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3Preparing for the Next PandemicSocial Philosophy and Policy 40 (2): 283-305. 2023.My aim in this essay is to argue for a better moral-conceptual framework and for institutional innovation in preparation for the next pandemic. My main conclusions are as follows. (1) The primary moral principle that should guide responses to the next pandemic is the duty to prevent and mitigate serious harms. (2) A proper understanding of the moral foundations and scope of the duty to prevent and mitigate serious harms requires rejecting both Extreme Nationalism and Extreme Cosmopolitanism. (3)…Read more
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3Competition, Charity and the Right to Health CareBowling Green Studies in Applied Philosophy 7 129-143. 1985.
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9Breaking Evolution's ChainsIn Julian Savulescu, Ruud ter Meulen & Guy Kahane (eds.), Enhancing Human Capacities, Blackwell. 2011.This chapter critically examines the evolutionary assumptions that underlie the notion that nature is like a master engineer. It compares and contrasts intentional genetic modification (IGM) with unintentional genetic modification (UGM) as to their potential for improving human life. The chapter first argues for two main theses. First, UGM operates under constraints that severely limit its ability to realize what human beings rightly value, including their own survival and improvement. Because I…Read more
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10Secession and NationalismIn Robert E. Goodin, Philip Pettit & Thomas Pogge (eds.), A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, Blackwell. 2017.The past decade and a half has witnessed a rash of secessionist movements. Some have succeeded, some have failed; some have involved large‐scale conflict and ethnic cleansing, some have been remarkably peaceful. These momentous events call into question not only the legitimacy of particular states and their boundaries, but also the nature of sovereignty, the purposes of political association and the scope of majority rule.
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17Taking the Human out of Human RightsIn Rex Martin & David A. Reidy (eds.), Rawls's Law of Peoples, Blackwell. 2006-01-01.This chapter contains section titled: Rawls's Commitment to Avoiding Parochialism Avoiding Parochialism by Avoiding Comprehensive Conceptions Tolerance toward Associationist Conceptions of Individual Good The Argument from Cooperation The Functionalist Argument Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes.
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11What's So Special about Rights?Social Philosophy and Policy 2 (1): 61. 1984.Future historians of moral and political philosophy may well label our period the Age of Rights. In moral philosophy it is now widely assumed that the two most plausible types of normative theories are Utilitarianism and Kantian theories and that the contest between them must be decided in the end by seeing whether Utilitarianism can accommodate a prominent role for rights in morality. In political philosophy even the most bitter opponents in the perennial debate over conflicts between liberty a…Read more
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642The Legitimacy of Global Governance InstitutionsEthics and International Affairs 20 (4): 405-437. 2006.The authors articulate a global public standard for the normative legitimacy of global governance institutions. This standard can provide the basis for principled criticism of global governance institutions and guide reform efforts in circumstances in which people disagree deeply about the demands of global justice and the role that global governance institutions should play in meeting them.
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6The Marxist Conceptual Framework and the Origins of Totalitarian SocialismSocial Philosophy and Policy 3 (2): 127. 1986.One of the few things modern liberals, classical liberals, and conservatives can agree on is the charge that some of the worst features oftotalitarian socialist regimes have their origins in the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Nevertheless, the nature of this claim, and therefore the reasons for accepting or rejecting it, are oftenleft obscure. If it is understood simply as a causal statement, then it must be confirmed or disconfirmed by empirical social science. The political philos…Read more
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11The internal legitimacy of humanitarian interventionJournal of Political Philosophy 7 (1). 1999.
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5Reciprocal legitimation: Reframing the problem of international legitimacyPolitics, Philosophy and Economics 10 (1): 5-19. 2011.Theorizing about the legitimacy of international institutions usually begins with a framing assumption according to which the legitimacy of the state is understood solely in terms of the relationship between the state and its citizens, without reference to the effects of state power on others. In contrast, this article argues that whether a state is legitimate vis-a-vis its own citizens depends upon whether its exercise of power respects the human rights of people in other states. The other main…Read more
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13Pharmacogenetics: Ethical issues and policy optionsKennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 12 (1): 1-15. 2002.: Pharmacogenetics offers the prospect of an era of safer and more effective drugs, as well as more individualized use of drug therapies. Before the benefits of pharmacogenetics can be realized, the ethical issues that arise in research and clinical application of pharmacogenetic technologies must be addressed. The ethical issues raised by pharmacogenetics can be addressed under six headings: regulatory oversight, confidentiality and privacy, informed consent, availability of drugs, access, and …Read more
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78Justifying Preventive Force: Reply to Steven LeeEthics and International Affairs 19 (2): 109-112. 2005.Allen Buchanan and Robert O. Keohane reply to Steven Lee's critique of their previous essay on the preventive use of military force.
