assistant professor of philosophy and political science @VanderbiltU
Joined September 2022
- Tweets 139
- Following 281
- Followers 482
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8 Photos and videos
New paper out (open access) at PPA! Philanthropy and democracy can seem at odds, but what about philanthropy that specifically aims to benefit the disenfranchised? I argue that we can and should encourage this, while discouraging certain other sorts of philanthropy. (link below)
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Jacob Barrett retweeted
Apr 26
I just finished this superb book by Jacob Barrett @JacobAriBarrett. Charles Mills and Amartya Sen have persuasively argued that the Ideal/Non-Ideal distinction is critical to thinking about normative dimensions of inequality and in conceptualizing policy remedies. This book succeeds in synthesizing conceptual issues in 66 pages and does so with exceptional clarity and accessibility.
Curious about the ideal and non-ideal theory debate? My book, Ideal and Non-Ideal Theory, is now out open access with Cambridge Elements in Political Philosophy! Read the book that David Estlund has called "easily the best full treatment of the topic that we have."
(link below)
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Curious about the ideal and non-ideal theory debate? My book, Ideal and Non-Ideal Theory, is now out open access with Cambridge Elements in Political Philosophy! Read the book that David Estlund has called "easily the best full treatment of the topic that we have."
(link below)
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cambridge.org/core/elements/…
(Due to a metadata error the book is currently listed under Elements in Political Psychology—but ignore that! The book does touch on related debates in ethics, epistemology, etc., but I promise it is mainly about political philosophy, not psychology.)
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16 Sep 2025
New paper in Political Philosophy: “What Can We Learn from the Diversity Trumps Ability Theorem?” No, diversity doesn’t *trump* ability, but the theorem illuminates a baton-passing mechanism by which diversity can help us find better options (even when we disagree about values!)
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16 Sep 2025
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Jacob Barrett retweeted
8 Sep 2025
Today, we're launching the 'Essays on Longtermism' competition, over on the EA Forum. Prizes up to $1000, judged by our expert panel: @willmacaskill, @DavidThorstad, Hilary Greaves, @evavivalt, and @JacobAriBarrett.
More details in 🧵 :
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8 Sep 2025
The full (open access) pdf for Essays on Longtermism is now available here, in case you are champing at the bit to read Part IV! fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/…
2 Sep 2025
Very pleased that our volume, Essays on Longtermism, is now out! (Currently dealing with a glitch on the website where the six chapters in part IV are missing from the online version, but this should be fixed soon.)
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2 Sep 2025
Very pleased that our volume, Essays on Longtermism, is now out! (Currently dealing with a glitch on the website where the six chapters in part IV are missing from the online version, but this should be fixed soon.)
2 Sep 2025
Today's the day! Essays on longtermism is now out (open access) with Oxford University Press. academic.oup.com/book/60794
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Jacob Barrett retweeted
2 Sep 2025
Today's the day! Essays on longtermism is now out (open access) with Oxford University Press. academic.oup.com/book/60794
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5 Aug 2025
new paper out (open access) in PPR! I challenge the common view that justice is the first virtue of social institutions, arguing that political discussions focus too much on justice and should pay more attention to beneficence
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5 Aug 2025
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Jacob Barrett retweeted
2 Aug 2025
The Global Priorities Institute has now shut its doors.
For an overview of what it achieved, see:
globalprioritiesinstitute.or…
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28 Jul 2025
It’s not the em-dash—it’s this sentence structure.
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Jacob Barrett retweeted
25 Jul 2025
WINNER ANNOUNCED: The 2025 Fifth Annual Gaus Memorial Prize goes to Ismail Kurun (Vanderbilt) for his paper, “The Epistemology of Public Reason: Open-Mindedness, Human Psychology, and Liberal Institutions.” ppesociety.org/2025/07/25/20…
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Jacob Barrett retweeted
21 Jul 2025
Attention philosophers, x-philosophers and moral psychologists - I'm hiring! Two, 3-year research fellowships on an interdisciplinary project in the Philosophical Moral Psychology Lab at the Uehiro Institute, Oxford. Pass it on! For more info and to apply: tinyurl.com/mrwwuyaw
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When Claude instances talk to each other, in ~90% of open-ended interactions they spiral into discussions of consciousness, then profuse gratitude, then abstract spiritual/poetic expressions with Sanskrit and emojis.
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8 Apr 2025
New (open access) paper out in Ergo! Some think that something is good for you if you desire it. Problem: lots of your desires have nothing to do with what's good for you. My solution: something is good for you if you desire it *for your own sake*. It's simple, but it works
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