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3260An 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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3123Educational equality versus educational adequacy: A critique of Anderson and SatzJournal of Applied Philosophy 26 (2): 117-128. 2009.Some theorists argue that rather than advocating a principle of educational equality as a component of a theory of justice in education, egalitarians should adopt a principle of educational adequacy. This paper looks at two recent attempts to show that adequacy, not equality, constitutes justice in education. It responds to the criticisms of equality by claiming that they are either unsuccessful or merely show that other values are also important, not that equality is not important. It also argu…Read more
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2637Moral and political aspects of educationIn Harvey Siegel (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Education, Oxford University Press. 2009.
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2409What'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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1814Legitimate 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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1019Equality 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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541What 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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139Should marxists care about alienation?Topoi 15 (2): 149-162. 1996.We have found that a sparse version of the claim that alienated labor is a bad thing can inform a political morality without turning that morality into one which makes more comment on people's ends than the liberal can accept. We have also seen that a modification of the ideas of alienation from our species being can play a limited role in a liberal political morality, but that the rational kernel of the critique from species alienation is already a familiar part of the liberal tradition. Howeve…Read more
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133Neutrality, Publicity, and State Funding of the ArtsPhilosophy and Public Affairs 24 (1): 35-63. 1995.
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127Egalitarianism and equal availability of political influenceJournal of Political Philosophy 4 (2). 1996.
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114Liberal PluralismPhilosophical Review 113 (1): 127-129. 2004.William Galston has developed a distinctive position within the spectrum of liberal views. His liberalism is comprehensive and pluralistic. But, unlike, say, Joseph Raz’s liberalism, which is also comprehensive and pluralistic, it does not self-consciously privilege one of those plural values to guide our judgments about the political conflicts that will inevitably occur in a pluralistic society.
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108Educational justice and socio-economic segregation in schoolsJournal 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
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104Family Values: The Ethics of Parent-Child RelationshipsPrinceton University Press. 2014.The family is hotly contested ideological terrain. Some defend the traditional two-parent heterosexual family while others welcome its demise. Opinions vary about how much control parents should have over their children's upbringing. Family Values provides a major new theoretical account of the morality and politics of the family, telling us why the family is valuable, who has the right to parent, and what rights parents should—and should not—have over their children. Harry Brighouse and Adam Sw…Read more
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98On EducationRoutledge. 2005.What is education for? Should it produce workers or educate future citizens? Is there a place for faith schools - and should patriotism be taught? In this compelling and controversial book, Harry Brighouse takes on all these urgent questions and more. He argues that children share four fundamental interests: the ability to make their own judgements about what values to adopt; acquiring the skills that will enable them to become economically self-sufficient as adults; being exposed to a range of …Read more
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96School 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
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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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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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79Redistributing education among the less advantaged: A problem for principles of justice?Social Philosophy and Policy 31 (1): 109-134. 2014.
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71Can Justice as Fairness Accommodate the Disabled?Social Theory and Practice 27 (4): 537-560. 2001.
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70Book Symposium: Harry Brighouse, School Choice and Social JusticeStudies in Philosophy and Education 20 (5): 387-421. 2001.
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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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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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60The 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
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