•  5
    Taxation and the Moral Authority of Conventions
    Social Philosophy and Policy 39 (1): 118-138. 2022.
    Lockeans regard taxation as a—perhaps sometimes permissible—infringement of moral property entitlements. This essay discusses whether, or in what form, this charge is defensible. In doing so, it will explore the truth and the limits of the conventionalist reply of Murphy and Nagel to Lockean challenges to taxation. It argues that there is a moral rationale for property conventions that is independent of the question whether and how one can acquire natural, pre-conventional property rights in the…Read more
  •  50
    The Project Pursuit Argument for Self-Ownership and Private Property
    Social Theory and Practice 48 (3): 583-605. 2022.
    The article argues that persons should be conceived as self-owners and entitled to acquire private property within justifiable property conventions because they should be able to live as project pursuers. This is the ‘project pursuit argument’. It leads to a conception of self-ownership that is stringent, but weaker than standard libertarian notions of self-ownership, and to an understanding of private property as a convention that has to meet a sufficientarian threshold in order to be justifiab…Read more
  •  23
    Partisanship and Political Obligations
    Philosophy and Public Issues - Filosofia E Questioni Pubbliche 11 (3): 91-104. 2021.
    Download.
  •  2
    Marktwirtschaft
    In Michael G. Festl (ed.), Handbuch Liberalismus, J.b. Metzler. pp. 233-238. 2021.
    Der Artikel zeichnet vier verschiedene Traditionslinien des Liberalismus und ihr Verhältnis zum Kapitalismus nach: Den Naturrechtlichen Liberalismus in der Tradition von John Locke, den Klassischen Liberalismus in der Tradition von Adam Smith und Friedrich Hayek, den Perfektionistischen Liberalismus, wie er unter anderem von T.H. Green vertreten wird, und den Kontraktualistischen Liberalismus von John Rawls.
  •  26
    May political parties refuse to govern? On integrity, compromise and responsibility
    Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 26 (7): 1028-1047. 2023.
    After the parliamentary elections in Germany in September 2017, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Christian Social Union (CSU), The Greens (Bündnis90/Die Grünen) and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) started to negotiate about forming a coalition government. But, surprising to many, the FDP decided to let these coalition talks collapse, and many commentators in Germany found it highly problematic for a political party to refuse to take responsibility in government. Interestingly, the quest…Read more
  •  96
    Against Philosophical Anarchism
    Law and Philosophy 39 (5): 527-544. 2020.
    Philosophical anarchists claim that all states lack political authority and are illegitimate, but that some states are nevertheless morally justified and should not be abolished. I argue that philosophical anarchism is either incoherent or collapses into either statism or political anarchism.
  •  2
    Rescuing Public Justification from Public Reason Liberalism
    In David Sobel, Peter Vallentyne & Steven Wall (eds.), Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy Volume 5, Oxford University Press. pp. 39-64. 2019.
    Public reason liberals from John Rawls to Gerald Gaus uphold a principle of public justification as a core commitment of their theories. Critics of public reason liberalism have sometimes conceded that there is something compelling about the idea of public justification. But so far there have not been many attempts to elaborate and defend a ‘comprehensive’ liberalism that incorporates a principle of public justification. This article spells out how public justifiability could be integrated into …Read more
  •  47
    Moralische Forderungen und Relativismus
    Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 66 (5): 653-668. 2018.
    Peter Stemmer has developed an elegant and impressive theory of normativity and morality. In this article, I try to show that he does not achieve two goals he set for himself. First, his theory does not capture the categorical bindingness of moral demands, even in Stemmer’s own interpretation of categorical bindingness: it does not show that wemustfollow moral demands no matter what our personal goals and desires are. Second, just because it would be rational to establish positive moralities in …Read more
  •  58
    In defense of unfair compromises
    Philosophical Studies 176 (11): 2855-2875. 2019.
