-being, intrinsic value, and a 'ground,' which is defined as a person's character or act. Kershnar also explores whether his theory is consistent with the limited responsibility people have for who they are. Desert and Virtue's insightful analysis will be particularly useful for those interested in philosophy, religion, and other fields that touch on value theory.