Justice Everywhere

19 August, 2019

From the Vault: Good Reads on Public Philosophy

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

Here are three good reads on issues relating to Public Philosophy that you may have missed or be interested to re-read:

In “Dumbed down for the masses?” Public philosophy in different keys, and why it matters for justice, Lisa Herzog reflects on some of the challenges involved in writing for a broader audience.
Tim Meijers and Ingrid Robeyns on Philosophical experiment about inequality: the authors report on an experiment they did to engage the public in a participatory “veil-of-ignorance” thought experiment.
John Tillson’s post addresses the question: Why isn’t ethical approval required for television shows?

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.

Animals / Climate

12 August, 2019

by admin

From the Vault: Good Reads on Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss

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

Here are three good reads on justice and the environment that you may have missed or be interested to re-read:

In Climate ethicists flying to conferences? The middle ground regarding voluntarily offsetting emissions, Wouter Peeters argues that offsetting greenhouse gas emissions can be morally acceptable if a number of conditions are satisfied
Angie Pepper on Earth Day 2019 – Protecting Species or Individuals?, which is critical of the theme of the 2019 Earth Day Protect Our Species
In The ethics of teaching climate ethics, Megan Blomfield reflects on the course ‘Global Justice and Climate Change’ she taught for the first time, and all of the questions it raised.

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.

Democracy / Gender / Governance

5 August, 2019

by admin

From the Vault: Good Reads on the Ethics and Politics of Technology

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

Here are some good reads on issues relating to the ethics and politics of technology that you may have missed or be interested to re-read:

Lisa Herzog addressing the question: What Would it Take to Turn Facebook into a Democracy?
Julia Hermann exploring the concept of Technological Justice and the issue of whether gender justice might be pursued via emerging biotechnological breakthroughs regarding the Artificial Womb.
Fay Niker interviewing Johannes Himmelreich on the Ethics of Self-Driving Cars and writing on ‘Hackable Humans’ and the Need for Philosophy.

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.

Economics

29 July, 2019

by admin

From the Vault: The “Just Wages” Series

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.

Academia / Education

22 July, 2019

by admin

From the Vault: Good Reads on Justice and the Academy

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.

Academia / Education

15 July, 2019

by David Yarrow

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

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. (more…)

Democracy / Punishment / Rights

8 July, 2019

by admin

In Defence of Children’s Civil Disobedience

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. (more…)

Climate / General

1 July, 2019

by Wouter Peeters

Are ‘New Harms’ really all that new?

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.* (more…)

Climate / Economics / General / Moral values

24 June, 2019

by Wouter Peeters

Why We Need More Materialism

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). (more…)

Economics / Work

17 June, 2019

by Lisa Herzog

Markets and meaning – thinking about their relation

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]

(more…)