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58Measuring Need-Based Justice – Empirically and FormallyIn Bernhard Kittel & Stefan Traub (eds.), Priority of Needs?: An Informed Theory of Need-based Justice, Springer Verlag. pp. 61-94. 2024.The formal part of this chapter is concerned with measures of need-based justice. According to the measures we propose, a distribution is unjust (i) the more it deviates from absolute need satisfaction and equal degrees of need satisfaction, (ii) the more the given undersupply could have been mitigated by transfers, or (iii) the more resources are used for oversupply instead of need satisfaction. These measures are compared, i.e., as to the satisfaction of need-oriented relatives of axioms promi…Read more
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149Empirische Studien zu Fragen der BedarfsgerechtigkeitUniversity of Oldenburg Press. 2024.Bedürfnisse sind etwas, das uns als Menschen grundlegend bestimmt. Der vorliegende Band fasst eine Reihe von Vignettenstudien zusammen, in denen untersucht wird, welche Rolle Bedürfnisse im Umgang mit Problemen der Verteilungsgerechtigkeit spielen. Während sie in Diskussionen zur Verteilungsgerechtigkeit häufig eher unterrepräsentiert sind, wird hier gezeigt, dass sie eine fundamentale Bedeutung im Denken der Menschen haben. Es wird unter anderem deutlich, dass unparteiischen Beobachter*innen gr…Read more
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167Empirische Studien zu Fragen der BedarfsgerechtigkeitDissertation, University of Oldenburg. 2024.The role that need plays in dealing with problems of distributive justice is examined in a series of vignette studies. Among other things, it becomes clear that impartial observers make gradual assessments of justice that depend on the extent to which the observed individuals are endowed with a good. If it is known how high their need for that good is, the assessments are made relative to this reference point. In addition, impartial decision-makers make hypothetical distribution decisions that t…Read more
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36We examine the role of need satisfaction in non-comparative justice ratings about endowments with goods. As normative approaches, we discuss utilitarianism, prioritarianism, and sufficientarianism. Using a vignette experiment, we show that a need context increases the prevalence of prioritarianistic and sufficientarianistic justice ratings, which leads to an ethically problematic sigmoid shape of the justice evaluation function.
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20Paradoxien – Grenzdenken und Denkgrenzen von A(llwissen) bis Z(eit) (edited book)Brill mentis. 2024.Paradoxes evoke astonishment, confusion, and delight in the extraordinary. But that is not all: They point to fundamental problems of philosophy, mathematics, and the natural sciences. This volume presents a number of the most important paradoxes from an analytical-philosophical perspective. German abstract: Paradoxien rufen Staunen, Verwirrung und die Lust am Außergewöhnlichen hervor. Aber nicht nur das: Es sind Paradoxien, die bis heute auf Grundprobleme der Philosophie, der Mathematik sowie…Read more
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14Give What’s Required and Take Only What You Need! The Effect of Framing on Rule-Breaking in Social DilemmasJudgment and Decision Making 18. 2023.To investigate the impact of framing on rule-breaking in social dilemmas, we incorporated a rule in a 1-shot resource game with 2 framing treatments: in one frame, we offered a give-some dilemma (i.e., a variant of a public goods game), and in the other frame, a take-some dilemma (i.e., a variant of a commons dilemma game). In each frame, all participants were part of 1 single collective sharing a common good. Each participant was initially equipped with 1 of 5 different endowments of points fro…Read more
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23Winter is Coming – How Laypeople Think About Different Kinds of NeedsPLoS ONE 18 (11). 2023.Needs play a key role in many fields of social sciences and humanities, ranging from normative theories of distributive justice to conceptions of the welfare state. Over time, different conceptions of what counts as a need (i. e., what is considered a normatively relevant need) have been proposed. Many of them include (in one way or the other) needs for survival, decency, belonging, and autonomy. Little work has been done on how these kinds of needs are evaluated in terms of their significance f…Read more
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11IntroductionIn Alexander Max Bauer & Stephan Kornmesser (eds.), The Compact Compendium of Experimental Philosophy, De Gruyter. pp. 1-6. 2023.
