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66Future Generations, Natural Resources, and Property RightsEthics and the Environment 3 (2): 119-130. 1998.In an important recent article, "Contemporary Property Rights, Lockean Provisos, and the Interests of Future Generations, "Clark Wolf argues that sometimes the interests of future generations should take precedence over the claims of current property rights holders. Wolfs arguments concentrate on the genesis and nature of defensible property rights in various natural resources, and on the conditions under which morally unacceptable harm is caused to others. In this paper I explore two central se…Read more
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44Reforming Our Taxation Arrangements to Promote Global Gender JusticePhilosophical Topics 37 (2): 141-160. 2009.In this article I examine how reforming our international tax regime could be an important vehicle for realizing key aspects of global gender justice. Ensuring all,including and especially multinationals, pay their fair share of taxes is crucial to ensuring that all countries, especially developing countries, are able to fund education, job training, infrastructural development, programs which promote gender equity, and so forth, thereby enabling all countries to help themselves better. I discus…Read more
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12Distributive justiceIn Gerald F. Gaus & Fred D'Agostino (eds.), The Routledge companion to social and political philosophy, Routledge. pp. 444. 2013.
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107Needs-centered ethical theoryJournal of Value Inquiry 36 (4): 425-434. 2002.Our aims in this paper are: (1) to indicate some of the many ways in which needs are an important part of the moral landscape, (2) to show that the dominant contemporary moral theories cannot adequately capture the moral significance of needs, indeed, that the dominant theories are inadequate to the extent that they cannot accommodate the insights which attention to needs yield, (3) to offer some sketches that should be helpful to future cartographers charting the domain of morally significant n…Read more
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119Contemporary Cosmopolitanism: Some Current IssuesPhilosophy Compass 8 (8): 689-698. 2013.In this article, we survey some current debates among cosmopolitans and their critics. We begin by surveying some distinctions typically drawn among kinds of cosmopolitanisms, before canvassing some of the diverse varieties of cosmopolitan justice, exploring positions on the content of cosmopolitan duties of justice, and a prominent debate between cosmopolitans and defenders of statist accounts of global justice. We then explore some common concerns about cosmopolitanism – such as whether cosmop…Read more
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38Justice and NeedsDialogue 35 (1): 81-. 1996.Justice and Needs Is it somehow a requirement of justice that we meet people's needs? So, for instance, do people in need of certain goods necessary to sustain life deserve help from those not (similarly) in need because this is a requirement of justice? According to two recent arguments (one offered by Wiggins and the other offered by Braybrooke), justice requires that needs be met. Wiggins uses a rights-based argument and Braybrooke deploys an argument which relies pivotally on the concept of…Read more
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42Why the Heldian Model of Cosmopolitan Democracy Retains Its Promise Despite Kymlicka’s CriticismsPhilosophy in the Contemporary World 9 (2): 31-39. 2002.Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in cosmopolitanism. Cosmopolitans maintain that no national categories of people deserve special weight and that, instead, all people everywhere should be objects of moral concern. Arguably, the most developed of these accounts is the cosmopolitan democracy model articulated by David Held, so it is not surprising that it has received the most attention and criticism. In this paper, I outline Held’s model of cosmopolitan democracy and consider the …Read more
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20In this paper I examine the method Aristotle uses in the inquiry into the nature of happiness in the "Nicomachean Ethics". Through analysis of some of the method's features, I explain why labelling it "the onion approach to developing and fleshing out a hypothesis" is appropriate. I show how Aristotle derives a set of necessary conditions and a set of other criteria, or reliable indicators, which any adequate account of the nature of happiness must meet. There are definite benefits to understand…Read more
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14The Proper Role of Responsive Democracy, Liberty, and Immigration in Global Justice: Some ClarificationsAstrolabio 12 76-90. 2011.
