•  21
    Educational Goods Reconsidered: A Response
    with Helen F. Ladd, Susanna Loeb, and Adam Swift
    Journal of Philosophy of Education 54 (5): 1382-1394. 2020.
    We gratefully reply to our five commentators, responding to their criticisms and comments under the following headings: parochialism and curriculum; rationality and truth; production and distribution; perfectionism, decision-making and disagreement; adultism and parents' interests; non-consequential educational goods; and self-education.
  •  20
    Educational Goods: Values, Evidence, and Decision‐Making—A Summary
    with Helen F. Ladd, Susanna Loeb, and Adam Swift
    Journal of Philosophy of Education 54 (5): 1346-1348. 2020.
    Journal of Philosophy of Education, EarlyView.
  •  8
    Against Nationalism
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 26 (sup1): 365-405. 1997.
  •  9
    Debating Education puts two leading scholars in conversation with each other on the subject of education-specifically, what role, if any, markets should play in policy reform. The authors focus on the nature, function, and legitimate scope of voluntary exchange as a form of social relation, and how education raises concerns that are not at issue when it comes to trading relationships between consenting adults.
  •  27
    The Aims of Higher Education: Problems of Morality and Justice (edited book)
    with Michael McPherson
    University of Chicago Press. 2015.
    This book features a group of top-notch philosophers tackling some of the biggest questions in higher education: What role should the liberal arts have in a college education? Should colleges orient themselves to the educational demands of the business sector? What is the role of highly selective colleges in the public sphere? To what extent should they be subsidized directly, or indirectly, by the public? Should they simply teach students skills and academic knowledge, or should they play a rol…Read more
  •  20
    This paper considers four institutional models for funding higher education in the light of principles of fairness and meritocracy, with particular reference to the debate in the UK over ‘top-up fees’. It concludes that, under certain plausible but unproven assumptions, the model the UK government has adopted is fairer and more meritocratic than alternatives, including, surprisingly, the Graduate Tax.
  • Justice
    Philosophical Quarterly 55 (221): 688-690. 2005.
  •  14
    Civic education and liberal legitimacy
    In Stephen Everson (ed.), Ethics, Cambridge University Press. pp. 108--4. 1998.
  •  3
    Education: Not a Real Utopian Design
    Politics and Society 42 (1): 51-72. 2014.
    This paper identifies four criteria, all of which an ideal real utopian proposal would meet. We argue for a moderate skepticism that it is possible to give a real utopian proposal to guide the design of education for a society that meets these criteria; both for the practical reason that what happens in schools depends on the background environment within which they operate, and for the principled reason that when educating children we should attend to their individual future well-being in ways …Read more
  •  44
    Against Nationalism
    Canadian 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
  •  64
    Political equality in justice as fairness
    Philosophical Studies 86 (2): 155-184. 1997.
  •  1758
    Legitimate parental partiality
    Philosophy 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
  •  40
    In defence of educational equality
    Journal 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.
  •  64
    Can Justice as Fairness Accommodate the Disabled?
    Social Theory and Practice 27 (4): 537-560. 2001.
  •  526
    What rights (if any) do children have
    In 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
  •  29
    A modest defence of school choice
    Journal 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.
  •  86
    School Choice and Social Justice
    British 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
  •  39
    Nonideal Theorizing in Education
    Educational Theory 65 (2): 215-231. 2015.
    In this essay, Harry Brighouse responds to the collection of articles in the current issue of Educational Theory, all concerned with nonideal theorizing in education. First, he argues that some form of ideal theory is indispensable for the nonideal theorizer. Brighouse then proceeds to defend Rawls against some critics of his kind of ideal theorizing by arguing that a central feature that is often misconstrued as unduly idealizing — the full compliance assumption — in fact constrains utopianism.…Read more
  •  16
    On Alex Callinicos's Equality (review)
    with Erik Olin Wright
    Historical Materialism 10 (1): 193-222. 2002.
  •  57
    Justice
    Polity. 2005.
    The book also includes extensive discussions of the nature and purpose of political theorizing, and it asks whether theories of justice should take only social ...
  •  50
    The Political Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism (edited book)
    Cambridge University Press. 2005.
    In a period of rapid internationalization of trade and increased labor mobility, is it relevant for nations to think about their moral obligations to others? Do national boundaries have fundamental moral significance, or do we have moral obligations to foreigners that are equal to our obligations to our compatriots? The latter position is known as cosmopolitanism, and this volume brings together a number of distinguished political philosophers and theorists to explore cosmopolitanism: what it co…Read more
  •  98
    Educational justice and socio-economic segregation in schools
    Journal of Philosophy of Education 41 (4). 2007.
    Sociologists exploring educational injustice often focus on socio-economic segregation as a central measure of injustice. The comprehensive ideal, furthermore, has the idea of socio-economic integration built into it. The current paper argues that socio-economic segregation is valuable only insofar as it serves other, more fundamental values. This matters because sometimes policy-makers will find themselves facing trade-offs between increasing integration and promoting the other, more fundamenta…Read more
  • Book Review (review)
    Economics and Philosophy 10 (1): 127-133. 1994.
  • In my contribution today I want to talk about the place of private schooling in a society devoted to educational justice. I should say at the outset that although there are no principled reasons for opposing private schooling - certainly none in favour of the idea that the state should have a monopoly on provision - I do not share the enthusiasm that many of today's speakers have shown for private schools. Whether or not they are consistent with a just distribution of schooling is a highly conti…Read more
  •  11
    Most of the estimated 855 million people in the world (one sixth of the population) without access to schooling are women and girls. Two thirds of the 110 million school age children not in school are girls (UNGEI, 2002). This injustice has been a focus of attempts at coordinated international policy interventions since the 1990s, sometimes loosely referred to as the Education for All (EFA) movement. The first of the millennium development targets - gender equity in education - is supposed to be…Read more