The fact that persons are separate in some descriptive sense is relatively uncontroversial. But one of the distinctive ideas of contemporary liberal political philosophy is that the descriptive fact of our separateness is normatively momentous. John Rawls and Robert Nozick both take the...

This essay is intended to provide an introductory overview of the philosophical problems involved in understanding the nature and value of liberty, and the range and categories of philosophic solutions that have been offered to those problems. This essay covers the distinction between negative...

The philosophical work of John Rawls has had a tremendous influence on contemporary business ethics. But that influence has been limited to a relatively narrow portion of Rawls' ideas. Business ethics textbooks and journal articles focus much more heavily on Rawls' Theory of Justice than they do...

Friedrich Hayek is known for his defense of limited government and a free-market economy. But Hayek was also a consistent defender throughout his life of something that looks very much like a Universal Basic Income (UBI). To many, this combination of views will seem paradoxical. The purpose of...

During the last decade, scholarly criticism of sweatshops has grown increasingly sophisticated. This article reviews the new moral and economic foundations of these criticisms and argues that they are flawed. It seeks to advance the debate over sweatshops by noting the extent to which the case...

Whatever else might be said about the Lockean and Hobbesian states of nature, it is widely believe that they are mutually incompatible. One or the other (or neither) is a correct way of thinking about the state of nature, but not both. This paper argues that this intuitively plausible claim is...

This paper argues that a sweatshop worker's choice to accept the conditions of his or her employment is morally significant, both as an exercise of autonomy and as an expression of preference. This fact establishes a moral claim against interference in the conditions of sweatshop labor by third...

There is no good economic or moral rationale for the idea of “equal pay for all.” In terms of economics, such a proposal would destroy the incentive-producing and information-conveying role of prices in the labor market, leading to catastrophic misallocations of labor and dire consequences...

Herbert Spencer is commonly regarded as a "social Darwinist," who was, at best, indifferent to the suffering of the poor, and perhaps even positively welcoming of it. This paper re-examines Spencer's thoughts regarding obligations to the poor, and argues that the common interpretation is deeply...