2019 – Page 4 – Justice Everywhere

From the Vault: The “Just Wages” Series

On 29 July, 2019

While Justice Everywhere takes a break over the summer, we recall from our archives some memorable posts from our 2018-2019 season.

In a first for Justice Everywhere, we hosted a colloquium on the topic of “just wages”. This discussion was sparked by a paper by Joseph Heath in the Erasmus Journal for Economics and Philosophy. Our colloquium – a précis to a full special issue on the topic – included three critical engagements with Heath’s argument, as well as a response from Heath:

Andrew Lister on Talents and Wages.
Peter Boettke, Rosolino Candela, and Kaitlyn Woltz on Is the Market Wage the Just Wage?
Peter Dietsch’s post, On the Very Idea of an Efficient Wage.
Joseph Heath’s reply, On the Very Idea of a Just Wage: Response to Critics.

Justice Everywhere will return in full swing on 2nd September with fresh weekly posts by our regular authors. If you have a suggestion for a topic or would like to contribute a guest post on a topical subject in political philosophy (broadly construed), please feel free to get in touch with us at justice.everywhere.blog@gmail.com.

From the Vault: Good Reads on Justice and the Academy

By admin

On 22 July, 2019

In Academia, Education

While Justice Everywhere takes a break over the summer, we recall from our archives some memorable posts from our 2018-2019 season.

Here are five good reads on issues relating to justice and/in the academy that you may have missed or be interested to re-read:

Matthew Adams on Justice and ‘Contingent Faculty’, which explores whether permanent university faculty have responsibilities to their colleagues holding (much) less secure positions, and if so, what these could be.
Mirjam Muller’s post entitled Who Cares: Emotional Labour in Academia, which persuasively highlights three reasons why we should care about a more equal distribution in providing emotional labour within our universities.
David Yarrow on Grade Inflation, Market Ideology, and the Contradictions of UK Higher Education Policy, which responds to politicians blaming academics for lowering standards by arguing that these effects are caused by their own ideologically-driven market reforms.
Lisa Herzog’s post addressing the question: What, if anything, is wrong with private money in political philosophy?
Robert Simpson’s essay, published as a two-part post, on Universities and Democratic Legitimacy.

Justice Everywhere will return in full swing on 2nd September with fresh weekly posts by our regular authors. If you have a suggestion for a topic or would like to contribute a guest post on a topical subject in political philosophy (broadly construed), please feel free to get in touch with us at justice.everywhere.blog@gmail.com.

Grade Inflation, Market Ideology and the Contradictions of UK Higher Education Policy

By David Yarrow

On 15 July, 2019

In Academia, Education

Politicians blame academics for lowering standards, but it is caused by their own ideologically driven market reforms. A version of this post was published in the Guardian on Friday 12th July.

The Education Secretary Damian Hinds has followed in an illustrious tradition of governments’ blaming Universities for the phenomena of grade inflation. Responding to findings by the Office for Students of an 80% rise in first class degrees (that the body claimed was ‘unexplained’), Mr Hinds attributed this problem to ‘unfair practices’ by universities. It follows his comments last year that ‘institutions should be accountable for maintaining the value of the degrees they award’, with the threat of fines for institutions who fail to comply.

In Defence of Children’s Civil Disobedience

By admin

On 8 July, 2019

In Democracy, Punishment, Rights

In this post, Nikolas Mattheis (University of Bayreuth) defends school strikes for climate against the objection that school attendance is mandatory. Children’s strikes should be viewed as civil disobedience (rather than truancy) and as a legitimate form of democratic participation.

Are ‘New Harms’ really all that new?

By Wouter Peeters

On 1 July, 2019

In Climate, General

Some theorists argue that contemporary problems such as climate change, sweatshop labour, biodiversity loss, … are New Harms – they are unprecedented problems, and differ in important respects from more familiar harms. Intuitively, this view seems to make sense, but in this post I argue that this view is mistaken.*

Why We Need More Materialism

By Wouter Peeters

On 24 June, 2019

In Climate, Economics, General, Moral values

As the famous adage holds, we should try to Do More With Less. We’re living in a time in which minimalism has become a movement and to Marie Kondo has become a verb. As we all know, materialism is bad for the planet and people around us, but I will only focus on how self-interest might also be a significant motivator to reduce our materialism, and also give a humble suggestion as to what fundamentally underlies moving to Doing More With Less (or getting even better at it if you’re already on the programme).

Markets and meaning – thinking about their relation

By Lisa Herzog

On 17 June, 2019

In Economics, Work

The category of „meaning“ is not one that analytically-minded folks working on public policy and PPE issues use very often. And yet, it is one that I could not stop thinking about for quite a while. I mean by it, very broadly, the kinds of projects that individuals pursue, in which certain values are realized – love, beauty, truth, or whatever, in whatever interpretation individuals chose. A quote from a text about professionalism, by historian Thomas L. Haskel, captures an unease that I had had about markets, and the economic way of thinking about them, for a long time: “Where would liberation stop if the entire social universe was given over to competing selves, none acknowledging any standard higher than his or her own desires?”[1]

Universities and Democratic Legitimacy (Part 2)

By Robert Simpson

On 12 June, 2019

In Academia, Democracy, Liberty

In part 1 of this post I outlined an account of the mainstream liberal view about academic freedom, free speech, and their overlapping democratic purposes. According to this account the university should have an academic zone, protected by academic freedom, and aimed at furthering democratic competence, and it should also have a free speech zone, aimed at supporting democratic legitimation.

I think there’s a problem with this picture. Roughly, what goes on in the academic zone is compromised by what goes on in the free speech zone. The intellectual aims that the university is meant to serve, with a view to furthering our democratic competence, can be undermined by the kind of free speech culture that takes root in universities.

Universities and Democratic Legitimacy (Part 1)

By Robert Simpson

On 10 June, 2019

In Academia, Democracy, Liberty

Free speech is vital to democracy. Alexander Meiklejohn offered a powerful defense of this idea in the mid-20th century, and since then it has gravitated towards centre stage in free speech discourse. The modern academic defenders of this view — people like Robert Post, Eric Heinze, and Ronald Dworkin — typically say that free speech isn’t just important for the health of a democracy, but that it’s also a necessary condition for democratic legitimacy. In a free society people are unafraid to broadcast their ethical convictions in public. There is a free press, an arts sector untouched by state censorship, and a cherished liberty for all to mock and criticise our leaders. The democratic government’s authority is legitimised partly through its upholding these freedoms.

But where does academic freedom fit into this picture? And what is the university’s role in ensuring the vitality and legitimacy of democratic society?

My body, my self? – #everydaylookism

By Wouter Peeters

On 3 June, 2019

In Gender, Moral values

Beauty as a topic has been neglected in political philosophy and justice theorizing, but in this post I will try to convince you that it should be our concern. Beauty is not something trivial, but a major public issue which requires serious attention from all kinds of disciplines and stakeholders.

a blog about philosophy in public affairs

Year: 2019 Page 4 of 6

From the Vault: The “Just Wages” Series

From the Vault: Good Reads on Justice and the Academy

Grade Inflation, Market Ideology and the Contradictions of UK Higher Education Policy

In Defence of Children’s Civil Disobedience

Are ‘New Harms’ really all that new?

Why We Need More Materialism

Markets and meaning – thinking about their relation

Universities and Democratic Legitimacy (Part 2)

Universities and Democratic Legitimacy (Part 1)

My body, my self? – #everydaylookism