Upcoming  public talks

November 16,

6-8 pm:

Conversations on Ethics book launch and debate with Krister Bykvist (Oxford), 6- 7  pm in the Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE (on the corner of Sardinia Street and Lincoln's Inn Fields). Followed by drinks from 7 pm in the Underground Bar, Clare Market, LSE. Open to all.

 

November 17,

8-10 pm:

'Discussing Conversations on Ethics' in Felix & Sofie, Felix Meritis, Keizers-gracht 324, Amsterdam. Open to all.

 

November 30,

6-8 pm:

'Counter-Composition: Conversations on Ethics'. A lecture & debate with Frances Kamm, T.M. Scanlon and Steve Pyke in the Thompson Room, Barker Center 136, Harvard University. Open to all.

 

December 1,

4-6 pm:

'Can We Trust Our Intuitions in Health Care Allocation? An Experiment' Harvard Program in Ethics and Health, HMS, 641 Huntington Avenue, Boston (1st floor conference room). RSVP to  ethics_health[ at] harvard.edu
 

Alex Voorhoeve

I'm a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at the LSE.

I am currently pursuing two research projects:

1. Liberal Egalitarianism

I'm interested in several questions that are central to liberal egalitarian theory:

Does it matter that some are worse off than others?

What role do people's opportunities to choose play in the justification of social arrangements?

What is a suitably neutral conception of well-being?

2. The Economy of the Soul

I am interested in what psychology reveals to us about how we actually make moral decisions and what rational choice theory and moral reflection tell us about how we should make moral decisions.

Photograph by Sarah Sloboda

E-mail: a.e.voorhoeve [at] lse.ac.uk

 

 

Reviews

'I have rarely enjoyed a philosophy book as much. Voorhoeve's bold effort really works. He cunningly brings ethical theory to life through insightful conversations with key philosophers and scientists. Not only do the issues come alive, but the participants do as well. Don't miss the chance to eavesdrop on these conversations.'
Norman Daniels, Harvard University

'This volume is an extraordinarily rich resource. Alex Voorhoeve has interviewed many of the most interesting and influential recent thinkers on ethical topics, expertly focusing on their core positions and arguments in a series of insightful philosophical dialogues. In doing so he has produced not only a comprehensive introduction to contemporary ethical thought, but also a real sense of the human beings behind the writings.'
Jonathan Wolff, University College London

'In the introduction to his first interview, Voorhoeve cites Nietzsche's dictum that all great problems demand great love. (...) Nietzsche was a hard man to please. But he would have felt some satisfaction with Voorhoeve's eleven interviews. His philosophers are passionate devotees of their own moral systems. They fight for their theories, defending them ferociously and lovingly. (...) Each of them argues his or her case convincingly. Almost always, one falls in with their reasoning--at least, this is what happened to me. But, of course, this leads to inconsistency. For the difference in their views is far too great. This is bewildering, and teaches us a good lesson: not to be unmovable in one's attachments to one's moral views. (...) Voorhoeve shows just how difficult moral calculation and justification of one's views to others is.'

Jan Greven, Trouw (a Dutch daily newspaper; click here for the full article; translation mine.)

 

 

Counter-Composition VI by

Theo van Doesburgh (TATE modern)

Publications  Grants  Teaching  Organisation  Education  PhD students  CV  Band

Publications

Book

Conversations on Ethics. Oxford University Press (2009).

A book of conversations on moral philosophy with leading thinkers from philosophy, psychology and evolutionary game theory. With photographs by Steve Pyke (click here for full cover).

