Laura Shields
Biographic Data
| ID | 106409 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Laura Shields |
| GIVEN NAMES | Laura |
| FAMILY NAME | Shields |
| SIGNATURE | SHIELDS L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Manchester |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9272-1937 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 56 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
How Thresholds Matter: On the Bounds and Demands of Justice
Two important tasks for theorists of justice are to determine the bounds of justice, which explain why some claims are matters of justice and others are not, and to determine the demands of justice, which settle conflicts that fall within those bounds. In this paper, we clarify the distinction between bounds and demands, revealing two striking things. First, while thresholds have typically been understood to be demands of justice, their use as su…
Children as Public Goods: At What Cost
All children have rights to care, education, food, shelter, and more besides. The creation of children is, therefore, the creation of costly entitlements. But who, other than the parents, can be expected to share these costs? And how much can they be expected to contribute? To date, political theorists have only attended to the first question. But without a well-reasoned answer to the second question, we won’t know whether sharing should be gener…
Attachment, Security, and Relational Networks
Regarding friendship, as Simon Keller recently put it: "If you want to feel bad about yourself, read the philosophical literature on friendship.It is full of descriptions of deep, profound, intense friendships, presented as illustrations of real friendship, true friendship, good friendship, deep friendship, or friendship at its best."(2023, 1) Such friendships are conceptualised as holding between two people; Keller provides numerous historical a…
Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Parents
Should parental rights be allocated to the best available parent? Anca Gheaus has argued that they should and that the interests of those who might rear them are strictly irrelevant to their allocation. This discussion article defends the view that parents’ interests are relevant to parental rights, against this latest argument. I show that the Best Available Parent View, as stated, conflicts with the exclusion of parental interests, on which it …
Sufficientarianism1
Sufficientarianism is a position in debates about distributive justice. Sufficientarianism states that whether individuals have secured enough of some goods is a question that is central to determining whether a society is just. In this paper I provide an overview of this work, and highlight what I think are the most interesting recent contributions to it. Towards the end, I describe a way forward for sufficientarians and argue, in stark contrast…
Just Enough: Sufficiency As a Demand of Justice
Whether people in some society are able to secure enough food, healthcare or education seems to be an important way of assessing that society. However, as a philosophical ideal sufficiency faces many problems. Chief among these is that the ideal has been understood in ways that give rise to powerful objections that make it seem less attractive than ideals of equality. This book offers a new characterization of sufficiency as a demand of justice c…
How bad can a good enough parent be?
Almost everyone accepts that parents must provide a good enough upbringing in order to retain custodial rights over children, but little has been said about how that level should be set. In this paper, I examine ways of specifying a good enough upbringing. I argue that the two dominant ways of setting this level, the Best Interests and Abuse and Neglect Views, are mistaken. I defend the Dual Comparative View, which holds that an upbringing is goo…
Parental rights and the importance of being parents
It is widely accepted both that adequate parents cannot be denied custodial rights for the reason that someone else would do a better job and that children should be reared in adequate families, even when communal arrangements would be no worse for children and would promote equality. So-called dual interest theorists of parental rights defend their view on the grounds that it can fully explain these convictions because only their view attaches i…
How can mental health and faith-based practitioners work together? A case study of collaborative mental health in Gujarat, India
Despite the knowledge that people with mental illness often seek care from multiple healing systems, there is limited collaboration between these systems. Greater collaboration with existing community resources could narrow the treatment gap and reduce fragmentation by encouraging more integrated care. This paper explores the origins, use, and outcomes of a collaborative programme between faith-based and allopathic mental health practitioners in …
From Rawlsian autonomy to sufficient opportunity in education
Equality of Opportunity is widely thought of as the normative ideal most relevant to the design of educational institutions. One widely discussed interpretation of this ideal is Rawls' principle of Fair Equality of Opportunity. In this paper I argue that theories, like Rawls, that give priority to the achievement of individual autonomy, are committed to giving that same priority to a principle of sufficient opportunity. Thus, the Rawlsian's prima…
The Prospects for Sufficientarianism
Principles of sufficiency are widely discussed in debates about distributive ethics. However, critics have argued that sufficiency principles are vulnerable to important objections. This article seeks to clarify the main claims of sufficiency principles and to examine whether they have something distinctive and plausible to offer. The article argues that sufficiency principles must claim that we have weighty reasons to secure enough and that once…
The Prospects for Sufficientarianism