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16Einleitung – VerschwörungserzählungenZeitschrift für Praktische Philosophie 9 (2): 105-112. 2023.Verschwörungserzählungen sind ein fortdauernd prominentes Thema in der nachrichtlichen Berichterstattung und treten immer wieder in Zusammenhang mit Bewegungen auf, die demokratische Strukturen zu untergraben versuchen. In der aktuellen Diskussion um Verschwörungserzählungen dominieren psychologische, politische, kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Perspektiven. Philosophische Zugänge hingegen scheinen dabei unterrepräsentiert zu sein. Der hier vorliegende Schwerpunkt „Verschwörungserzählungen“ …Read more
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26Poisoned Babies, Shot Fathers, and Ruined Experiments – Experimental Evidence in Favor of the Compositionality Constraint of Actual CausationPhilosophy of Science 90 (3): 489-517. 2023.Livengood and Sytsma (2020) challenge the Compositionality Constraint of Actual Causation (CCAC), according to which each intermediary of a causal chain is an effect of its predecessor and a cause of its successor link. In several studies, they find support for their hypothesis that the CCAC is not in accordance with ordinary causal attributions of laypeople. We argue that there are three interrelated problems in their studies’ design that we call the Causality-Responsibility Confusion (CRC), th…Read more
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224Equal Deeds, Different Needs – Need, Accountability, and Resource Availability in Third-Party Distribution DecisionsIn Joshua Knobe & Shaun Nichols (eds.), The Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy, Oxford University Press. 2020.We present a vignette study conducted with a quota sample of the German population (n = 400). Subjects had to redistribute a good between two hypothetical persons who contributed equally to the available amount but differed in quantity needed and the reason for their neediness. On a within-subjects level, we tested for the effects of need, accountability, and resource availability on their third-party distribution decisions. Between subjects, we further varied the kinds of needs: The persons eit…Read more
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29Need, equity, and accountability – Evidence on third-party distribution decisions from a vignette studySocial Choice and Welfare. 2022.We report the results of a vignette study with an online sample of the German adult population in which we analyze the interplay between need, equity, and accountability in third-party distribution decisions. We asked participants to divide firewood between two hypothetical persons who either differ in their need for heat or in their productivity in terms of their ability to chop wood. The study systematically varies the persons’ accountability for their neediness as well as for their productivi…Read more
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30Answers at Gunpoint: On Livengood and Sytsma’s Revolver CasePhilosophy of Science 89 (1): 180-192. 2022.Jonathan Livengood and Justin Sytsma have published a series of studies on “Actual Causation and Compositionality,” in which they investigate causal attributions of laypeople. We use one of their vignettes to follow up on their research. Our findings cast doubt on their conclusion that ordinary causal attributions tend to violate the compositionality constraint if one looks at cases in which someone is responsible for an effect by way of an intermediary that does not share in the responsibility.
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230To investigate the impact of framing on rule-breaking behavior in social dilemmas, we incorporated a rule in a one-shot resource game with two framing-treatments: One frame was a give-some dilemma (i.e., a variant of a public goods game) and the other frame a take-some dilemma (i.e., a variant of a commons dilemma game). In each frame, all participants were part of one single collective sharing a common good. Each participant was initially equipped with one of five different endowments of points…Read more
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119Babylonische Befindlichkeiten – Hans-Helmuth Bruns’ »Babel in Deutschland« (review)In Alexander Max Bauer & Nils Baratella (eds.), Oldenburger Jahrbuch für Philosophie 2019/2020, Bis-verlag. pp. 283-290. 2021.
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141VorwortIn Alexander Max Bauer & Nils Baratella (eds.), Oldenburger Jahrbuch für Philosophie 2019/2020, Bis-verlag. pp. 5. 2021.
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275Oldenburger Jahrbuch für Philosophie 2019/2020 (edited book)BIS-Verlag. 2021.Im Oldenburger Jahrbuch für Philosophie stellen externe und interne Professor*innen und Nachwuchswissenschaftler*innen ihre Forschung vor, Absolvent*innen des Instituts finden hier Gelegenheit, ihre Thesen zu präsentieren und zur Diskussion zu stellen. Die versammelten Texte sollen einen Einblick geben in das Leben des Instituts und in die vielfältigen Diskussionen, die hier geführt werden; sie streifen dabei zahlreiche Themen der gegenwärtigen Philosophie: Fragen aus der Geschichte der Philosop…Read more
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20Christian Neuhäuser – Wie reich darf man sein? Über Gier, Neid und Gerechtigkeit (review)Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 75 (1): 160-164. 2021.
