Scholarship

Pharmaceutical Freedom

I defend rights of self-medication in Pharmaceutical Freedom and in articles such as  “Adderall for All:”, “Patient-Driven Drug Development”, and  “Three Arguments Against Prescription Requirements” with a reply to Taylor, Martin and Eyal.  I’ve been delighted that so many philosophers and policy makers have engaged with these arguments. I address more recent interlocutors in “Revisiting Pharmaceutical Freedom,”

The Ethics of Expecting

I am currently revising The Ethics of Expecting, which is under contract with OUP. There, I argue that pregnancy is good but not required. The book defends a pro-choice pro-natalist approach to obstetric ethics and reproductive policy. This book builds on two published articles: “The Ethics of Prenatal Injury” and "Obstetric Autonomy and Informed Consent."

Public Health Ethics

The most comprehensive statement of my argument against public health paternalism appears in  "Seat Belt Mandates and Paternalism"  Elsewhere, I address the ethics of Tobacco Regulation, Permitting Amphetamines and Medical Paternalism in Turkey, Enhancement,  Disability Rights, and the Affordable Care Act. In each of these cases, I argue that public health officials violate people's rights.   

I defend the value of autonomy in medicine and healthcare throughout my work. Libertarianism and Medicine and Public Health and Healthcare Policy are two general overviews of this approach. I argue that public health ethics should look more like clinical ethics in  “Public Bioethics”. In “Political Ideology and Public Health” and “The Perils of Public Health Regulation”  I criticize public health officials who impose their political preferences on people, often to the detriment of public health. 

I consider the limits of medical autonomy in a series of papers that address the ethics of contagious transmission and pandemic policy. In 2014, I wrote   “A Defense of Compulsory Vaccination.” I then argued against  HIV Criminalisation on the grounds that it would be excessively punitive to people who transmit contagious illnesses. Relatedly, I wrote an essay arguing that social costs cannot justify public health paternalism, but social costs can justify other policies that protect and promote public health.  I revisited this topic, after 2020, in “Prohibition and Pandemic Risks”. Recently, I made the Case for Challenge Trials. 

Speech and Language

In “Credibility and the Standpoint Expectation” I argue against the practice of assigning credibility to speakers on the basis of the speaker's social standpoint. And in “Speech and Campus Inclusivity” (with Alec Greven) I argue that inclusivity-oriented speech restrictions on college campuses are generally counterproductive. I further consider the ethics of social norms that are related to speech and language in Why It's OK To Have Bad Spelling and Grammar. In that book, I argue that social sanctions for bad spelling and grammar are usually unfair. Linguistic normativity also impedes effective communication and undermines social equality. 

Popular Culture

Other recent research addresses the ethical implications of pop culture. I am a co-editor of The Philosophy of Taylor Swift, and I contributed two essays to that volume. The first essay, “Christian Sex Songs and the Meaning of Life” addresses how Swift’s songwriting mirrors the spiritual progression of mankind. The second, “Love, Liability, and Lyrics” considers whether it is ethical for Swift to write songs about her ex-boyfriends. 

Criminalization and Enforcement 

In “Duty and Enforcement" I argue that rights against interference are enforceable but rights to assistance are not. Chris Freiman and I make the case that the victims of unjust drug law enforcement are entitled to compensation in “Drug War Reparations.” And in Coercion and Privatization I defend privatizing some core functions of the state, including some aspects of law enforcement. In Debating Sex Work I argue against the criminalization of sex work and sex-buying, whereas my co-author Lori Watson argues that it should be illegal to pay for sex. My contributions to this book build on arguments from “Inequality and Markets in Bodily Services”  Since then, I elaborated on the arguments from the book in “Deception and Sexual Harassment” and “The Case for Decriminalizing Sex Work”. 

Economic Justice

I defend the value of economic freedom in "Rethinking Freedom of Contract", "All Liberty is Basic" and "Sweatshop Regulations and Workers' Choices" I address the ethics of taxation and redistribution in a series of coauthored essays. In "Wealth Without Limits" Chris Freiman and I defend the practice of billionaire philanthropy and argue against recent calls for limits on extreme wealth. In “Evading and Aiding: The Moral Case Against Paying Taxes” Freiman, Jason Brennan, and I argue that people shouldn’t assume that public officials are entitled to collect taxes or that taxes will be put to good use. And in “Putting Wilt Chamberlain Back in the Game, Freiman and I argue that egalitarian income redistribution is incompatible with liberalism. That said, in my solo-authored work, such as “Anarchism and Redistribution”  and "An Anarchist Defense of the Basic Income, I make the case that redistribution is not always inconsistent with liberty. 

Methodology 

I criticize several widely held views in political philosophy on methodological grounds. In Boundary Problems and Self Ownership" I argue that vagueness is not in itself a reason to reject self-ownership theory. And in "Social Equality as an Institutional Ideal" I argue that social egalitarians overlook the ways that coercive policy can also undermine the ideal of social equality. In “Public Reason Illiberalism and Ideology” Brennan, Freiman and I argue that Rawlsians' commitments to principles of public reason and liberal institutions can conflict with each other. I also argue against Rawlsian political philosophy in “The Rawlsian Mirror of Justice.”

Leadership Studies 

I encourage leadership scholars to engage more with normative ethics. I defend this methodological approach in  "Philosophical Methodology and Leadership Ethics." I try to model the value of this approach in a series of papers that engage with recent work in Leadership Studies. For example, in  “Charisma and Moral Reasoning” I argue that it’s morally risky to defer to a charismatic leader. In contrast, in "The Ethics of Authentic Leadership" I defend the merits of authenticity as a leadership virtue. In “Ethical failure and leadership – treatment and selection” I argue that effective hiring is one of the most important but overlooked ways to avoid ethical failure. In “Leaderless Work and Workplace Participation” I make the case that workers don’t need more formal participatory power to achieve more freedom in their workplaces. And in “​​Ehren Watada and Selective Conscientious Objection” I describe a case where disobedience was morally important act of leadership. In each of these essays and articles, I hold leaders to the same moral standards that apply to everyone else. I defend this approach to leadership ethics in “Evaluative Consistency and Ethical Leadership”.