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166Is There a Human Right to Democracy? A Response to Joshua CohenRevista Latinoamericana de Filosofía Política 1 (2): 1-37. 2012.Is democracy a human right? There is a growing consensus within international legal and political practice that the answer is “Yes.” However, some philosophers doubt that we should see democracy as a human right. In this paper I respond to the most systematic challenge presented so far, which was recently offered by Joshua Cohen. His challenge is directed to the view that democracy is a human right, not to the view that democracy is part of what justice demands. It is instructive because it forc…Read more
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610Humanist and Political Perspectives on Human RightsPolitical Theory 39 (4): 439-467. 2011.This essay explores the relation between two perspectives on the nature of human rights. According to the "political" or "practical" perspective, human rights are claims that individuals have against certain institutional structures, in particular modern states, in virtue of interests they have in contexts that include them. According to the more traditional "humanist" or "naturalistic" perspective, human rights are pre-institutional claims that individuals have against all other individuals in …Read more
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29Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy (review)Social Theory and Practice 34 (4): 640-647. 2008.
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3841Reflections on Human Rights and PowerIn Adam Etinson (ed.), Human Rights: Moral or Political?, Oxford University Press. pp. 375-399. 2018.Human rights are particularly relevant in contexts in which there are significant asymmetries of power, but where these asymmetries exist the human rights project turns out to be especially difficult to realize. The stronger can use their disproportionate power both to threaten others’ human rights and to frustrate attempts to secure their fulfillment. They may even monopolize the international discussion as to what human rights are and how they should be implemented. This paper explores this te…Read more
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491The duty to eradicate global poverty: Positive or negative?Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 7 (5): 537-550. 2005.In World Poverty and Human Rights, Thomas Pogge argues that the global rich have a duty to eradicate severe poverty in the world. The novelty of Pogges approach is to present this demand as stemming from basic commands which are negative rather than positive in nature: the global rich have an obligation to eradicate the radical poverty of the global poor not because of a norm of beneficence asking them to help those in need when they can at little cost to themselves, but because of their having …Read more
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90Global Moral Egalitarianism and Global Distributive EgalitarianismEthics and International Affairs 29 (3): 269-276. 2015.Michael Blake claims that liberal principles ground egalitarian distribution domestically but not globally. This paper raises some worries about these claims. It challenges the argument for domestic distributive equality based on a concern for autonomy, noting that a broader concern for wellbeing is required. And it suggests that a concern for everyone’s autonomy and wellbeing supports the progressive pursuit of global distributive equality rather than only the pursuit of global sufficiency.
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172Labor human rights and human dignityPhilosophy and Social Criticism 42 (2): 171-199. 2016.The current legal and political practice of human rights invokes entitlements to freely chosen work, to decent working conditions, and to form and join labor unions. Despite the importance of these rights, they remain under-explored in the philosophical literature on human rights. This article offers a systematic and constructive discussion of them. First, it surveys the content and current relevance of the labor rights stated in the most important documents of the human rights practice. Second,…Read more
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2073The Socialist Principle “From Each According To Their Abilities, To Each According To Their Needs”Journal of Social Philosophy 46 (2): 197-225. 2015.This paper offers an exploration of the socialist principle “From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs.” The Abilities/Needs Principle is arguably the ethical heart of socialism but, surprisingly, has received almost no attention by political philosophers. I propose an interpretation of the principle and argue that it involves appealing ideas of solidarity, fair reciprocity, recognition of individual differences, and meaningful work. The paper proceeds as follows. …Read more
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44Two Sets of Concerns about Heath's “Pragmatic Theory of Convergence”Dialogue 44 (2): 383-390. 2005.A central concern of Joseph Heath's Communicative Action and Rational Choice is to find a plausible response to “the problem of convergence … to explain why we should ever expect to secure agreement on moral questions”. In Chapter 7 of his book, Heath proposes what he calls “a pragmatic theory of convergence.” This account is presented as contrasting with the one proposed by Jürgen Habermas, which emphasizes the existence of an internal relation between convergence and moral truth. According to …Read more
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1010Justice and BeneficenceCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 19 (5): 508-533. 2016.What is a duty of justice? And how is it different from a duty of beneficence? We need a clear account of the contrast. Unfortunately, there is no consensus in the philosophical literature as to how to characterize it. Different articulations of it have been provided, but it is hard to identify a common core that is invariant across them. In this paper, I propose an account of how to understand duties of justice, explain how it contrasts with several proposals as to how to distinguish justice an…Read more