    It seems natural to think that compromises ought to be fair. But it is false. In this paper, I argue that it is never a moral desideratum to reach fair compromises and that we are sometimes even morally obligated to try to establish unfair compromises. The most plausible conception of the fairness of compromises is David Gauthier’s principle of minimax relative concession. According to that principle, a compromise is fair when all parties make equal concessions relative to how much they can gain…Read more
  •  24
    Why Theorize Modus Vivendi?
    In John Horton, Manon Westphal & Ulrich Willems (eds.), The Political Theory of Modus Vivendi, Springer Verlag. pp. 31-47. 2018.
    There have been four main motives to introduce the notion of modus vivendi in the political-philosophical literature. One is to use it as a negative contrast to what one regards as the ideal goal in politics. The second is to use it within a distinctively realist political theory that refrains from advocating utopian ideals. The third is to defend liberal institutions as a modus vivendi. The fourth is to have a concept for the institutional tools for peace. Depending on the motive to introduce t…Read more
  •  42
    Staaten beanspruchen für sich das Recht, Gesetze geben und mit Zwangsgewalt durchsetzen zu dürfen. Doch unter welchen Bedingungen haben sie dieses Recht tatsächlich? Das ist die grundlegendste Frage der Politischen Philosophie. Obwohl wir die Autoritätsansprüche des Staates oft als selbstverständlich hinnehmen, erscheinen sie moralisch durchaus fragwürdig, wenn man Personen als frei und gleich begreift. Wie können wenige Parlamentsmitglieder das Recht haben, für Millionen Menschen verbindliche G…Read more
  •  71
    Authority
    Polity Press. 2018.
    From citizens paying taxes to employees following their bosses’ orders and kids obeying their parents, we take it for granted that a whole range of authorities have the power to impose duties on others. However, although authority is often accepted in practice, it looks philosophically problematic if we conceive persons as free and as equals. In this short and accessible book, Fabian Wendt examines the basis of authority, discussing five prominent theories that try to explain how claims to autho…Read more
  •  84
    Three Types of Sufficientarian Libertarianism
    Res Publica 25 (3): 301-318. 2019.
    Sufficientarian libertarianism is a theory of justice that combines libertarianism’s focus on property rights and non-interference with sufficientarianism’s concern for the poor and needy. Persons are conceived as having stringent rights to direct their lives as they see fit, provided that everyone has enough to live a self-guided life. Yet there are different ways to combine libertarianism and sufficientarianism and hence different types of sufficientarian libertarianism. In the article I prese…Read more
  •  36
    Universalisierbarkeit und öffentliche Rechtfertigung
    Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 67 (4). 2013.
    Das Prinzip öffentlicher Rechtfertigung ist ein Kernprinzip einer Hauptströmung des zeitgenössischen Liberalismus. Es besagt, in einer von Gerald Gaus vertretenen Variante, dass Regeln der Sozialmoral ebenso wie staatliche Institutionen und Gesetze gegenüber allen betroffenen Personen mit ihren je verschiedenen evaluativen Standards rechtfertigbar sein müssen. Die Regeln, Institutionen oder Gesetze sind rechtfertigbar, wenn alle betroffenen Personen vor dem Hintergrund ihrer je verschiedenen eva…Read more
  •  32
    Compromise and the Value of Widely Accepted Laws
    In Christian F. Rostbøll & Theresa Scavenius (eds.), Compromise and Disagreement in Contemporary Political Theory, Routledge. pp. 50-62. 2017.
    The article defends the claim that if some laws are (or would be) widely accepted, this provides pro tanto moral reasons to support these laws and not to support otherwise better laws that are not widely accepted. In that sense the value of having widely accepted laws provides moral reasons to make compromises in politics, and it justifies a modest and qualified status quo bias. Widely accepted laws are valuable because they reduce enforcement costs, have symbolic value, help to maintain peace, …Read more
  •  86
    The Sufficiency Proviso
    In Matt Zwolinski & Benjamin Ferguson (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Libertarianism, Routledge. pp. 169-183. 2022.