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140Egalitarianism, ideals, and cosmopolitan justicePhilosophical Forum 36 (1). 2005.Cosmopolitans believe that all human beings have equal moral worth and that our responsibilities to others do not stop at borders. Various cosmopolitans offer different interpretations of how we should understand what is entailed by that equal moral worth and what responsibilities we have to each other in taking our equality seriously. Two suggestions are that a cosmopolitan should endorse a 'global difference principle' and a 'principle of global equality of opportunity'. In the first part of t…Read more
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26Relevant evidence, reasonable policy and the right to emigrateJournal of Medical Ethics 43 (8): 568-570. 2017.
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47Cosmopolitanism Versus Non-Cosmopolitanism: Critiques, Defenses, Reconceptualizations (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2013.This volume demonstrates that the debate between cosmopolitans and non-cosmopolitans has become increasingly sophisticated. It advances the discussion on many of the questions over which cosmopolitans and non-cosmopolitans continue to disagree
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109Morally important needsPhilosophia 26 (1-2): 165-178. 1998.Frankfurt argues that there are two categories of needs that are at least prima facie morally important (relative to other claims). In this paper I examine Frankfurt's suggestion that two categories of needs, namely, nonvolitional and constrained volitional needs, are eligible for (at least prima facie) moral importance. I show both these categories to be defective because they do not necessarily meet Frankfurt's own criteria for what makes a need morally important. I suggest a further category …Read more
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220Needs, moral demands and moral theoryUtilitas 16 (3): 251-266. 2004.In this article we argue that the concept of need is as vital for moral theory as it is for moral life. In II we analyse need and its normativity in public and private moral practice. In III we describe simple cases which exemplify the moral demandingness of needs, and argue that the significance of simple cases for moral theory is obscured by the emphasis in moral philosophy on unusual cases. In IV we argue that moral theories are inadequate if they cannot describe simple needs-meeting cases. W…Read more
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105Concerns about global justice : A response to criticsJournal of Global Ethics 5 (3). 2009.A review essay of Gillian Brock Global Justice: A Cosmopolitan Account (Oxford University Press, 2009)
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18How Should We Discharge Our Responsibilities to Eradicate Poverty?Res Publica 22 (3): 301-315. 2016.In this article I present four central challenges for Hennie Lötter’s book Poverty, Ethics and Justice. The first criticism takes issue with Lötter’s focus on social rather than global justice. Though he seems to be concerned with poverty everywhere, he takes social rather than global justice as the primary unit of analysis and this leads to a certain blindness to the ways in which discharging duties to the poor is a global not just society or state level project. My alternative perspective also…Read more
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53What Does Cosmopolitan Justice Demand of Us?Theoria 51 (104): 169-191. 2004.In this paper I raise three challenges for Moellendorf's account of cosmopolitan justice. First, I argue that in a reconstructed cosmopolitan original position we would choose a 'needs-based minimum floor principle' rather than a 'global difference principle', if these are not co-extensive. Second, I argue that Moellendorf's version of the 'equality of opportunity principle' is too vulnerable to criticisms of cultural insensitivity, though I also note that there are problems with versions of the…Read more
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299The difference principle, equality of opportunity, and cosmopolitan justiceJournal of Moral Philosophy 2 (3): 333-351. 2005.What kinds of principles of justice should a cosmopolitan support? In recent years some have argued that a cosmopolitan should endorse a Global Difference Principle. It has also been suggested that a cosmopolitan should support a Principle of Global Equality of Opportunity. In this paper I examine how compelling these two suggestions are. I argue against a Global Difference Principle, but for an alternative Needs-Based Minimum Floor Principle (where these are not co-extensive, as I explain). Tho…Read more
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48Global Distributive Justice, Entitlement, and DesertCanadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 31 (sup1): 109-138. 2005.The facts of global poverty are staggering. Consider, for instance, how 1.5 billion people subsist below the international poverty line, which means about a quarter of the world's current population lives in poverty. There is much talk about how freer markets will help the situation of these people, in particular how it will help the worst off. So far the evidence for this claim is fairly unclear. ‘At any rate, on several accounts, alleviating the worst aspects of poverty would impose fairly sma…Read more
