•  281
    A Capability Approach to Justice as a Virtue
    Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 15 (1): 23-38. 2012.
    In The Idea of Justice , Amartya Sen argues for an approach to justice that is comparative and realization-based rather than transcendental and institutional. While Sen’s arguments for such an approach may not be as convincing as he thought, there are additional arguments for it, and one is that it provides a unique and valuable platform on which an account of justice as a virtue of social and political actors (including institutions and social movements) can be built. Hence new dimensions of co…Read more
  •  236
    Human Rights: India and the West (edited book)
    Oxford University Press. 2015.
    The question of how to arrive at a consensus on human rights norm in a diverse, pluralistic, and interconnected global environment is critical. This volume is a contribution to an intercultural understanding of human rights in the context of India and its relationship to the West. The legitimacy of the global legal, economic, and political order is increasingly premised on the discourse of international human rights. Yet the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights developed with little or no…Read more
  •  109
    Empowerment, agency, and power
    Journal of Global Ethics 9 (3): 249-262. 2013.
    Journal of Global Ethics, Volume 9, Issue 3, Page 249-262, December 2013
  •  58
    Durable empowerment
    Journal of Global Ethics 4 (3). 2008.
    As a contribution to development ethics, this article attempts to clarify what 'empowerment' should mean, in so far as it is a valuable goal. I begin with the core ethical idea of empowerment that is to be found in recent work on measuring empowerment, led by Deepa Narayan, namely: empowerment occurs when people are better able to shape their own lives. Since this is a metaphor, I attempt to articulate a corresponding literal meaning. What I find is that people are empowered to the extent that: …Read more
  •  51
    Development Ethics and the 'Climate Migrants'
    Ethics, Policy and Environment 16 (1): 43-55. 2013.
    Many of the ethical problems that are posed by development can be illuminated by clarifying some of the differences between development that is worthwhile and ethically undesirable ?maldevelopment?. So it is with development projects that displace communities that physically stand in their way: typically the ?oustees? are victimized and disempowered, in some cases by projects that are also indefensible in other ways. Can this help us to clarify what is owed to people who are displaced by climate…Read more
  •  46
    Capitalism, Socialism, and Civil Society
    The Monist 74 (3): 457-477. 1991.
    If the sun is indeed setting on the cold war, there is reason to wonder whether Hegel’s Owl of Minerva should not be scheduled for further flights. Hegel was critical of political and economic liberalism as well as revolutionary egalitarianism. To the extent that actual capitalism and actual socialism have conformed to these positions in practise, Hegel’s double-edged critique has current applications. Sketched in broad strokes, Hegel’s position has a certain elegant symmetry. Revolutionary egal…Read more
  •  45
    The Scottish Enlightenment and Hegel’s Account of “Civil Society” (review)
    The Owl of Minerva 22 (2): 230-234. 1991.
    It can be useful to sort out the debates over Hegel’s political philosophy in political terms. The early post-war debates took place on essentially liberal grounds, as Hegel’s adherence to free speech and constitutional government had to be defended against cold warriors such as Karl Popper and Sidney Hook. I think it is obvious to everyone that the liberals won. Nevertheless the liberal vision of Hegel gave way to what is really a social-democratic vision - though due to the anachronism and imp…Read more
  •  42
    Foundational issues: how must global ethics be global?
    Journal of Global Ethics 10 (1): 16-25. 2014.
    Over the past 20 years, global ethics has come to be conceived in different ways. Two main tendencies can be distinguished. One asks from whence global ethics comes and defines ‘global ethics’ as arising from globalization. The other tendency is to ask whither global ethics must go and thus defines ‘global ethics’ as a destination, namely arriving at a comprehensive global ethic. I will note some types of discussion that may have been wrongly excluded from the scope of global ethics by one or th…Read more
  •  28
    Hegel's Politics: Liberal or Democratic?
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 16 (1). 1986.
    It probably comes as a surprise to no one that Hegel's political philosophy is difficult to interpret. But his political thought clearly poses problems which the rest of his work does not, and these problems arise from apparent political ambivalence on his part towards the French Revolution, towards monarchy, towards the doctrine of popular sovereignty, towards public opinion and press freedom - well, there is scarcely a reader of Hegel who could not add some additional topic to this already len…Read more
  •  20
    Theorizing Justice: Critical Insights and Future Directions (edited book)
    Rowman & Littlefield International. 2016.
