•  422
    Recent technological developments in automation threaten to eliminate the jobs of millions of workers in the near future, raising worrisome questions about how to satisfy their welfare. One proposal for addressing this issue is to provide all citizens with a “universal basic income” (UBI) that ensures everyone with a social minimum. The aim is to give all individuals an unrestricted cash grant that provides them with an income that does not depend on status, wealth, or employment. The question t…Read more
  •  380
    Hate Speech and the Problems of Agency: A Critique of Butler
    Social Philosophy Today 16 185-201. 2000.
    At the center of the hate speech controversy is the question whether it constitutes conduct. If hate speech is not conduct, then restricting it runs counter to free speech. But even if it could be shown that it is a kind of conduct, complicated questions arise. Does it necessarily follow that we restrict speech? Practically speaking, can speech even be restricted, either through new legislation or the enforcement of existing laws regulating conduct? Are measures such as hate crimes legislation b…Read more
  •  379
    Are There Moral Limits to Wage Inequality?
    In Anders Örtenblad (ed.), Equal Pay for All, . pp. 167-81. 2021.
    Income inequality in democratic societies with market economies is sizable and growing. One reason for this growth can be traced to unequal forms of compensation that employers pay workers. Democratic societies have tackled this problem by enforcing a wage standard that all workers are paid regardless of education, skills, or contribution. This raises a novel question: Should there be equal pay for all workers? To answer it, we need to investigate some factors that are relevant to the unequal co…Read more
  •  332
    Equal protection and same-sex marriage
    Journal of Social Philosophy 35 (1). 2006.
    This paper examines constitutional issues concerning same-sex marriage. Although same-sex relations concern broader ethical issues as well, I set these aside to concentrate primarily on legal questions of privacy rights and equal protection. While sexual orientation is neither a suspect classification like race, nor a quasi classification like gender, there are strong reasons why it should trigger heightened scrutiny of legislation using sexuality as a standard of classification. In what follows…Read more
  •  281
    Foucault and the critical tradition
    Human Studies 25 (3): 323-332. 2002.
    The present paper motivates one possible answer to Kant’s question, “What remains of the Enlightenment?” by reinterpreting the relation between Foucault and critical tradition from Kant to the Frankfurt School. The Enlightenment has left us with “normative superstition,” or a healthy form of skepticism about the justification of modern institutions and ideals. Along these lines, I adopt an interpretation of Foucault that diverges from the standard view. I argue that he shares with his detractors…Read more
  •  246
    Kant, political liberalism, and the ethics of same-sex relations
    with Kory P. Schaff
    Journal of Social Philosophy 32 (3). 2001.
    I argue that there is nothing in Kant’s moral theory that legitimates condemnation of same-sex relations and that the arguments from natural ends Kant relies on in doing so are unjustified by the constraints placed upon morality to avoid the empirical determination of judgments. In order to make clear why same-sex activity does not contradict the requirements of the moral law, we need to understand Kant’s account of legitimate sexual activity. I provide this reconstruction in the first section, …Read more
  •  237
    Democratic Rights in the Workplace
    Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 55 (4): 386-404. 2012.
    Abstract In this paper, I pursue the question whether extending democratic rights to work is good in the broadest possible sense of that term: good for workers, firms, market economies, and democratic states. The argument makes two assumptions in a broadly consequentialist framework. First, the configuration of any relationship among persons in which there is less rather than more coercion makes individuals better off. Second, extending democratic rights to work will entail costs and benefits to…Read more
  •  193
    Agency and institutional rationality: Foucault’s critique of normativity
    Philosophy and Social Criticism 30 (1): 51-71. 2004.
    In this paper, I examine Foucault’s conception of agency by reconstructing two complementary approaches he takes: the ‘analytics of power’, which examines the relation between norms and practice by charting the institutional development within which a set of norms emerge, and the concept of ‘problematization’, which examines reason-giving practices, or varieties of normative justification that legitimize rational institutions and agents’ participation in them. Contrary to the standard caricature…Read more
  •  172
    The present paper argues that a right to work, defined as social and legal guarantees to fair conditions of employment, should be an essential part of a democratic state with market arrangements. This argument proceeds along the following lines. First, I reconstruct an account of rights that defends the “correlativity” thesis of rights and duties. The basic idea is that a social member’s legitimate demand to something of value, such as gainful employment, implies duties on the part of others to …Read more
  •  90
    Guided by Hegel’s claim that rights are actualized only in the ethical life of the modern state, and that the “abstract spirit of Kant’s cosmopolitanism” is pervasive in Carol Gould’s Globalizing Democracy and Human Rights, Schaff raises a variety of moral, political, and ontological objections to her account of rights. He argues that if we embrace with Gould the idea that people have rights in abstraction, in political communities where they are not practically realized, we unwittingly play int…Read more
  •  85
    The Wørd: Fearless Speech and the Politics of Language
    In Aaron Allen Schiller (ed.), Stephen Colbert and Philosophy, Open Court Press. pp. 115-30. 2009.
