Research students
MANCEPT has a long tradition of excellence in research. A considerable contribution to this research ethos is made by its many research students who are reading for their M Phil or PhD degree. Below is a list of current PhD and M Phil students with a brief description of their particular project.
View our recently completed PhDs
Brian Carey
Supervisors: Jon Quong and Alan Hamlin
E-mail address:brian.carey@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
My thesis concerns a debate over the distinction between, and usefulness of, "ideal" and "non-ideal" approaches to issues in ethics and political philosophy. Ideal theory is characterized by its critics as being so insensitive to crucial facts about "the real world" that it becomes practically useless (or even counterproductive) when it comes to figuring out how we ought to behave here and now. In the first section of my thesis I aim to explore these criticisms and (hopefully) offer a defense of ideal theory's role in normative theorizing. I hope to establish that one of the most useful aspects of ideal theory is that it allows us to compare the ideal world to the world we live in, in order to illuminate the sorts of constraints which make the former difficult to achieve. From here, I aim to investigate the extent to which we may have moral obligations to uncover, minimize and/or eliminate these constraints, in the hope of articulating principles which can help to guide us in the transition from the non-ideal world we find ourselves in, to a world which more closely resembles the ideal.
Steve Cooke
Supervisors Kimberley Brownlee and Steve de Wijze
E-mail address: stephen.cooke@manchester.ac.uk
The Ethics of Animal Liberation
In exploring the ethics of animal liberation I am looking at whether animals of worthy of moral consideration and, if so, whether it is justifiable to break the law in their defence. My thesis will examine, where animals are accorded rights, what kinds of illegal actions might be justifiable and how they might be justified. The subject of my enquiry will be carried out in the context of modern democratic states with particular reference to social contract theories. The research seeks to determine whether and how democratic societies should respond to the claims and actions of animal rights activists and to enrich the ongoing debate on animal research.
John Derbyshire
Supervisors: Jon Quong and Kim Brownlee
Email address: jkderbyshire@googlemail.com
My PhD is based around the work of John Taurek and his work on the number problem - whether the interests of the many should always prevail at the expense of the few in cases such as trolley problems. I argue that it is possible to conceive of a weighted or proportional lottery solution which treats the problem as a matter of procedural fairness when all other considerations are either perfectly or roughly in balance. If a choice between two individuals is best solved by tossing a fair coin (following Taurek), I contend that a fully ordered series of individual coin flips can explain the result of the weighted lottery in cases where the numbers do not balance. This explanation satisfies both the Taurekian requirement of non-aggregative individualism and the strictest possible interpretation of Scanlon's making a difference principle. My intention is to present a comprehensive theoretical defence of this position in the first half of my thesis before moving to address the challenging practical implications of the theory, particularly in matters of educational policy and bio-ethics.
Stephen Hood
Supervisors Steve de Wijze and Andrew Russell
E-mail address: stephen.hood@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
Citizen Expectations and Deliberative Democracy
Democratic political theory makes a number of assumptions with regard to the expected behaviour of its citizens; in particular it assumes that they will act rationally in pursuit of their own particular conception of the good. My thesis seeks to explore whether such assumptions can remain valid when set against a background context of a technologically advanced market economy, suggesting that this may lead citizens to have expectations of the democratic system that cannot be realised. As a result, there may be a blindspot in democratic theory in failing to adequately account for phenomena such as voter apathy or decreasing confidence in democratic institutions. However, I wish to argue that a deliberative conception of democracy may prove to be superior at dealing with increased demands from citizens, as the process of deliberation will encourage an outward orientation within citizens that provides them with a better understanding of the limits of collective action.
Joe Horton
Supervisors Jon Quong and Tom Porter
E-mail address: joehorton.work@gmail.com
Rawlsians argue that when societies distribute their benefits and burdens in accordance with certain egalitarian rules their members are each advantaged relative to a reasonable baseline. I am going to argue that this is wrong. Rawlsians also claim that certain egalitarian rules are publicly justifiable to persons who disagree on wide-ranging religious and philosophical issues. I am going to argue that, whether or not these rules advantage these persons relative to a reasonable baseline, this is also wrong.
Sara Kallock
Supervisors: Angelia Wilson and Kimberley Brownlee
E-mail address: sara.kallock@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
My work explores the parameters of the 'real' human and asking if persons working within the sex industry fall within these parameters. Does such a subject position qualify or disqualify one from recognition as a political agent? If one does fail to qualify for some sort of recognition does this mean such subjects are not respected?
Are persons working in the sex industry merely 'means' to an end, and if so, how does this shape their lived experience? How does it shape the actions and attitudes others view as acceptable in regards to them?
Does it validate violence towards sex professionals? Could a policy rooted in affirming the 'humanity' of the sex professional be the way forward? Answering these questions will require me to draw on a variety of discipline and thinkers, though I would mostly align my work to that of Judith Butler. I also draw on an array of other post-structuralist thinkers, from Fuss, Derrida, and Foucault, as well as modern thinkers, such as Hegel, Levinas, Pippin, and those writing on theory of Recognition, such as Honneth, Ikaheimo, Taylor, and Fraser. I also seek to conduct an empirical assessment of self/perceptions of persons working the sex industry.
Carlos Lopez-Benitez
Supervisors Alan Hamlin and Adrian Blau
The common good and democratic theory.
Research interests: My thesis focuses on the concept of the common good within deliberative democracy theory, analysing the concept of democracy and the functioning of stable democracies in order to understand the meaning of the common good.