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Substance and Procedure in Discourse Ethics and Deliberative DemocracyDissertation, New School for Social Research. 2003.In this dissertation, I argue that we should reframe the presentation and defense of the program of discourse ethics and deliberative democracy (DEP) in such a way that we make clear its connection to the substantive moral ideas of solidarity, equality and freedom. This program basically says that we should, when we can, determine the validity of the norms regulating our social life through practices of public deliberation. If we want to understand why engaging in public deliberation makes mora…Read more
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45How should we think about the Relation between Principles and Agency?Ethics and Global Politics 6 (2): 75-83. 2013.In this article, I will reflect on Lea Ypi’s methodological contribution in her wonderful book Global Justice and Avant-Garde Political Agency. Ypi addresses the important and underexplored issue of the relation between normative principles and political agency. She proposes a ‘dialectical approach’ to normative political theory, which she contrasts with ‘ideal’ and ‘non-ideal’ approaches, arguing that the first does a better job in articulating progressive guidelines for political agents seekin…Read more
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24Considerations on the Notion of Moral Validity in the Moral Theories of Kant and HabermasKant Studien 97 (2): 210-227. 2006.In what follows I will consider Kant's and Habermas's conceptions of moral validity in a comparative and critical way. First, I will reconstruct Habermas's discursive or deliberative reformulation of Kant's moral theory. And, second, I will introduce some comparative critical considerations. I will contend that, though much is gained with Habermas's intersubjectivist reformulation of Kant's moral philosophy, some problems emerge that could be treated with the help of certain Kantian insights. I …Read more
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83A substantivist construal of discourse ethicsInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 13 (3). 2005.This paper presents a substantivist construal of discourse ethics, which claims that we should see our engagement in public deliberation as expressing and elaborating a substantive commitment to basic moral ideas of solidarity, equality, and freedom. This view is different from Habermas's standard formalist defence of discourse ethics, which attempts to derive the principle of discursive moral justification from primarily non-moral presuppositions of rational argumentation as such. After explica…Read more
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339Relaciones Sociales, Conflicto e Historia. Una Interpretación de 'Dialéctica' en MarxIn Maria Luisa Femenias (ed.), Cuatro concepciones de Dialéctica., Editorial De La Universidad Nacional De La Plata. pp. 117-146. 1998.
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244The feasibility of basic socioeconomic human rights: A conceptual explorationPhilosophical Quarterly 59 (237): 659-681. 2009.To be justifiable, the demands of a conception of human rights and global justice must be such that (a) they focus on the protection of important human interests, and (b) their fulfilment is feasible. I discuss the feasibility condition. I present a general account of the relation between moral desirability, feasibility and obligation within a conception of justice. I analyse feasibility, a complex idea including different types, domains and degrees. It is possible to respond in various ways if …Read more
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28Les perspectives humaniste et politique sur les droits humainsPhilosophiques 42 (2): 251-282. 2015.Pablo Gilabert,Aude Bandini | : Cet article s’intéresse au lien entre deux perspectives qui concernent la nature des droits humains. Selon la perspective « politique » ou « pratique », les droits humains sont des revendications que les individus entretiennent face à un certain nombre de structures institutionnelles, dans certains États modernes, en vertu des intérêts qui sont les leurs selon les contextes qui les mettent en jeu. Selon la perspective « humaniste » ou « naturaliste », plus traditi…Read more
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2867Global JusticeIn Mark Bevir (ed.), Encyclopedia of Political Theory: A - E, Sage Publications. 2010.
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258Is there a genuine tension between cosmopolitan egalitarianism and special responsibilities?Philosophical Studies 138 (3). 2008.Samuel Scheffler has recently argued that some relationships are non-instrumentally valuable; that such relationships give rise to “underived” special responsibilities; that there is a genuine tension between cosmopolitan egalitarianism and special responsibilities; and that we must consequently strike a balance between the two. We argue that there is no such tension and propose an alternative approach to the relation between cosmopolitan egalitarianism and special responsibilities. First, while…Read more
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601La Justice Globale, le Multiculturalisme et les Revendications des ImmigrantsPhilosophiques 34 (1): 41-60. 2007.
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1407Justice and Feasibility: A Dynamic ApproachIn Kevin Vallier & Michael Weber (eds.), Political Utopias: Contemporary Debates, Oup Usa. pp. 95-126. 2017.It is common in political theory and practice to challenge normatively ambitious proposals by saying that their fulfillment is not feasible. But there has been insufficient conceptual exploration of what feasibility is, and very little substantive inquiry into why and how it matters for thinking about social justice. This paper provides one of the first systematic treatments of these issues, and proposes a dynamic approach to the relation between justice and feasibility that illuminates the impo…Read more
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440Should discourse ethics do without a principle of universalization?Philosophical Forum 36 (2). 2005.
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Areas of Specialization
Social and Political Philosophy |
Normative Ethics |
Value Theory |