    A libertarian theory of justice holds that persons are self-owners and have the Hohfeldian moral power to justly acquire property rights in initially unowned external resources. Different variants of libertarianism can be distinguished according to their stance on the famous Lockean proviso. The proviso requires, in Locke’s words, to leave ‘enough and as good’ for others, and thus specifies limits on the acquisition of property. Left-libertarians accept an egalitarian interpretation of the provi…Read more
  •  142
    Slaves, Prisoners, and Republican Freedom
    Res Publica 17 (2): 175-192. 2011.
    Philip Pettit’s republican conception of freedom is presented as an alternative both to negative and positive conceptions of freedom. The basic idea is to conceptualize freedom as non-domination, not as non-interference or self-mastery. When compared to negative freedom, Pettit’s republican conception comprises two controversial claims: the claim that we are unfree if we are dominated without actual interference, and the claim that we are free if we face interference without domination. Because …Read more
  •  63
    The Moral Standing of Modus Vivendi Arrangements
    Public Affairs Quarterly 30 (4): 351-370. 2016.
    While John Rawls made the notion of a “modus vivendi” prominent in political philosophy, he treats modus vivendi arrangements rather short and dismissively. On the other hand, some political theorists like John Gray praise modus vivendi as the only available and legitimate goal of politics. In the article I sketch the outlines of a different, more nuanced approach to modus vivendi arrangements. I argue that the moral standing of modus vivendi arrangements varies, and I try to spell out the facto…Read more
  •  136
    Presents Robert Nozick's Wilt Chamberlain argument in premise-conclusion form.
  •  52
    This book explores the morality of compromising. The author argues that peace and public justification are values that provide moral reasons to make compromises in politics, including compromises that establish unjust laws or institutions. He explains how it is possible to have moral reasons to agree to moral compromises and he debates our moral duties and obligations in making such compromises. The book also contains discussions of the sources of the value of public justification, the relation …Read more
  •  60
    On realist legitimacy
    Social Philosophy and Policy 32 (2): 227-245. 2016.
    In the last ten or fifteen years, realism has emerged as a distinct approach in political theory. Realists are skeptical about the merits of abstract theories of justice. They regard peace, order, and stability as the primary goals of politics. One of the more concrete aims of realists is to develop a realist perspective on legitimacy. I argue that realist accounts of legitimacy are unconvincing, because they do not solve what I call the “puzzle of legitimacy”: the puzzle of how some persons can…Read more
  •  40
    Introduction: Compromising on Justice
    Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 16 (4): 475-480. 2013.
    Introductory text for the CRISPP-special issue and Routledge-book on "Compromising on Justice". Also includes a summary of the articles by Steven Wall, Robert B. Talisse, Sune Lægaard, Daniel Weinstock, Enzo Rossi and Fabian Wendt.
  •  100
    Political Authority and the Minimal State
    Social Theory and Practice 42 (1): 97-122. 2016.
    Robert Nozick and Eric Mack have tried to show that a minimal state could be just. A minimal state, they claim, could help to protect people’s moral rights without violating moral rights itself. In this article, I will discuss two challenges for defenders of a minimal state. The first challenge is to show that the just minimal state does not violate moral rights when taxing people and when maintaining a monopoly on the use of force. I argue that this challenge can be met. The second challenge is…Read more
  •  22
    Peace beyond Compromise
    Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 16 (4): 573-593. 2013.
    Our societies are marked not only by disagreements on the good life, but also by disagreements on justice. This motivates philosophers as divergent as John Gray and Chandran Kukathas to focus their normative political theories on peace instead of justice. In this article, I discuss how peace should be conceived if peace is to be a more realistic goal than justice, not presupposing any moral consensus. I distinguish two conceptions of peace to be found in the literature. One, ordinary peace, conc…Read more
  •  69
    Justice and political authority in left-libertarianism
    Politics, Philosophy and Economics 14 (3): 316-339. 2015.
    From a left-libertarian perspective, it seems almost impossible for states to acquire political authority. For that reason, left-libertarians like Peter Vallentyne understandably hope that states without political authority could nonetheless implement left-libertarian justice. Vallentyne has argued that one can indeed assess a state’s justness without assessing its political authority. Against Vallentyne, I try to show that states without political authority have to be judged unjust even if they…Read more