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230Inclusive dignityPolitics, Philosophy and Economics 23 (1): 22-46. 2024.The idea of dignity is pervasive in political discourse. It is central to human rights theory and practice, and it features regularly in conceptions of social justice as well as in the social movements they seek to understand or orient. However, dignity talk has been criticized for leading to problematic exclusion. Critics challenge it for undermining our recognition of the rights of non-human animals and of many human individuals (such as children, the elderly, and people with disabilities). I …Read more
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504Self-esteem and competitionPhilosophy and Social Criticism 49 (6): 711-742. 2023.This paper explores the relations between self-esteem and competition. Self-esteem is a very important good and competition is a widespread phenomenon. They are commonly linked, as people often seek self-esteem through success in competition. Although competition in fact generates valuable consequences and can to some extent foster self-esteem, empirical research suggests that competition has a strong tendency to undermine self-esteem. To be sure, competition is not the source of all problematic…Read more
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46Human Dignity and Social JusticeOxford University Press. 2023.Human dignity: social movements invoke it, several national constitutions enshrine it, and it features prominently in international human rights documents. But what is it, why is it important, and what is its relationship to human rights and social justice? Pablo Gilabert offers a systematic defence of the view that human dignity is the moral heart of justice. In Human Dignity and Human Rights (OUP 2019), he advanced an account of human dignity for the context of human rights discourse, which co…Read more
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31Defending human dignity and human rightsJournal of Global Ethics 16 (3): 326-342. 2020.I am very grateful to Christian Barry, Michael Blake, Adam Etinson, and Cristina Lafont for their essays on Human Dignity and Human Rights.1 I admire and have learnt from their own philosophical wo...
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14Précis of Human Dignity and Human RightsJournal of Global Ethics 16 (3): 283-287. 2020.ABSTRACT This précis offers a summary of key claims in my book Human Dignity and Human Rights.
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562Perfectionism and DignityEuropean Journal of Philosophy 30 (1): 259-278. 2022.Perfectionism about well-being is, at a minimum, the view that people’s lives go well when, and because they realize their capacities. It is common to link perfectionism with an idea of human essence or nature, to yield the view that what constitutes people’s well-being is the development and exercise of characteristically human capacities. The first part of this paper considers the very serious problems associated with the idea of human nature or essence, and argues that perfectionism would be …Read more
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226The two principles of justice (in justice as fairness)In Jon Mandle and David Reidy (ed.), The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon, Cambridge University Press. pp. 845-850. 2015.
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126Amartya SenIn Jon Mandle and David Reidy (ed.), The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon, Cambridge University Press. pp. 765-767. 2015.
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117Fundamental IdeasIn Jon Mandle and David Reidy (ed.), The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon, Cambridge University Press. pp. 306-307. 2015.
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645Alienation, Freedom, and DignityPhilosophical Topics 48 (2): 51-80. 2020.The topic of alienation has fallen out of fashion in social and political philosophy. It used to be salient, especially in socialist thought and in debates about labor practices in capitalism. Although the lack of identification of people with their working lives—their alienation as workers—remains practically important, normative engagement with it has been set back by at least four objections. They concern the problems of essentialist views, a mishandling of the distinction between the good an…Read more
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388Exploitation, Solidarity, and DignityJournal of Social Philosophy 50 (4): 465-494. 2019.This paper offers a normative exploration of what exploitation is and of what is wrong with it. The focus is on the critical assessment of the exploitation of workers in capitalist societies. Such exploitation is wrongful when it involves a contra-solidaristic use of power to benefit oneself at the expense of others. Wrongful exploitation consists in using your greater power, and sometimes even in making other less powerful than you, in order to get them to benefit you more than they ought to. T…Read more
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140Human Dignity and Human RightsOxford University Press. 2019.Human dignity: social movements invoke it, several national constitutions enshrine it, and it features prominently in international human rights documents. But what is human dignity, why is it important, and what is its relationship to human rights? This book offers a sophisticated and comprehensive defence of the view that human dignity is the moral heart of human rights. First, it clarifies the network of concepts associated with dignity. Paramount within this network is a core notion of human…Read more
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55Facts, norms, and dignityCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 22 (1): 34-54. 2019.
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436A Broad Definition of Agential PowerJournal of Political Power 11 (1): 79-92. 2018.Can we develop a definition of power that is satisfactorily determinate but also enables rather than foreclose important substantive debates about how power relations proceed and should proceed in social and political life? I present a broad definition of agential power that meets these desiderata. On this account, agents have power with respect to a certain outcome (including, inter alia, the shaping of certain social relations) to the extent that they can voluntarily determine whether that out…Read more
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30An intellectual laboratory for the democratic and cosmopolitan leftPhilosophy and Social Criticism 43 (3): 329-330. 2017.