    Does “The Colbert Report” promote democratic values in American political dialogue? If so, does it encourage substantive criticism of political orthodoxy? Or does it just encourage the politics of cynicism, like so many other cable news shows? We claim that Stephen Colbert's style of political satire promotes democratic values of free, open, and critical speech because it reflects an ethical commitment that evokes the earlier spirit of criticism embodied by the ancient Greek philosophical tradit…Read more
  •  72
    Engineering Ethics for a Sustainable Future
    with Tonatiuh Rodriguez-Nikl
    Kendall Hunt. 2022.
    The book is intended for use in professional ethics, engineering ethics, environmental studies, computer sciences, and technology studies. Our rationale for developing it is two-fold. First, to create an excellent and accessible textbook for students at all levels of learning. Second, to include recent developments in ethics on topics such as gender, race and inequality, while providing updated case studies of interest to students, teachers, and professionals in these areas. The approach that we…Read more
  •  41
    Critical Moral Liberalism (review)
    Social Theory and Practice 25 (1): 161-164. 1999.
  •  25
    This piece outlines an argument against recent changes in U.S. immigration policy that aim to give priority in admissions to skilled workers rather than family members seeking unification. I argue that democratic states have a moral obligation to admit individuals seeking unification with family members, rather than give priority to skilled workers.
  •  24
    Social Reality (review)
    Philosophy 73 (4): 629-645. 1998.
  •  22
    Philosophy and the Problems of Work: A Reader (edited book)
    Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2002.
    Philosophy and the Problems of Work brings together for the first time important philosophical perspectives on the subject of labor and work. Ranging from selections by historical figures such as Plato, Rousseau, Smith and Marx to contemporary debates in political theory and philosophy of economics, the reader covers a variety of viewpoints across both analytical and Continental traditions, including ancient and modern thinkers, classical and welfare liberals, Marxists, anarchists and feminists.
  •  22
    Fair Work: Ethics, Social Policy, Globalization (edited book)
    Rowman & Littlefield International. 2017.
    This book explores a timely topic for philosophers, social scientists, and policy makers concerning ethical theory, social policy, and modern work. It offers international perspectives and comparative analysis that will appeal to academic and policy audiences around the world.
  •  2
    Debating a Post-Work Future: Perspectives from Philosophy and the Social Sciences (edited book)
    with Michael Cholbi, Jean-Phillipe Deranty, and Denise Celentano
    Routledge. forthcoming.
    Growing economic inequality, workforce precarity, the perceived meaninglessness of many jobs, and the prospect of widespread technological unemployment have led to an unprecedented level of critical scrutiny of the institution of work. Some scholars go so far as to propose that we should take seriously, or even embrace, a “post-work” future. This volume aims to provide the first critical overview of the scholarly arguments about the design and desirability of such a “post-work” world. Topics ad…Read more
  •  1
    Practical Ethics in Civil Engineering and Environmental Systems
    with Tonatiuh Rodriguez-Nikl
    Civil Engineering and Environmental Systems 40 (3): 176-94. 2023.
    ABSTRACT Ethics is receiving increased emphasis in civil and environmental engineering. However, despite the proliferation of college textbooks and courses encouraging ethical reasoning, engineers in practice often limit their understanding narrowly to their individual actions. Broader issues of global importance are usually addressed in an ad-hoc manner, if at all. Our goal is to present the topic of ethics in a way that appeals to engineers, especially those receptive to ‘systems thinking’. Ou…Read more
  • Climate Change, Automation, and the Viability of a Post-Work Future
    with Tonatiuh Rodriguez-Nikl
    In Kory P. Schaff, Michael Cholbi, Jean-Phillipe Deranty & Denise Celentano (eds.), _Debating a Post-Work Future: Perspectives from Philosophy and the Social Sciences_, Routledge. forthcoming.
    We claim the climate crisis is the proper baseline for establishing the terms of debate about the viability of a post-work future. In this paper, we aim to assess the viability of a post-work future in which automation replaces a significant portion of human labor. We do this by laying out the possible outcomes of what such a future will look like based on three related axes: technological capacity, politics and social distribution, and alternative conceptions of the good. The purpose in trackin…Read more