   CONTENTS

      Introduction

 

   I. Ethics and Intuitions

       1. Frances Kamm        In Search of the Deep Structure of Morality

       2. Peter Singer             Each of Us Is Just One Among Others

       3. Daniel Kahneman   Can We Trust Our Intuitions?

   II. Virtue and Flourishing

       4. Philippa Foot           The Grammar of Goodness

       5. Alasdair MacIntyre  The Illusion of Self-Sufficiency

   III. Ethics and Evolution

       6. Ken Binmore            The Origin of Fairness

       7. Allan Gibbard           A Pragmatic Justification of Morality

   IV. Unity and Dissent

       8. T.M. Scanlon            The Kingdom of Ends on the Cheap

       9. Bernard Williams      A Mistrustful Animal

   V. Love and Morality

       10. Harry Frankfurt      The Necessity of Love

       11. David Velleman      Really Seeing Another

 

Research articles (English)

Why It Matters that Some Are Worse Off Than Others. With Michael Otsuka. Philosophy & Public Affairs 37 (2009): 171-99.

Heuristics and Biases in a Purported Counterexample to the Acyclicity of "Better Than". Politics, Philosophy and Economics 7 (2008): 285-99.

Scanlon on Substantive Responsibility. Journal of Political Philosophy 16 (2008): 184-200.

Preference Change and Interpersonal Comparisons of Welfare. In Serena Olsaretti (ed.)  Preferences and Well-Being. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 59 (2006): 265-79.

Transitivity, the Sorites Paradox, and Similarity-Based Decision-Making. With Ken Binmore. Erkenntnis 64:1 (2006): 101-14.

Equal Opportunity and Opportunity Dominance. With Matthias Hild. Economics and Philosophy 20 (2004): 117-45.

Defending Transitivity Against Zeno's Paradox. With Ken Binmore. Philosophy & Public Affairs 31 (2003): 272-79.

Reprinted in Recent Work on Intrinsic Value, eds. T. Ronnow-Rasmussen and M. Zimmerman, Springer (2005): 265-72 with a commentary by Erik Carlson. My Heuristics and Biases in a Purported Counterexample to the Acyclicity of "Better Than" replies to Carlson's criticism.

 

Research articles (Dutch)

Prioriteit voor patienten met een lagere levenskwaliteit! (Priority for patients who are worse off!) Forthcoming in Filosofie & Praktijk (Philosophy & Practice).

Schuldverlichting: niet voor niets. (Debt relief: not for nothing.) With R.M. Oort. Economisch-Statistische Berichten (Economic-Statistical Letters) 85 (2000): 141-43.

Dollarisering gewenst? (Is dollarisation desirable?) Economisch-Statistische Berichten 84 (1999): 577-81.

 

Work in progress

Should Losses Count? A Critique of the Complaint Model. Choice Group Working Papers Vol 2 (2006).

Epicurus on Death.

An Experimental Test of the Hurwicz Criterion for Decision-Making Under Uncertainty. With Ken Binmore and Lisa Stewart.

Similarity-Based Decision-Making in Moral Decisions: An Experiment. With Ken Binmore and Brian Wallace.

Evaluating the distribution of risks: ex ante or ex post? With Marc Fleurbaey.

 

Interviews

(Revised and expanded versions of these interviews appear in Conversations on Ethics.)

In Search of the Deep Structure of Morality. An Interview with Frances Kamm. Imprints 9:2 (2006): 93-117. [The link is to the penultimate draft of the version that appears in Conversations on Ethics.]

A Mistrustful Animal: Bernard Williams Interviewed. The Harvard Review of Philosophy XII (Spring 2004): 81-92.

Harry Frankfurt on the Necessity of Love. Philosophical Writings 23 (2003): 55-70.

The Grammar of Goodness. An Interview with Philippa Foot. The Harvard Review of Philosophy XI (2003): 32-44.

The Good, the Right, and the Seemly. Ken Binmore Interviewed. The Philosophers' Magazine 21 (2002): 48-51.

Kant on the Cheap. Thomas Scanlon Interviewed. The Philosophers' Magazine 16 (2001): 29-30.

 

Reviews

The Practice of Ethics by Hugh LaFollette. Social Choice and Welfare (forthcoming).

Pursuing Equal Opportunities: The Theory and Practice of Egalitarian Justice by Lesley A. Jacobs. Economics and Philosophy 21 (2005): 155-61.