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2265Kantian Dignity and Marxian SocialismKantian Review 22 (4): 553-577. 2017.This paper offers an account of human dignity based on a discussion of Kant's moral and political philosophy and then shows its relevance for articulating and developing in a fresh way some normative dimensions of Marx’s critique of capitalism as involving exploitation, domination, and alienation, and the view of socialism as involving a combination of freedom and solidarity. What is advanced here is not Kant’s own conception of dignity, but an account that partly builds on that conception and p…Read more
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1388Dignity at WorkIn Hugh Collins, Gillian Lester & Virginia Mantouvalou (eds.), Philosophical Foundations of Labour Law, Oxford University Press. pp. 68-86. 2018.This paper offers a justification of labor rights based on an interpretation of the idea of human dignity. According to the dignitarian approach, we have reason to organize social life in such a way that we respond appropriately to the valuable capacities of human beings that give rise to their dignity. That dignity is a deontic status in virtue of which people are owed certain forms of respect and concern. Dignity at work involves the treatment of people in accordance to the ideal of solidarist…Read more
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1961The Socialist Principle “From Each According To Their Abilities, To Each According To Their Needs”Journal of Social Philosophy 46 (2): 197-225. 2015.This paper offers an exploration of the socialist principle “From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs.” The Abilities/Needs Principle is arguably the ethical heart of socialism but, surprisingly, has received almost no attention by political philosophers. I propose an interpretation of the principle and argue that it involves appealing ideas of solidarity, fair reciprocity, recognition of individual differences, and meaningful work. The paper proceeds as follows. …Read more
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54Two Sets of Concerns about Heath's “Pragmatic Theory of Convergence”Dialogue 44 (2): 383-390. 2005.A central concern of Joseph Heath's Communicative Action and Rational Choice is to find a plausible response to “the problem of convergence … to explain why we should ever expect to secure agreement on moral questions”. In Chapter 7 of his book, Heath proposes what he calls “a pragmatic theory of convergence.” This account is presented as contrasting with the one proposed by Jürgen Habermas, which emphasizes the existence of an internal relation between convergence and moral truth. According to …Read more
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925Justice and BeneficenceCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 19 (5): 508-533. 2016.What is a duty of justice? And how is it different from a duty of beneficence? We need a clear account of the contrast. Unfortunately, there is no consensus in the philosophical literature as to how to characterize it. Different articulations of it have been provided, but it is hard to identify a common core that is invariant across them. In this paper, I propose an account of how to understand duties of justice, explain how it contrasts with several proposals as to how to distinguish justice an…Read more
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Substance and Procedure in Discourse Ethics and Deliberative DemocracyDissertation, New School for Social Research. 2003.In this dissertation, I argue that we should reframe the presentation and defense of the program of discourse ethics and deliberative democracy (DEP) in such a way that we make clear its connection to the substantive moral ideas of solidarity, equality and freedom. This program basically says that we should, when we can, determine the validity of the norms regulating our social life through practices of public deliberation. If we want to understand why engaging in public deliberation makes mora…Read more
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45How should we think about the Relation between Principles and Agency?Ethics and Global Politics 6 (2): 75-83. 2013.In this article, I will reflect on Lea Ypi’s methodological contribution in her wonderful book Global Justice and Avant-Garde Political Agency. Ypi addresses the important and underexplored issue of the relation between normative principles and political agency. She proposes a ‘dialectical approach’ to normative political theory, which she contrasts with ‘ideal’ and ‘non-ideal’ approaches, arguing that the first does a better job in articulating progressive guidelines for political agents seekin…Read more
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88Considerations on the Notion of Moral Validity in the Moral Theories of Kant and HabermasKant Studien 97 (2): 210-227. 2006.In what follows I will consider Kant's and Habermas's conceptions of moral validity in a comparative and critical way. First, I will reconstruct Habermas's discursive or deliberative reformulation of Kant's moral theory. And, second, I will introduce some comparative critical considerations. I will contend that, though much is gained with Habermas's intersubjectivist reformulation of Kant's moral philosophy, some problems emerge that could be treated with the help of certain Kantian insights. I …Read more
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79A substantivist construal of discourse ethicsInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 13 (3). 2005.This paper presents a substantivist construal of discourse ethics, which claims that we should see our engagement in public deliberation as expressing and elaborating a substantive commitment to basic moral ideas of solidarity, equality, and freedom. This view is different from Habermas's standard formalist defence of discourse ethics, which attempts to derive the principle of discursive moral justification from primarily non-moral presuppositions of rational argumentation as such. After explica…Read more
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292Relaciones Sociales, Conflicto e Historia. Una Interpretación de 'Dialéctica' en MarxIn Maria Luisa Femenias (ed.), Cuatro concepciones de Dialéctica., Editorial De La Universidad Nacional De La Plata. pp. 117-146. 1998.
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239The feasibility of basic socioeconomic human rights: A conceptual explorationPhilosophical Quarterly 59 (237): 659-681. 2009.To be justifiable, the demands of a conception of human rights and global justice must be such that (a) they focus on the protection of important human interests, and (b) their fulfilment is feasible. I discuss the feasibility condition. I present a general account of the relation between moral desirability, feasibility and obligation within a conception of justice. I analyse feasibility, a complex idea including different types, domains and degrees. It is possible to respond in various ways if …Read more
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Areas of Specialization
Social and Political Philosophy |
Normative Ethics |
Value Theory |