Areas of study: Political Theory, Contemporary Moral and Political Philosophy, Public Policy, Quantitative Methods, Deliberative Democracy, Transitions to Democracy.
Christopher Mills
Supervisors Jon Quong and Steve de Wijze
E-mail address: Christopher.Mills@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
My thesis examines the debate on how a modern liberal democracy can justify its actions to its citizens. Studying the interplay between morality and democracy, I propose an answer to whether a balance between perfectionist enlightened rule and neutral political concern can be achieved in both a stable and coherent manner. Further I am looking at what implications such a position will hold for the modern liberal debates.
Nicola Mulkeen
Supervisors Jon Quong and James Pattison
E-mail address: nicola.mulkeen@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
My project aims to address the question of what it actually means for a person to be exploited. I am centrally concerned to ask what is responsible for the likely injustice faced by specific groups and what would bring about the opposite of this, procedures of justice that would allow for equal freedom and equal rights. I seek to draw from a coalition of the very important and enduring insights that both the Left libertarian and Rawlsian approaches have put on the table, a depiction of key elements from within a liberal egalitarian spectrum. By conjoining the two approaches, I wish to advance a new account of exploitation, one that draws on existing Rawlsian and Left libertarian ideas, but is original in the way that it fuses these ideas. Although this framework will be formulated at rather an abstract level, the underlying aim is to develop a global economic standard to ensure that when individuals engage in trade, it is done on terms that are free and fair.
Robert Munro
Supervisors Jon Quong and Tom Porter
E-mail address: robert.munro@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
Responsibility and Global Justice: Agency, Control, and International Distributive Justice.
Ideas about individual responsibility have been widely explored in political philosophy. My doctoral thesis will explore the role of the concept of collective responsibility in theorising about global justice. By invoking my ideas about responsibility in opposition to those who see no moral problem in treating illiberal regimes, which deny some citizens equal social and economic rights, as collectively responsible entities, I aim to construct a unified account of our duties to citizens and outsiders that moves beyond the Cosmopolitan and Statist approaches to global justice. Holding groups collectively responsible, where relationships of domination prevail, violates the liberal egalitarian ideal that we should only hold people responsible for their choices and not their circumstances. I intend to argue that interaction within groups in which membership is in a significant sense involuntary, such as the nation-state, requires particular inter-personal social freedoms that act as a substratum unifying individual wills in a manner that makes the practice of holding them collectively responsible morally defensible.
Charlie Place
Supervisor Hillel Steiner
Obligations to Share and Rights to Accumulate
Primitive people hold a strong ideological committment to sharing resources within the group. This research project explores the possibility that the redistribution of wealth within the welfare state may be better understood as a reflection of this ancient human political virtue, rather than as a reciprocal arrangement arising out of rational self-interest.
Dean Redfearn
Supervisors Jon Quong and Tom Porter
E-mail address: Dean.Redfearn@manchester.ac.uk
Justice For Children: The Role of Education and Upbringing in Liberal Political Thought
Liberalism has always had particular difficulties dealing with justice for children, difficulties which have not been surmounted and still provoke vast disagreement amongst liberal academics. It is my goal to provide a compelling answer to the question of what we should do for children, and also thereby strengthen the theory of liberal justification upon which I build my case. My thesis is based upon the simple premise that children should be considered as future adults. I argue that we can work out what we owe children (and what children owe adults) from understanding how liberals conceive of adults when justifying principles. The first part of my thesis will expound this thought and advance principles of upbringing alongside a particular understanding of neutral liberal justification. The second part of my thesis will look more closely at the relationship between the purpose of political philosophy, liberal justification and the 'real world'. I shall then be able to suggest the institutions and policies which liberal societies would do well to implement, given the principles outlined in the first part of my thesis.
Stephanie Rinaldi
Supervisors Jon Quong and Tom Porter
Email address: stephanie.rinaldi@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
Does it matter what the people think?
When we formulate normative theories as political philosophers, public opinion of them is not usually our primary concern. However, given that the subject matter of political theory relates to contemporary society and politics, we are susceptible to criticism if our approach is purely philosophical. Political scientists are likely to suggest that the public’s thoughts on such matters are, if not constitutive of the content of justice, at least relevant to the questions we are trying to answer. To investigate this issue, I am going to look closer into the relation between political science and political theory and the role public opinion can play. I also intend to look into existing theories which have considered public reasoning and determine whether their accommodation of public thought is sufficient or required for a just society. I will suggest that there are different levels of interaction which are possible between the people and normative theory and investigate whether one might be considered ideal.
Garvan Walshe
Supervisors Steve de Wijze and Alan Hamlin
Email Address: garvanwalshe@gmail.com
Freedom and Ecology
Environmentalists make moral claims that act as side-constraints. If I want to achieve X, and find environmentalist arguments convincing, I am restricted in the means I can employ to do so. They argue that at least some of these demands are so strong that people who do not themselves accept the moral force of these green moral claims should nevertheless be forced by the state to behave as if they did. I consider the effect that accepting such claims on theories of justice based on a hypothetical social contract, and argue that such theories must, if they are to accommodate environmental demands, sacrifice either their commitment to liberty or to equality. I then attempt to construct and defend a form of "green libertarianism" as an alternative that protects liberty while also being consistent with those forms of left-libertarianism that require significant redistribution on egalitarian grounds.