The Philosophy of Science by A. Rosenberg. Philosophy Today 14 (2001): 8-9.

 

Other short pieces

Mill and Barry on the Foundations of Liberal Rights. Published in a shortened version as 'The Limits of Autonomy', The Philosophers' Magazine, 46 (2009): 78-82.

Security and the War on Terror (contribution to a roundtable) in What More Philosophers Think  eds. J. Baggini and J. Stangroom Continuum (2007): 19-32.

Is Poverty Our Problem? The Philosophers' Magazine, 36 (2006): 46-9.

Incentives and Principles for Individuals in Rawls' Theory of Justice. Ethics & Economics 3 (2005): 1-7.

(In Russian) Взрывная волна ('Shockwave'--an interview with me by Mika Velikovskiy about the response to the London bombings of 7/7/05.) Political Journal, 27 (2005): 48-9.

Erasmus in The Great Thinkers A-Z. eds. J. Baggini and J. Stangroom, Continuum (2004): 91-3.

Rawls in The Great Thinkers A-Z. eds. J. Baggini and J. Stangroom, Continuum (2004): 199-201.

The House that Jack Built. The Philosophers' Magazine 22 (2003): 28-31.

Mandeville. The Philosophers' Magazine 20 (2002): 53.

 

Research Grants

2008-09: STICERD grant for the proposal 'An Experimental Test of the Hurwicz Criterion for Decision-Making Under Uncertainty' (with Ken Binmore).

2008-09: Faculty Fellowship at the Center for Ethics of the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

2006-08: British Academy Small Research Grant for the proposal 'Rational Choice Theory and Moral Decision-Making' (with Ken Binmore).

 

Teaching

Since arriving at LSE, I have taught (part of) the following courses:

PH 103 Reason, Knowledge and Values

PH 214 Morality and Values

PH 416 Philosophy, Morals, and Politics

PH 211 Philosophy of Economics

PH 413 Philosophy of Economics M.Sc. Seminar

PH 415 Philosophy of Public Policy

 

Organisation

'The Economy of the Soul: Rational Choice and Moral Decision-Making' LSE, November 21-22, 2008.

Debate on 'The Power of Religion in Society'. (With Tijs Broeke for the Dutch Labour Party in London.) January 24, 2008.

Conference 'World Poverty and the Duty of Assistance'. LSE June 27, 2006. (With Catherine Audard and Nick Bunnin.)

A review of this conference in Philosophy Now (Sept/Oct 2006).

Vol. 36 (2006) of The Philosophers' Magazine  is devoted to the conference.

Seminar in Philosophy and Public Policy, LSE 2004-08. (With Luc Bovens.)

Workshop in Philosophy, Economics, and Public Policy, ECAP5, Lisbon August 27-31 2005. (With Luc Bovens and Geoff Brennan.)

 

Education

 

PhD in Philosophy at University College London, 2005.

M.Phil. in Philosophy at King's College, Cambridge, 2000.

Post-graduate diploma in Financial and Economic Policy from the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), 1999.

M.A. in Philosophy, EUR, 1999.

M.Sc. in Economics, EUR, 1997.

 

Ph.D. students

Dr. Vincent Guillin: Auguste Comte and John Stuart Mill on Sexual Equality, 2005.

          Winner: Prix du Maison d'Auguste Comte 2006 (Paris). Now published.

          Assistant Professor (tenure track), Universite de Montreal.

Dr. Michael Moehler: A Theory of Minimal Morality, 2007.

         2009-10: Fellowship at the Murphy Institute, Tulane;

         2007-09: Visiting Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Katherine King (on justice for children).

Ittay Nissan (on emotions and moral decision-making).

Esha Senchaudhuri (on political liberalism).

Allison Mallard (on Kant's theory of progress and the right to revolution).

Harald Schmidt (on responsibility in health care).

Alice Obrecht (on the moral obligations of NGOs).

Ben Ferguson (on exploitation).

Mischa van den Brandhof (on incentives for healthy behaviour).