Palgrave Studies in Ethics and Public Policy – serie

In the first full length examination of the topic, Ethical Citizenship rediscovers a significant and distinctive contribution to how we might understand citizenship today. Leading international scholars bring together theory and practice to explore its historical roots, contemporary relevance and application to international politics.

Arguing that the suffering of combatants is better understood through philosophy than psychology, as not trauma, but exile, this book investigates the experiences of torturers, UAV operators, cyberwarriors, and veterans to reveal not only the exile at the core of becoming a combatant, but the evasion from exile at the core of being a noncombatant.

This book argues that punishment's function is to communicate a message about an offenders' wrongdoing to society at large. It discusses both 'paradigmatic' cases of punishment, where a state punishes its own citizens, and non-paradigmatic cases such as the punishment of corporations and the punishment of war criminals by international tribunals.

The Moral Responsibilities of Companies is a philosophical analysis of the question of whether companies can be held morally responsible for the harms they create, and what implications such a view has on the moral position of employees and shareholders in these companies.

This book argues that understanding truces is crucial for our ability to wind down wars. We have paid too much attention to the idea of permanent peace, yet few conflicts end in this way. The book describes how truce makers think, which truces can be morally justified and provides a philosophical history of truce making in the Western tradition.

The Limits of Liberal Multiculturalism provides a timely analysis of some of the weaknesses, as well as the successes, of the liberal multicultural project. It also takes a step forward by developing a pluralist, individual-centred approach to allocating minority rights in practice.

In the first full length examination of the topic, Ethical Citizenship rediscovers a significant and distinctive contribution to how we might understand citizenship today. Leading international scholars bring together theory and practice to explore its historical roots, contemporary relevance and application to international politics.

Arguing that the suffering of combatants is better understood through philosophy than psychology, as not trauma, but exile, this book investigates the experiences of torturers, UAV operators, cyberwarriors, and veterans to reveal not only the exile at the core of becoming a combatant, but the evasion from exile at the core of being a noncombatant.

The Moral Responsibilities of Companies is a philosophical analysis of the question of whether companies can be held morally responsible for the harms they create, and what implications such a view has on the moral position of employees and shareholders in these companies.

This book argues that understanding truces is crucial for our ability to wind down wars. We have paid too much attention to the idea of permanent peace, yet few conflicts end in this way. The book describes how truce makers think, which truces can be morally justified and provides a philosophical history of truce making in the Western tradition.

This open access book discusses individual, collective, and institutional responsibilities with regard to vaccination from the perspective of philosophy and public health ethics. It addresses the issue of what it means for a collective to be morally responsible for the realisation of herd immunity and what the implications of collective responsibility are for individual and institutional responsibilities.The first chapter introduces some key concepts in the vaccination debate, such as ‘herd immunity’, ‘public goods’, and ‘vaccine refusal’; and explains why failure to vaccinate raises certain ethical issues. The second chapter analyses, from a philosophical perspective, the relationship between individual, collective, and institutional responsibilities with regard to the realisation of herd immunity. The third chapter is about the principle of least restrictive alternative in public health ethics and its implications for vaccination policies. Finally, the fourth chapter presentsan ethical argument for unqualified compulsory vaccination, i.e. for compulsory vaccination that does not allow for any conscientious objection. The book will appeal to philosophers interested in public health ethics and the general public interested in the philosophical underpinning of different arguments about our moral obligations with regard to vaccination.

This volume considers the ethics of policing and imprisonment, focusing particularly on mass incarceration and police shootings in the United States. The contributors consider the ways in which non-ideal features of the criminal justice system—features such as the prevalence of guns in America, political pressures, considerations of race and gender, and the lived experiences of people in jails and prisons—impinge upon conclusions drawn from more idealized models of punishment and law enforcement. There are a number of common themes running throughout the chapters. One is the contrast between idealism and realism about justice. Another is the attention to harmful consequences, not only of prisons themselves, but to the events that often precede incarceration, including encounters with police and pre-trial detention. A third theme is the legacy of racism in the United States and the role that the criminal justice system plays in perpetuating racial oppression.

This compelling new book explores whether the ability of democratic procedures to produce correct outcomes increases the legitimacy of such political decisions. Mapping and critically engaging with the main theories of epistemic democracy, it additionally evaluates arguments for different democratic decision-making procedures related to aggregative and deliberative democracy.Addressing both positions that are too epistemic, such as Epistrocracy and Scholocracy, as well as those that are not epistemic enough, such as Pure Epistemic Proceduralism and Pragmatist Deliberative Democracy, Cerovac builds an innovative structure that can be used to bring order to numerous accounts of epistemic democracy. Introducing an appropriate account of epistemic democracy, Cerovac proceeds to analyse whether such epistemic value is better achieved through aggregative or deliberative procedures. Drawing particularly on the work of David Estlund, and including a discussion on the implementation of the epistemic ideal to real world politics, this is a fascinating read for all those interested in democratic decision-making.

