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833An essay on rightsBlackwell. 1994.This book addresses the perennial question: What is justice?
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761Libertarian Theories of Intergenerational JusticeIn Axel Gosseries & Lukas Meyer (eds.), Justice Between Generations, Oxford University Press. 2009.Justice and Libertarianism The term ‘justice’ is commonly used in several different ways. Sometimes it designates the moral permissibility of political structures (such as legal systems). Sometimes it designates moral fairness (as opposed to efficiency or other considerations that are relevant to moral permissibility). Sometimes it designates legitimacy in the sense of it being morally impermissible for others to interfere forcibly with the act or omission (e.g., my failing to go to dinner with …Read more
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443Why Left‐Libertarianism Is Not Incoherent, Indeterminate, or Irrelevant: A Reply to FriedPhilosophy and Public Affairs 33 (2): 201-215. 2005.In a recent review essay of a two volume anthology on left-libertarianism (edited by two of us), Barbara Fried has insightfully laid out most of the core issues that confront left-libertarianism. We are each left-libertarians, and we would like to take this opportunity to address some of the general issues that she raises. We shall focus, as Fried does much of the time, on the question of whether left-libertarianism is a well-defined and distinct alternative to existing forms of liberal egalita…Read more
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299Freedom: a philosophical anthology (edited book)Blackwell. 2007.Edited by leading contributors to the literature, Freedom: An Anthology is the most complete anthology on social, political and economic freedom ever compiled. Offers a broad guide to the vast literature on social, political and economic freedom. Contains selections from the best scholarship of recent decades as well as classic writings from Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Kant among others. General and sectional introductions help to orient the reader. Compiled and edited by three important contrib…Read more
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225Directed Duties and Inalienable RightsEthics 123 (2): 230-244. 2013.This essay advances and defends two claims: (a) that rights cannot be inalienable and (b) that even if they could be, this would not be morally justifiable
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202Left Libertarianism and Its Critics: The Contemporary Debate (edited book)Palgrave Publishers. 2000.This book contains a collection of important recent writing on left-liberalism, a political philosophy that recognizes both strong liberty rights and strong ...
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173Disputed land claims: A response to Weatherson and to bou-Habib and OlsarettiAnalysis 66 (3). 2006.In a paper published in this journal we proposed a method for resolving disputed land claims between two parties (Steiner and Wolff: 2003). In essence the proposal is to hold an auction between the disputants in which the land is given to the higher bidder, but the receipts of the auction to the under-bidder. We claimed that under such circumstances both parties can walk away happy: the higher bidder happy to pay the price bid for the land; the under-bidder happier to have the receipts of the au…Read more
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156Calibrating EvilThe Monist 85 (2): 183-193. 2002.“This one,” she said, pointing at a chocolate in the box she was handing to me, “is absolutely evil.” And she was right or, at least, half-right: I’ve never tasted chocolate like that before, or since. Should I refrain from doing so?
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139Individual LibertyProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 75. 1975.Hillel Steiner; III*—Individual Liberty, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 75, Issue 1, 1 June 1975, Pages 33–50, https://doi.org/10.1093/aristote.
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105Debate: Universal self-ownership and the fruits of one's labour: A reply to curchinJournal of Political Philosophy 16 (3): 350-355. 2008.No Abstract
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95Theories of Rights: Is There a Third Way?Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 27 (2): 281-310. 2005.Some important recent articles, including one in this journal, have sought to devise theories of rights that can transcend the longstanding debate between the Interest Theory and the Will Theory. The present essay argues that those efforts fail and that the Interest Theory and the Will Theory withstand the criticisms that have been levelled against them. To be sure, the criticisms have been valuable in that they have prompted the amplification and clarification of the two dominant theories of ri…Read more
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95The Global Fund: A Reply to CasalJournal of Moral Philosophy 8 (3): 328-334. 2011.The Global Fund is a mechanism for the global application of the Left Libertarian conception of distributive justice. As a form of luck egalitarianism, this conception confers upon each person an entitlement to an equal share of all natural resource values, since natural resources - broadly, geographical sites - are objects for the production of which no person is responsible. Owners of these sites, i.e. states, are liable to a 100% Global Fund tax on their unimproved value: that is, their gross…Read more
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92Greed and FearPolitics, Philosophy and Economics 13 (2): 140-150. 2014.This essay argues that the proffered grounds for Cohen's rejection of market relations – that they are sustained by the base motives of greed and fear – are unsound and also unnecessary to explain the maximising behaviour induced by those relations
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88How equality mattersSocial Philosophy and Policy 19 (1): 342-356. 2002.“Should differences in income and wealth matter?” is a paralyzingly big question. Does it refer to some differences? All differences? Daily differences, periodic ones, initial ones? Do they matter regardless of how income and wealth are acquired? Regardless of what can be done with them? Regardless, indeed, of what ‘mattering’ means?
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86Liberalism, neutrality and exploitationPolitics, Philosophy and Economics 12 (4): 335-344. 2013.This essay argues that a liberalism that avoids legal moralism – that is neutral between rival conceptions of the good – cannot embrace intervention in commercial transactions, but is thereby precluded neither from identifying some such transactions as exploitative nor from redressing them by other means
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85Capitalism, Justice and Equal StartsSocial Philosophy and Policy 5 (1): 49. 1987.“Does the existence of unequal social and economic starting points in life nullify capitalism's claims to justice?” Notice is hereby given that this essay's answer to this question is an unequivocal “maybe.” For it is a banal but true claim that everything depends upon what is meant by capitalism, justice and life's starting point. And it is a less banal but no less true claim that their meanings are opaque or controversial or both. In what follows I shall devote little attention to the question…Read more
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84Territorial justice and global redistributionIn Gillian Brock & Harry Brighouse (eds.), The Political Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism, Cambridge University Press. pp. 28--38. 2005.
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80Silver spoons and golden genes: Talent differentials and distributive justiceIn David Archard & Colin M. Macleod (eds.), The Moral and Political Status of Children, Oxford University Press. pp. 183--194. 2002.There is an important distinction between a person's ’initial genetic endowment’ and his ’post‐conception inputs’ such as nutrition and education. From a left‐libertarian perspective that views persons as self‐owning, children have an enforceable claim that parents should provide adequate ’post‐conception’ inputs. Moreover, with the revolution in genetic science, it is now possible to effect genetic changes without altering identity. If so, children can, in principle, claim a right against ’gene…Read more
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76Sharing Mother Nature's Gifts: A Reply to Quong and MillerJournal of Political Philosophy 19 (1): 110-123. 2011.
Manchester, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Law |
Social and Political Philosophy |