Debra Satz

What is wrong with treating human labor power as a commodity? After noting several answers that have been given to this question, this chapter explores and elaborates on an idea first found in John Stuart Mill: that wage labor undermines some of the characteristics and capacities that political democracy depends on. Call this the argument from “democratic character.” When we allow the market to dictate the organization of work, significant sectors of the economy will degrade workers to little more than appendages to machines. A body of social science work now suggests that work with little room for discretion and complexity erodes human cognition and affect.

The introduction to this collection of essays by leading academic scholars in the field of contemporary political philosophy presents the main themes of the book as these relate to, and are inspired by, the work of Joshua Cohen. As described, the book is divided into three parts. Part I, with chapters by Archon Fung, Assaf Sharon, and Stuart White, explores ways of reinvigorating democracy. Part II, with chapters by Christopher Lebron, Richard Locke, and Martha Nussbaum, tackles ways of confronting injustice. Part III, with chapters by Helena De Bres, Charles Sabel, and Annabelle Lever, offers principles for an interdependent world. There is also a brief afterword by Joshua Cohen and a list of his publications.

This paper defends mandatory national service as a response to democratic decay. Because democracy cannot be maintained by laws and incentives alone, citizens must care about the quality and attitudes of their society's members. In an age of increasing segregation and conflict on the basis of class and race, national service can bring citizens from different walks of life together to interact cooperatively on social problems. It offers a form of ‘forced solidarity’. The final sections of the paper consider objections to this proposal.

In this anthology of new and classic articles, fifteen noted feminist philosophers explore contemporary ethical issues that uniquely affect the lives of women. These issues in applied ethics include autonomy, responsibility, sexual harassment, women in the military, new technologies for reproduction, surrogate motherhood, pornography, abortion, nonfeminist women and others. Whether generated by old social standards or intensified by recent technology, these dilemmas all pose persistent, 'nagging,' questions that cry out for answers.

This book shows through argument and numerous policy-related examples how understanding moral philosophy can improve economic analysis, how moral philosophy can benefit from economists' analytical tools, and how economic analysis and moral philosophy together can inform public policy. Part I explores the idea of rationality and its connections to ethics, arguing that when they defend their formal model of rationality, most economists implicitly espouse contestable moral principles. Part II addresses the nature and measurement of welfare, utilitarianism and cost-benefit analysis. Part III discusses freedom, rights, equality, and justice - moral notions that are relevant to evaluating policies, but which have played little if any role in conventional welfare economics. Finally, Part IV explores work in social choice theory and game theory that is relevant to moral decision making. Each chapter includes recommended reading and discussion questions.

This paper examines the morality of kidney markets through the lens of choice, inequality, and weak agency looking at the case for limiting such markets under both non-ideal and ideal circumstances. Regulating markets can go some way to addressing the problems of inequality and weak agency. The choice issue is different and this paper shows that the choice for some to sell their kidneys can have external effects on those who do not want to do so, constraining the options that are now open to them. I believe that this is the strongest argument against such markets.

This paper considers the normative assessment of bonded labor from the perspectives of libertarianism and Paretian welfare economics. I argue that neither theory can account for our objections to bonded labor arrangements; moreover, they fail in interesting ways. Reflecting on their normative failures focuses us on other considerations besides individual choice and efficiency. Such considerations include: the effects of labor markets on workers' preferences and capacities; the exploitation of the vulnerabilities of the poor; and the permanent binding of one person to another