This compelling new book explores whether the ability of democratic procedures to produce correct outcomes increases the legitimacy of such political decisions. Mapping and critically engaging with the main theories of epistemic democracy, it additionally evaluates arguments for different democratic decision-making procedures related to aggregative and deliberative democracy.Addressing both positions that are too epistemic, such as Epistrocracy and Scholocracy, as well as those that are not epistemic enough, such as Pure Epistemic Proceduralism and Pragmatist Deliberative Democracy, Cerovac builds an innovative structure that can be used to bring order to numerous accounts of epistemic democracy. Introducing an appropriate account of epistemic democracy, Cerovac proceeds to analyse whether such epistemic value is better achieved through aggregative or deliberative procedures. Drawing particularly on the work of David Estlund, and including a discussion on the implementation of the epistemic ideal to real world politics, this is a fascinating read for all those interested in democratic decision-making.

How might political emotions contribute to the creation of a decent public sphere? Our societies are characterized by difference and contestation. Cultivating political emotions can appear counterproductive to stability and peace. But there is an increasing recognition that emotions can be harnessed to empower community cohesion and social justice – and new ideas about how our political emotions can foster a decent public sphere and overcome intolerance are urgently needed. In Political Emotions: Towards a Decent Public Sphere, leading theorists consider the limits and prospects of cultivating our emotions that support social justice. All examine this topic from a diversity of disciplinary perspectives breaking new ground and yielding new understandings. Issues explored include adaptive preferences, capabilities, civil religion, compassion, conscience, dignity, feminism, imagination, multicultural citizenship, perfectionism, political liberalism, public sentiments, sympathy and much more in a wide-ranging exploration of key themes in contemporary political philosophy – and Martha C. Nussbaum’s significant contributions to it in particular - that should be of interest to anyone working in these broad areas.

How might political emotions contribute to the creation of a decent public sphere? Our societies are characterized by difference and contestation. Cultivating political emotions can appear counterproductive to stability and peace. But there is an increasing recognition that emotions can be harnessed to empower community cohesion and social justice – and new ideas about how our political emotions can foster a decent public sphere and overcome intolerance are urgently needed. In Political Emotions: Towards a Decent Public Sphere, leading theorists consider the limits and prospects of cultivating our emotions that support social justice. All examine this topic from a diversity of disciplinary perspectives breaking new ground and yielding new understandings. Issues explored include adaptive preferences, capabilities, civil religion, compassion, conscience, dignity, feminism, imagination, multicultural citizenship, perfectionism, political liberalism, public sentiments, sympathy and much more in a wide-ranging exploration of key themes in contemporary political philosophy – and Martha C. Nussbaum’s significant contributions to it in particular - that should be of interest to anyone working in these broad areas.

This book examines modernity itself. A single overarching policy recommendation is defended, namely, that the West ought not to defect from modernity’s core commitments to the sciences, market economics and liberal democracy despite the litany of complaints that have been, and continue to be levelled against it. But in addition to this overarching recommendation, numerous policy suggestions are made. The reader will find discussions as wide-ranging as electoral regimes and judicial procedure, banking regulations and the ethics of a modern civil service. What binds these disparate subsidiary recommendations together is that they are designed to meet the challenges facing modernity while remaining true to its core commitments. These subsidiary policy recommendations, in turn, are not developed in an ad hoc manner, but are themselves motivated by a distinct philosophy of modernity which is termed natural law liberalism.

This book examines modernity itself. A single overarching policy recommendation is defended, namely, that the West ought not to defect from modernity’s core commitments to the sciences, market economics and liberal democracy despite the litany of complaints that have been, and continue to be levelled against it. But in addition to this overarching recommendation, numerous policy suggestions are made. The reader will find discussions as wide-ranging as electoral regimes and judicial procedure, banking regulations and the ethics of a modern civil service. What binds these disparate subsidiary recommendations together is that they are designed to meet the challenges facing modernity while remaining true to its core commitments. These subsidiary policy recommendations, in turn, are not developed in an ad hoc manner, but are themselves motivated by a distinct philosophy of modernity which is termed natural law liberalism.

This book takes the contentious issue of designer babies and argues against the liberal eugenic current of bioethics that commends the logic and choice regimes of selective reproduction. Against conceptions of Procreative Beneficence that trade on a disregard for the gifts of maternal bodies, it seeks to recover a thought of maternal giving and a more hospitable ethic of generational beneficence. Exploring themes of responsibility, gift and natality, the book refigures the experience of reproduction as the site of an ethical response to future generations, where refusal to choose one’s children is one virtuous response. The book will appeal to anyone with an interest in reproductive ethics, feminist thought and those seeking principled grounds for resisting the technologies of choosing children.

This book takes the contentious issue of designer babies and argues against the liberal eugenic current of bioethics that commends the logic and choice regimes of selective reproduction. Against conceptions of Procreative Beneficence that trade on a disregard for the gifts of maternal bodies, it seeks to recover a thought of maternal giving and a more hospitable ethic of generational beneficence. Exploring themes of responsibility, gift and natality, the book refigures the experience of reproduction as the site of an ethical response to future generations, where refusal to choose one’s children is one virtuous response. The book will appeal to anyone with an interest in reproductive ethics, feminist thought and those seeking principled grounds for resisting the technologies of choosing children.