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323Sated but Thirsty: A Prolegomenon to Multidimensional Measures of Need-Based JusticeAxiomathes 32 (3): 529-538. 2022.In attempts to compare different distributions with regards to need, so-called “measures of need-based distributive justice” have emerged in recent years. Each of the proposed measures relies on a single dimension of need that is taken into account. This is shown to be problematic since humans experience different kinds of need that appear to be incommensurable. A strategy to deal with this problem is introduced by using multidimensional measures.
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270We report the results of a vignette experiment with a quota sample of the German population in which we analyze the interplay between need, equity, and accountability in third-party distributive decisions. We asked subjects to divide firewood between two hypothetical persons who either differ in their need for heat or in their productivity in terms of their ability to chop wood. The experiment systematically varies the persons’ accountability for their neediness as well as for their productivity…Read more
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523Empirical Research and Normative Theory – Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Two Methodical Traditions Between Separation and Interdependence (edited book)Walter de Gruyter. 2019.Two questions often shape our view of the world. On the one hand, we ask what there is, on the other hand, we ask what there ought to be. Empirical research and normative theory, the methodological traditions concerned with these questions, entered a difficult relationship, from at least as early as around the time of the advent of modern sciences. To this day, there remains a strong separation between the two domains, with both tending to neglect discourses and results from the other. Contrary …Read more
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17Christian Neuhäuser – Reichtum als moralisches Problem (review)Zeitschrift Für Ethik Und Moralphilosophie 2 (2): 381-385. 2019.Rezension zu Christian Neuhäusers »Reichtum als moralisches Problem«.
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681Philosophie zwischen Sein und Sollen – Normative Theorie und empirische Forschung im Spannungsfeld (edited book)Walter de Gruyter. 2019.Unter dem Dach der Philosophie gingen empirische Forschung und normative Theorie lange Zeit Hand in Hand, bis sie spätestens um die Zeit der Emanzipation der Einzelwissenschaften in eine schwierige, nicht immer eindeutig bestimmbare Beziehung zueinander traten; dieses unterbestimmte Verhältnis tritt uns vor dem Hintergrund aktueller Debatten wieder entgegen. Das zeigt sich zum Beispiel auch bei Fragen der Ethik: In den letzten Jahrzehnten zeigten verschiedene wissenschaftliche Disziplinen verstä…Read more
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424Need considerations play an important role in empirically informed theories of distributive justice. We propose a concept of need-based justice that is related to social participation and provide an ethical measurement of need-based justice. The β-ε-index satisfies the need-principle, monotonicity, sensitivity, transfer and several »technical« axioms. A numerical example is given.
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228Imagine that only the state can meet the need for housing but decides not to do so. Unsurprisingly, participants in a vignette experiment deem this scenario unjust. Hence, justice ratings increase when the living situation improves. To a lesser extent, this also holds beyond the need threshold, understood as the minimum amount necessary for a decent life. Surprisingly, however, the justice evaluation function is highly convex below this point. The resulting S-shaped curve is akin to the value fu…Read more
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209Measures of need-based justice that have been proposed lately rely on a single dimension of need that is taken into account. This is shown to be problematic since humans experience different kinds of need that appear to be incommensurable.
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227Gerechtigkeit und Bedürfnis – Perspektiven auf den Begriff des »Bedürfnisses« vor dem Hintergrund der BedarfsgerechtigkeitIn Alexander Max Bauer & Nils Baratella (eds.), Oldenburger Jahrbuch für Philosophie 2017/2018, Bis-verlag. pp. 285-327. 2019.
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162»Wahrheit ist, was uns verbindet« – Den Absolventinnen und Absolventen der Fakultät IV zum GeleitIn Alexander Max Bauer & Nils Baratella (eds.), Oldenburger Jahrbuch für Philosophie 2017/2018, Bis-verlag. pp. 353-357. 2019.
Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, Germany
Areas of Specialization
Experimental Philosophy |
Foundations of Experimental Philosophy |
Friedrich Nietzsche |
PhilPapers Editorships
Experimental Philosophy: Folk Morality |