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16Equal Opportunity and Genetic InterventionSocial Philosophy and Policy 12 (2). 1995.What does the prospect of being able to alter a human being's “natural assets” by genetic engineering imply for our understanding of the requirements of justice, and of equal opportunity in particular? Although their proponents are reluctant to admit it, some of the most prominent contemporary theories of justice yield a quite radical conclusion: If safe and effective intervention in the genetic “natural lottery” becomes feasible, there will be at least a strong prima facie case for doing so in …Read more
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3Exploitation, Alienation, and InjusticeCanadian Journal of Philosophy 9 (1). 1979.The concept of exploitation plays a key role in Marx's attack on capitalism. No one denies this. Yet there is much confusion as to just what Marx's concept of exploitation is.Recent discussions tend to fall into two groups. In the first are those which offer extensive analyses of Marx's concept of alienation, but seldom mention ‘exploitation’. When writers in this first group do mention ‘exploitation’ they mistakenly assume that the concept is transparent and unproblematic.The second group has l…Read more
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117Ethics, Efficiency, and the MarketRowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1985.This is a systematic evaluation of the main arguments for and against the market as an instrument of social organization, balancing efficiency and justice. It links the distinctive approaches of philosophy and economics to this evaluation
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The egalitarianism of human rightsIn Roger Crisp (ed.), Griffin on Human Rights, Oxford University Press. 2014.
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Why international legal human rights?In Rowan Cruft, S. Matthew Liao & Massimo Renzo (eds.), Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights, Oxford University Press Uk. 2015.
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Section II. Advancing the debate. Enhancing conservatism / Rebecca Roache and Julian Savulescu ; Maclntyre's paradox / Bernadette Tobin ; Partiality for humanity and enhancement / Jonathan Pugh, Guy Kahane, and Julian Savulescu ; Enhancement, mind-uploading, and personal identity / Nicholas Agar ; Levelling the playing field : on the alleged unfairness of the genetic lottery / Michael Hauskeller ; Buchanan and the conservative argument against human enhancement from biological and social harmony / Steve Clarke ; Moral enhancement, enhancement, and sentiment / Gregory E. Kaebnick ; The evolution of moral enhancement (review)In Steve Clarke, Julian Savulescu, C. A. J. Coady, Alberto Giubilini & Sagar Sanyal (eds.), The Ethics of Human Enhancement: Understanding the Debate, Oxford University Press. 2016.
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Humanitarian interventionIn David Edmonds (ed.), Ethics and the Contemporary World, Routledge. 2019.
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20Our moral fate: evolution and the escape from tribalismThe MIT Press. 2020.The subject of this book is moral change, including moral progress and regression. The intention is to use the best thinking about the evolution of morality and the best available social science research to determine the possibilities for progressive change in human moralities by examining important morally progressive changes that have already occurred, in order to determine the social conditions that are conducive to moral progress.
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5The Marxian Critique of Justice and RightsCanadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 7 (n/a): 269-306. 1981.Among analytic philosophers in the past few years there has been a growing commitment to taking Marx seriously. Since the publication in 1971 of John Rawls’ bookA Theory of Justicethere has been a growing commitment to taking problems of Justice and rights seriously. These two developments intersect in mutual criticism: Marx's radical critique challenges the resources of recent theories of rights and Justice, while the sophistication of recent theories raises the possibility that they escape Mar…Read more
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42The Perpetual Struggle: How the Coevolution of Hierarchy and Resistance Drives the Evolution of Morality and InstitutionsSocial Philosophy and Policy 38 (2): 232-260. 2021.Since the earliest human societies, there has been an ongoing struggle between hierarchy and resistance to hierarchy, and this struggle is a major driver of the evolution of moralities and of institutions. Attempts to initiate or sustain hierarchies are often met with resistance; hierarchs then adopt new strategies, which in turn prompt new strategies of resistance; and so on. The key point is that the struggle is typically conducted using moral concepts in justifications for or against unequal …Read more
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620What are the obligations of pharmaceutical companies in a global health emergency?Lancet 398 (10304): 1015. 2021.All parties involved in researching, developing, manufacturing, and distributing COVID-19 vaccines need guidance on their ethical obligations. We focus on pharmaceutical companies' obligations because their capacities to research, develop, manufacture, and distribute vaccines make them uniquely placed for stemming the pandemic. We argue that an ethical approach to COVID-19 vaccine production and distribution should satisfy four uncontroversial principles: optimising vaccine production, including…Read more
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