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131Neutrality, Publicity, and State Funding of the ArtsPhilosophy and Public Affairs 24 (1): 35-63. 1995.
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10Is There a Neutral Justification for Liberalism?†Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 77 (3): 193-215. 2017.Neutralist defenses of liberalism fail because they cannot account for essential features of an acceptable liberal theory: a firm guarantee for a sphere of individual liberty, an account of our interest in being able to revise our moral commitments, a wide range of applicability, and the possibility of legitimate government in the face of rejection by unreasonable citizens. A liberalism based on the value of autonomy can address the problems which motivate neutralists, while succeeding in provid…Read more
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36Distribution of what? How will we know if we have achieved education for all by 2015?3rd Conference on the Capabilities Approach. 2003.In 1990 at the Jomtein Conference in Thailand organised by UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP and the World Bank the 157 governments present agreed to a Declaration, the World Declaration on Education for All that signalled their commitment to achieve Education for All (EFA) by 2000. EFA was not defined succinctly, but was laid out as comprising: universal access to education services ‘of quality’; equity with regard to removing disparities ‘in access to learning opportunities’ for certain groups (girls.
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2382What's wrong with privatising schools?Journal of Philosophy of Education 38 (4). 2004.Full privatisation of schools would involve states abstaining from providing, funding or regulating schools. I argue that full privatisation would, in most circumstances, worsen social injustice in schooling. I respond to James Tooley's critique of my own arguments for funding and regulation and markets. I argue that even his principle of educational adequacy requires a certain level of state involvement and demonstrate that his arguments against a principle of educational equality fail. I show,…Read more
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17A Modest Defence of School ChoiceJournal of Philosophy of Education 36 (4): 653-659. 2002.This is a response to Samara Foster’s engaging critique of my book School Choice and Social Justice. In this response to her criticisms I clarify and try to correct some apparent misunderstandings of the book, but also take the opportunity to pose again a challenge to opponents of choice which neither she, nor other of my critics, has taken up.
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83Should We Teach Patriotic History?In Kevin McDonough & Walter Feinberg (eds.), Citizenship and Education in Liberal-Democratic Societies: Teaching for Cosmopolitan Values and Collective Identities, Oxford University Press. 2003.Harry Brighouse’s essay concludes Part I of the book by taking up one aspect of the task of clarifying the role of common education, by applying it to the teaching of patriotism in public schools. He asks whether liberal and cosmopolitan values are compatible with a common education aimed at fostering patriotic attachment to the nation. He examines numerous arguments recently developed to justify fostering patriotism in common schools from a liberal–democratic perspective, and finds them all wan…Read more
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50Political Equality and the Funding of Political SpeechSocial Theory and Practice 21 (3): 473-500. 1995.
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Liberal legitimacy and civic educationIn Stephen Everson (ed.), Ethics, Cambridge University Press. pp. 108--4. 1998.
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1005Equality of opportunity and complex equality: The special place of schooling (review)Res Publica 13 (2): 147-158. 2007.This paper is an engagement with Equality by John Baker, Kathleen Lynch, Judy Walsh and Sara Cantillon. It identifies a dilemma for educational egalitarians, which arises within their theory of equality, arguing that sometimes there may be a conflict between advancing equality of opportunity and providing equality of respect and recognition, and equality of love care and solidarity. It argues that the latter values may have more weight in deciding what to do than traditional educational egalitar…Read more
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15The Egalitarian Virtues of Educational VouchersJournal of Philosophy of Education 28 (2): 211-220. 1994.The paper argues that there is no fundamental incompatibility between the use of vouchers and managed market mechanisms in the distribution of education und the principled aims of egalitarian educational policy. It takes those aims to be equality of opportunity, education for autonomy, and democratic education, and shows in each case how a voucher scheme could accommodate the aim. It explains why a judiciously designed voucher scheme may constitute a more politically feasible method of achieving…Read more
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3208An Argument Against CloningCanadian Journal of Philosophy 40 (4): 539-566. 2010.It is technically possible to clone a human being. The result of the procedure would be a human being in its own right. Given the current level of cloning technology concerning other animals there is every reason to believe that early human clones will have shorter-than-average life-spans, and will be unusually prone to disease. In addition, they would be unusually at risk of genetic defects, though they would still, probably, have lives worth living. But with experimentation and experience, ser…Read more
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66Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, and of the institutions which regulate schooling no less than others. Education policy, just like social policy more generally, should be guided principally by considerations of justice and only secondarily by pragmatic considerations such as what compromises must be made with existing social forces opposed to justice in order to optimize the justice of the existing institutions. But of course, in an otherwise unjust society there are sharp lim…Read more
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41Complex Egalitarianism: A Review of Alex Callinicos 'Equality' (review)Historical Materialism 10 (1): 193-222. 2001.
