Neera K. Badhwar

University of Oklahoma
George Mason University
  • University of Oklahoma
    Department of Philosophy
    Retired faculty
  • George Mason University
    Mercatus Center
    Professor (Part-time)
University of Toronto, St. George Campus
Graduate Department of Philosophy
PhD, 1986
Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America
  •  3
    Do All Interesting Experiences Add to the Quality of Life?
    Journal of Philosophical Research 48 247-251. 2023.
    In “ReImagining the Quality of Life,” Lorraine Besser challenges the frameworks typically used for evaluating the quality of people’s lives, especially those with Alzheimer’s disease or those in minimally conscious states (MCS). These frameworks rely on two standards: agency and sentience. The first assumes that the absence of agency makes a life prudentially worthless (worthless to the individual whose life it is), because cognitive activity is prudentially valuable “only when it reflects agenc…Read more
  •  49
    Friendship, Justice and Supererogation
    American Philosophical Quarterly 22 (2). 1985.
  • The Ethical Significance of Friendship
    Dissertation, University of Toronto (Canada). 1986.
    Friendship is a cardinal human value, and requires both the "other-regarding" and the "self-regarding" virtues. Thus an analysis of friendship can illuminate the nature of morality, and provide a test of adequacy of rival moral theories. But even when it is recognized that friendship involves virtue, the role of justice is usually ignored, thanks to the idea that justice is an impersonal, "public" virtue. But justice is crucially important in friendship, and is connected as well with benevolence…Read more
  •  184
    Friends as ends in themselves
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 48 (1): 1-23. 1987.
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research is currently published by International Phenomenological Society
  •  10
    Autonomy, Liberty, and Utility
    Dialogue 28 (3): 487-. 1989.
    Lawrence Haworth's book, Autonomy, discusses “Autonomy as a Psychological Idea”, and “Autonomy as a Normative Idea”. Part 1 discusses autonomy in relation to rationality, agency, and responsibility, defends it against Skinnerian sceptics, and outlines a theory of autonomous decision-making and the autonomous task environment. Haworth's conception of autonomy integrates and builds on the concepts of S. I. Benn, G. Dworkin, H. Frankfurt, and R. W. White. Part 2 centres on social/political theory, …Read more
  •  317
    I take friendship to be a practical and emotional relationship marked by mutual and (more-or-less) equal goodwill, liking, and pleasure. Friendship can exist between siblings, lovers, parent and adult child, as well as between otherwise unrelated people. Some friendships are valued chiefly for their usefulness. Such friendships are instrumental or means friendships. Other friendships are valued chiefly for their own sakes. Such friendships are noninstrumental or end friendships. In this paper I …Read more
  •  30
    Altruism versus self-interest: Sometimes a false dichotomy*: Neera Kapur Badhwar
    Social Philosophy and Policy 10 (1): 90-117. 1993.
    In the moral philosophy of the last two centuries, altruism of one kind or another has typically been regarded as identical with moral concern. When self-regarding duties have been recognized, motivation by duty has been sharply distinguished from motivation by self-interest . Accordingly, from Kant, Mill, and Sidgwick to Rawls, Nagel, and Gauthier, concern for our own interests, whether long-term or short-term, has typically been regarded as intrinsically nonmoral. So, for example, although Tho…Read more
  •  90
    The circumstances of justice: Pluralism, community, and friendship
    Journal of Political Philosophy 1 (3). 1993.
    Liberal political theory sees justice as the "first virtue" of a good society, the virtue that guides individuals' conceptions of their own good, and protects the equal liberty of all to pursue their ends, so long as these ends and pursuits are just. But ever since Marx's declaration that "liberty as a right of man is not founded upon the relations between man and man, but rather upon the separation of man from man...,"i liberal society has been frequently criticized for falling seriously short …Read more
  •  141
    Friendship: a philosophical reader (edited book)
    Cornell University Press. 1993.
    Introduction: The Nature and Signif1cance of Friendship Neera Kapur Badhwar Philosophers have long recognized that friendship plays a central role in a ...
  •  162
    International aid: When giving becomes a vice
    Social Philosophy and Policy 23 (1): 69-101. 2006.
    Peter Singer and Peter Unger argue that moral decency requires giving away all one's “surplus” for the relief or prevention of “absolute poverty,” because not doing so is analogous to refusing to save a drowning child to avoid making one's clothes muddy. I argue that there is a crucial disanalogy between the two cases and, moreover, that there are four independent moral objections to their thesis: it is monomaniacal in ignoring the variety of morally worthy ideals and elevating self-sacrificial …Read more
  •  14
    Comments on In Praise of Desire
    Journal of Value Inquiry 50 (2): 433-437. 2016.