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3Recent Work on Rawls's Law of Peoples: Critics versus DefendersAmerican Philosophical Quarterly 47 (1): 85. 2010.There is much current and growing interest in theorizing about global justice. Contemporary events in the world probably account for most of this, but if any philosophical text can be identified as igniting theorists' relatively newly found interest, it must be John Rawls's influential book, The Law of Peoples . There is a lively debate between critics and advocates of Rawls's approach, and much theorizing about global justice is framed in terms of that exchange. Because of its enormous influenc…Read more
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13Necessary Goods: Our Responsibilities to Meet Others NeedsRowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1998.Do any needs defensibly make claims on anyone? If so, which needs and whose needs can defensibly do this? What are the grounds for our responsibilities to meet others' needs, when we have such responsibilities? The distinguished contributors to this volume consider these questions as they evaluate the moral force of needs. They approach questions of obligation and moral importance from a variety of different theoretical perspectives, including contractarian, Kantian, Aristotelian, rights-based, …Read more
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87Cosmopolitan democracy and justice: Held versus KymlickaStudies in East European Thought 54 (4): 325-347. 2002.There has been much interest in cosmopolitan models of democracy in recent times. Arguably, the most developed of these is the model articulated by David Held, so it is not surprising that it has received the most attention and criticism. In this paper, I outline Held's model of cosmopolitan democracy and consider the objections Will Kymlicka raises to this account. I argue that Kymlicka's objections do not undermine Held's central claims and that Held's cosmopolitanism remains a very promising …Read more
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75Just Deserts and NeedsSouthern Journal of Philosophy 37 (2): 165-188. 1999.In this paper I argue for there being some deep connections between claims of desert and claims of need, despite the fact that these sorts of claims are frequently pitted against one another. I present an argument to show some conceptual links between desert and needs. Principles underlying why people are thought to be deserving entail principles which commit us to caring about others' needs. I also examine whether we can construct some coherent notion of desert and an argument for why some can …Read more
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58Being reasonable in the face of pluralism and other alleged problems for Global Justice: a reply to van HooftEthics and Global Politics 3 (2): 155-170. 2010.In his recent review essay, Stan van Hooft raises some interesting potential challenges for cosmopolitan global justice projects, of which my version is one example.1 I am grateful to van Hooft for doing so. I hope by responding to these challenges here, others concerned with developing frameworks for analyzing issues of global justice will also learn something of value. I start by giving a very brief synopsis of key themes of my book, Global Justice,2 so I can address van Hooft’s concerns about…Read more
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116Are There Any Defensible Indigenous Rights?Contemporary Political Theory 1 (3): 285-305. 2002.In recent years, a number of important challenges have been raised about whether arguments for granting group rights in virtue of ethnicity can really stand up to scrutiny. Two of the most pressing issues involve whether granting rights to groups in virtue of ethnicity involves a certain unfairness to non-members and whether granting such rights licenses unfairness to members . If arguments for indigenous rights are to succeed, they must address these challenges and show how there is no importan…Read more
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86Global Justice, Cosmopolitan Duties and Duties to Compatriots: The Case of HealthcarePublic Health Ethics 8 (2): 110-120. 2015.How are we to navigate between duties to compatriots and duties to non-compatriots? Within the literature there are two important kinds of accounts that are thought to offer contrasting positions on these issues, namely, cosmopolitanism and statism. We discuss these two rival accounts. I then outline my position on global justice and how to accommodate insights from both the cosmopolitan and statist traditions within it. Having outlined my ideal theory account of what global justice requires, I …Read more
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19Through the moral Maze: Searching for absolute values in a pluralistic worldPhilosophia 27 (1-2): 301-308. 1999.
Areas of Specialization
Social and Political Philosophy |
Global Justice |
International Ethics |
Areas of Interest
Social and Political Philosophy |
International Ethics |
Global Justice |