    A collection of essays that examine how discussions of justice are most usefully shaped in our world, rethinking how we theorize justice and principles of justice.
  •  19
    Liberties, Wrongs, and Representation
    Journal of Philosophy 84 (10): 556-564. 1987.
  •  18
    An Indian global ethics initiative
    Journal of Global Ethics 15 (1): 1-5. 2019.
    In what sense must global ethics be global? In one sense, it must deal with global issues. In another, it must not be parochial but inclusive of normative views from around the world. So far, global ethics has met the first standard much better than the second. Authors based in the global South contribute approximately 5% of the internationally published research on global ethics. With this in mind, the co-editors of this special issue sought to bring more perspectives, experiences, and authors …Read more
  •  18
    Displacement by Development: Ethics, Rights and Responsibilities
    with Peter Penz and Pablo S. Bose
    Cambridge University Press. 2011.
    For decades, policy-makers in government, development banks and foundations, NGOs, researchers and students have struggled with the problem of how to protect people who are displaced from their homes and livelihoods by development projects. This book addresses these concerns and explores how debates often become deadlocked between 'managerial' and 'movementist' perspectives. Using development ethics to determine the rights and responsibilities of various stakeholders, the authors find that displ…Read more
  •  17
    Who is Fooled by the "Cunning of Reason"?
    History and Theory 24 (2): 147-169. 1985.
    After 1807, Hegel contrasts microhistorical chaos with macrohistorical order, the "cunning of reason." Agents interact blindly, but reason integrates all interactions, and this is the development and expression of rationality. No particular state dictates or precludes any subsequent outcomes; to allow the cunning of reason is to deny that causal relations are decisive for historical events. Ends are extraneous to objects, which suffer violence in achieving them. Consequently historical progress …Read more
  •  12
    Accountability in development: from aid effectiveness to development ethics
    Journal of Global Ethics 15 (2): 138-154. 2019.
    Adoption of the Millennium Development Goals triggered much discussion among donor states, multilateral institutions, and developing countries towards changing dysfunctional patterns of interaction that seemed to put the MDGs at risk from their inception. Initially in these high-level discussions, accountability was understood in a state-centric way, primarily as accountability to donors. This needed to be modified with the shift towards developing-country ownership of development strategies and…Read more
  •  9
    Jeffrey C. Isaac, Power and Marxist Theory: A Realist View Reviewed by
    Philosophy in Review 8 (9): 348-351. 1988.
  •  9
    Routledge Handbook of Development Ethics (edited book)
    with Lori Keleher
    Routledge. 2018.
    The Routledge Handbook of Development Ethics provides readers with insight into the central questions of development ethics, the main approaches to answering them, and areas for future research. Over the past seventy years, it has been argued and increasingly accepted that worthwhile development cannot be reduced to economic growth. Rather, a number of other goals must be realised: - Enhancement of people's well-being - Equitable sharing in benefits of development - Empowerment to participate fr…Read more
  •  4
    Globalization and Multi-cultural Knowledge of Human Rights
    The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 7 7-14. 1998.
    Responding to a call by Pierre Sané, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, for a worldwide political movement to overcome the social damage that has been wrought by economic globalization, this paper asks whether such a movement can invoke current conceptions of human rights. In particular, if human rights are Euro-centric, how well would they serve the self-understanding of a movement that is to be global, culturally pluralistic and counterhegemonic to Northern capital? I argue that it is…Read more
  •  3
    Liberties, Wrongs, and Representation
    with N. Y. S. J. De
    Journal of Philosophy 84 (10): 556-564. 1987.
  •  1
    Kevin M. Brien, Marx, Reason, and the Art of Freedom Reviewed by
    Philosophy in Review 8 (5): 161-163. 1988.
  • John Roemer, ed., Analytical Marxism (review)
    Philosophy in Review 7 128-130. 1987.
  • Handbook of Development Ethics (edited book)
    with Keleher Lori
    Routledge. 2019.