Cornell University
Sage School of Philosophy
PhD, 2011
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Areas of Specialization
Social and Political Philosophy
  •  5183
    Despite the vast literature on Rawls's work, few have discussed his arguments for the value of democracy. When his arguments have been discussed, they have received staunch criticism. Some critics have charged that Rawls's arguments are not deeply democratic. Others have gone further, claiming that Rawls's arguments denigrate democracy. These criticisms are unsurprising, since Rawls's arguments, as arguments that the principle of equal basic liberty needs to include democratic liberties, are inc…Read more
  •  927
    International Financial Institutions
    In Darrell Moellendorf Heather Widdows (ed.), The Handbook for Global Ethics, Acumen Press. 2014.
    In this chapter, my main aim is to explore some of the central moral critiques of international financial institutions as well as proposals to overcome the moral problems that they face.
  •  766
    It has been widely reported that women are underrepresented in academic philosophy as faculty and students. This article investigates whether this representation may also occur in the domain of journal article publishing. Our study looked at whether women authors were underrepresented as authors in elite ethics journals — Ethics, Philosophy & Public Affairs, the Journal of Political Philosophy, and the Journal of Moral Philosophy — between 2004-2014, relative to the proportion of women employed …Read more
  •  645
    (White) Tyranny and the Democratic Value of Distrust
    The Monist 98 (4): 391-406. 2015.
    This paper makes an argument for the democratic value of distrust. It begins by analyzing distrust, since distrust is not merely the negation of trust. The account that it develops is based primarily on Martin Luther King Jr.’s work in Why We Can’t Wait. On this view, distrust is the confident belief that another individual or group of individuals or an institution will not act justly or as justice requires. It is a narrow normative account of distrust, since it concerns a specific normative tas…Read more
  •  561
    We Can Make Rational Decisions to Have a Child: On the Grounds for Rejecting L.A. Paul’s Arguments
    In Richard Vernon Sarah Hannan & Samantha Brennan (eds.), Permissible Progeny, Oxford University Press. 2015.
    L.A. Paul has recently argued that, on the standard model of rationality, individuals cannot make rational decisions about whether to have a child or not. In this paper, I show that Paul’s arguments do not plausibly demonstrate that the standard model of rationality precludes rational decisions to have a child. I argue that there are phenomenal and non-phenomenal values that can be used to determine the value that having a child will have for us and, in turn, that can be used to make rational de…Read more
  •  530
    Reconceiving Rawls’s Arguments for Equal Political Liberty and Its Fair Value
    Social Theory and Practice 38 (2): 258-278. 2012.
    Few have discussed Rawls's arguments for the value of democracy. This is because his arguments, as arguments that the principle of equal basic liberty should include democratic liberties, are incomplete. Rawls says little about the inclusion of political liberties of a democratic sort – such as the right to vote – among the basic liberties. And, at times, what he does say is unconvincing. My aim is to complete and, where they fail, to reconceive Rawls's arguments and to show that a principle req…Read more
  •  153
    Political Solidarity, Justice and Public Health
    Public Health Ethics 6 (2): 129-141. 2013.
    n this paper, I argue that political solidarity is important to justice. At its core, political solidarity is a relational concept. To be in a relation of political solidarity, is to be in a relation of connection or unity with one’s fellow citizens. I argue that fellow citizens can be said to stand in such a relation when they have attitudes of collective identification, mutual respect, mutual trust, and mutual support and loyalty toward one another. I argue that political solidarity, so concei…Read more
  •  112
    In December 2006, Indonesia decided to stop sending influenza virus specimens to the World Health Organization’s Global Influenza Surveillance Network (GISN). Indonesia justified its actions by claiming that they were in protest of the injustice of GISN. Its actions stimulated negotiations to improve the workings of GISN by developing and implementing a more just framework for ‘sharing influenza viruses and other benefits’. These negotiations eventually led to the adoption of a new framework for…Read more
  •  64
    This essay develops an account of Martin Luther King Jr.’s justification for and use of what I will call “democratic propaganda”—truthful propaganda that is aimed at promoting and fostering democratic political action by stirring readers’ emotions. I interpret King’s famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in the broader context of his work and argue that it is a piece of democratic propaganda. I give an account of what led King to support the use of democratic propaganda and why he hoped it would …Read more
  •  37
    Nudging Global Poverty Alleviation?
    The Law and Ethics of Human Rights 9 (2): 249-264. 2015.
    Journal Name: The Law & Ethics of Human Rights Issue: Ahead of print
  •  15
    What Makes Gentrification Wrong? A Place-based Account
    Journal of Moral Philosophy 1-29. forthcoming.
    Through an analysis of the moral relationship between people and place, this paper offers a new view of the wrongful character of gentrification, which is pluralistic, locating the wrong in the non-fulfillment of three place-related rights: rights to a home, rights of residency, and place-based rights to a community. By focusing on the multiple ways that people are connected to place, we offer a more complete and systematic account of place-related rights that is not only able to make sense of p…Read more
  • Donating Human Samples: Who Benefits? – Cases from Iceland, Kenya, and Indonesia
    with J. Lucas, D. Schroeder, G. Arnason, P. Andanda, J. Kimani, and V. Fournier
    In D. Schroeder & J. Lucas (eds.), Benefit Sharing – From Biodiversity to Human Genetics, Springer. 2013.
    This piece outlines concrete cases of benefit sharing that occur in relation to the sharing of human (biological) samples. For example, it surveys Indonesia’s decision, in 2006, to stop sharing virus samples of H5N1 (avian influenza) with the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance Network (GISN). It also outlines some of the ethical issues that arise in these cases.
  • International financial institutions
    In Darrel Moellendorf & Heather Widdows (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Global Ethics, Routledge. 2014.