  •  49
    This book offers a new argument for the ancient claim that well-being as the highest prudential good -- eudaimonia -- consists of happiness in a life according to virtue. Virtue is a source of happiness, but happiness also requires external goods.
  •  101
    Friendship and Commercial Societies
    Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (No. 3): 301-326. 2008.
    Critics of commercial societies complain that the free-market system of property rights and freedom of contract tends to commodify relationships and erode the bonds of personal and civic friendship. I argue that this thesis rests on a misunderstanding of both markets and friendship. As voluntary, reciprocal relationships, market relationships and friendship share important properties. So-called market norms, such as instrumentality and fungibility, come in varying degrees and characterize not on…Read more
  •  10
    Experiments in living
    The Philosophers' Magazine 35 58-61. 2006.
  • Ayn Rand's Contribution to Philosophy
    Reason Papers 23 75-78. 1998.
  •  1141
    Self-Interest and Virtue*: NEERA K. BADHWAR
    Social Philosophy and Policy 14 (1): 226-263. 1997.
    The Aristotelian view that the moral virtues–the virtues of character informed by practical wisdom–are essential to an individual's happiness, and are thus in an individual's self-interest, has been little discussed outside of purely scholarly contexts. With a few exceptions, contemporary philosophers have tended to be suspicious of Aristotle's claims about human nature and the nature of rationality and happiness. But recent scholarship has offered an interpretation of the basic elements of Aris…Read more
  •  87
    1.1 Are commercial societies unfriendly to friendship? Many critics of commercial societies, from both the left and the right, have thought so. They claim that the free-market system of property rights, freedom of contract, and other liberty rights – the “negative” right of individuals to peacefully pursue their own ends – is impersonal and dehumanizing, or even inherently divisive and adversarial. Yet (their complaint goes) the psychology and morality of markets and liberty rights pervade far t…Read more
  •  130
    Someone who is reality-oriented and in touch with important features of her life is realistic. Realism has long been regarded as a hallmark of mental health and well-being, understood as happiness in an objectively worthy life. This view has also long invited the objection that ignorance can be bliss. Another objection, of recent vintage, comes from social psychology. Taylor and Brown claim that mildly deluded people are healthier and happier than highly realistic people. I argue against both ob…Read more
  •  215
    I. Introduction Sex has been thought to reveal the most profound truths about individuals, laying bare their deepest desires and fears to their partners and themselves. In ‘Carnal Knowledge,’ Wendy Doniger states that this view is to be found in the texts of ancient India, in the Hebrew Bible, in Renaissance England and Europe, as well as in contemporary culture, including Hollywood films.1 Indeed, according to Josef Pieper, the original, Hebrew, meaning of `carnal knowledge’ was `immediate toge…Read more
  •  38
    Justice within the limits of human nature alone
    Social Philosophy and Policy 33 (1-2): 193-213. 2016.
    Abstract: Contra John Rawls, G. A. Cohen argues that the fundamental principles of justice are not constrained by the limits of our nature or the nature of society, even at its historical best. Justice is what it is, even if it will never be realized, fully or at all. Likewise, David Estlund argues that since our innate motivations can be justice-tainting, they cannot be a constraint on the right conception of justice. Cohen and Estlund agree that if the attempt to implement a certain conception…Read more
  •  145
    Philosophical interest in friendship has revived after a long eclipse. This is largely due to a renewed interest in ancient moral philosophy, in the role of emotion in morality, and in the ethical dimensions of personal relations in general. Some of the main questions raised by philosophers are the following: Is friendship only an instrumental value, i.e., only a means to other values, or also an intrinsic value - a value in its own right? Is friendship a mark of psychological and moral self-suf…Read more
  •  371
    Altruism Versus Self-Interest: Sometimes a False Dichotomy
    Social Philosophy and Policy 10 (1): 90-117. 1993.
    In the moral philosophy of the last two centuries, altruism of one kind or another has typically been regarded as identical with moral concern. When self-regarding duties have been recognized, motivation by duty has been sharply distinguished from motivation by self-interest. I think this view is wrong: self-interest can be the motive of a moral act. My chief concern is to argue that self-interested action -- i.e., action motivated by rational self-interest -- can be moral, but the data I use to…Read more