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6Is There Any Such Thing as Political Liberalism?Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 75 (3-4): 318-332. 2017.
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126Egalitarianism and equal availability of political influenceJournal of Political Philosophy 4 (2). 1996.
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21What’s Wrong With Privatising Schools?Journal of Philosophy of Education 38 (4): 617-631. 2004.Full privatisation of schools would involve states abstaining from providing, funding or regulating schools. I argue that full privatisation would, in most circumstances, worsen social injustice in schooling. I respond to James Tooley’s critique of my own arguments for funding and regulation and markets. I argue that even his principle of educational adequacy requires a certain level of state involvement and demonstrate that his arguments against a principle of educational equality fail. I show,…Read more
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56Against NationalismCanadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 22 365-405. 1996.A recent resurgence of interest within analytical political philosophy in the status of ethnic and national minorities coincides with the re-emergence of national identity as a primary organizing principle of political conflict, and with an increasing attentiveness to identity and recognition as organizing principles of political struggle. The recent theoretical literature within political philosophy has focused very much on recognizing the importance of national identity, and allowing attention…Read more
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84The Altruism Puzzle: The Obligation to Sacrifice One's LifeJournal of Social Philosophy 44 (2): 115-117. 2013.
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1795Legitimate parental partialityPhilosophy and Public Affairs 37 (1): 43-80. 2008.Some of the barriers to the realisation of equality reflect the value of respecting prerogatives people have to favour themselves. Even G.A. Cohen, whose egalitarianism is especially pervasive and demanding, says that
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65Choosing Justice: An Experimental Approach to Ethical Theory, Frohlich Norman and Joe A. Oppenheimer. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992, xiv + 258 pages (review)Economics and Philosophy 10 (1): 127. 1994.
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41In defence of educational equalityJournal of Philosophy of Education 29 (3). 1995.The principle of educational equality is important for the plausibility of egalitarianism. I argue against John Wilson's recent attempts to show that two particular versions of the principle are incoherent, and I rebut his argument that even if it were coherent it would be wrong to endorse it. Two other objections to this version of the principle are considered and shown not to be decisive. The principle governing the distribution of educational resources that Wilson advocates is also rejected.
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71Can Justice as Fairness Accommodate the Disabled?Social Theory and Practice 27 (4): 537-560. 2001.
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539What rights (if any) do children haveIn David Archard & Colin M. Macleod (eds.), The Moral and Political Status of Children, Oxford University Press. pp. 31--52. 2002.According to the interest theory of rights, the primary function of rights is the protection of fundamental interests. Since children undeniably have fundamental interests that merit protection, it is perfectly sensible to attribute rights, especially welfare rights, to them. The interest theory need not be hostile to the accommodation of rights that protect agency because, at least in the case of adults, there is a strong connection between the protection of agency and the promotion of welfare.…Read more
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32A modest defence of school choiceJournal of Philosophy of Education 36 (4). 2002.This is a response to Samara Foster’s engaging critique of my book School Choice and Social Justice. In this response to her criticisms I clarify and try to correct some apparent misunderstandings of the book, but also take the opportunity to pose again a challenge to opponents of choice which neither she, nor other of my critics, has taken up.
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93School Choice and Social JusticeBritish Journal of Educational Studies 50 (3): 402-403. 2002.Defends a theory of social justice for education from within an egalitarian version of liberalism. The theory involves a strong commitment to educational equality, and to the idea that children's rights include a right to personal autonomy. The book argues that school reform must always be evaluated from the perspective of social justice and applies the theory, in particular, to school choice proposals. It looks at the parental choice schemes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in England and Wales, an…Read more
Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America