Principles of sufficiency are widely discussed in debates about distributive ethics. However, critics have argued that sufficiency principles are vulnerable to important objections. This article seeks to clarify the main claims of sufficiency principles and to examine whether they have something distinctive and plausible to offer. The article argues that sufficiency principles must claim that we have weighty reasons to secure enough and that once…
Sufficientarianism1
Sufficientarianism is a position in debates about distributive justice. Sufficientarianism states that whether individuals have secured enough of some goods is a question that is central to determining whether a society is just. In this paper I provide an overview of this work, and highlight what I think are the most interesting recent contributions to it. Towards the end, I describe a way forward for sufficientarians and argue, in stark contrast…
How can mental health and faith-based practitioners work together? A case study of collaborative mental health in Gujarat, India
Despite the knowledge that people with mental illness often seek care from multiple healing systems, there is limited collaboration between these systems. Greater collaboration with existing community resources could narrow the treatment gap and reduce fragmentation by encouraging more integrated care. This paper explores the origins, use, and outcomes of a collaborative programme between faith-based and allopathic mental health practitioners in …
From Rawlsian autonomy to sufficient opportunity in education
Equality of Opportunity is widely thought of as the normative ideal most relevant to the design of educational institutions. One widely discussed interpretation of this ideal is Rawls' principle of Fair Equality of Opportunity. In this paper I argue that theories, like Rawls, that give priority to the achievement of individual autonomy, are committed to giving that same priority to a principle of sufficient opportunity. Thus, the Rawlsian's prima…
The Prospects for Sufficientarianism
Principles of sufficiency are widely discussed in debates about distributive ethics. However, critics have argued that sufficiency principles are vulnerable to important objections. This article seeks to clarify the main claims of sufficiency principles and to examine whether they have something distinctive and plausible to offer. The article argues that sufficiency principles must claim that we have weighty reasons to secure enough and that once…
From Rawlsian autonomy to sufficient opportunity in education
Equality of Opportunity is widely thought of as the normative ideal most relevant to the design of educational institutions. One widely discussed interpretation of this ideal is Rawls' principle of Fair Equality of Opportunity. In this paper I argue that theories, like Rawls, that give priority to the achievement of individual autonomy, are committed to giving that same priority to a principle of sufficient opportunity. Thus, the Rawlsian's prima…
Just Enough: Sufficiency As a Demand of Justice
Whether people in some society are able to secure enough food, healthcare or education seems to be an important way of assessing that society. However, as a philosophical ideal sufficiency faces many problems. Chief among these is that the ideal has been understood in ways that give rise to powerful objections that make it seem less attractive than ideals of equality. This book offers a new characterization of sufficiency as a demand of justice c…
How bad can a good enough parent be?
Almost everyone accepts that parents must provide a good enough upbringing in order to retain custodial rights over children, but little has been said about how that level should be set. In this paper, I examine ways of specifying a good enough upbringing. I argue that the two dominant ways of setting this level, the Best Interests and Abuse and Neglect Views, are mistaken. I defend the Dual Comparative View, which holds that an upbringing is goo…
Parental rights and the importance of being parents
It is widely accepted both that adequate parents cannot be denied custodial rights for the reason that someone else would do a better job and that children should be reared in adequate families, even when communal arrangements would be no worse for children and would promote equality. So-called dual interest theorists of parental rights defend their view on the grounds that it can fully explain these convictions because only their view attaches i…
How can mental health and faith-based practitioners work together? A case study of collaborative mental health in Gujarat, India
Despite the knowledge that people with mental illness often seek care from multiple healing systems, there is limited collaboration between these systems. Greater collaboration with existing community resources could narrow the treatment gap and reduce fragmentation by encouraging more integrated care. This paper explores the origins, use, and outcomes of a collaborative programme between faith-based and allopathic mental health practitioners in …
Sufficientarianism1
Sufficientarianism is a position in debates about distributive justice. Sufficientarianism states that whether individuals have secured enough of some goods is a question that is central to determining whether a society is just. In this paper I provide an overview of this work, and highlight what I think are the most interesting recent contributions to it. Towards the end, I describe a way forward for sufficientarians and argue, in stark contrast…
Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Parents
Should parental rights be allocated to the best available parent? Anca Gheaus has argued that they should and that the interests of those who might rear them are strictly irrelevant to their allocation. This discussion article defends the view that parents’ interests are relevant to parental rights, against this latest argument. I show that the Best Available Parent View, as stated, conflicts with the exclusion of parental interests, on which it …
Attachment, Security, and Relational Networks
Regarding friendship, as Simon Keller recently put it: "If you want to feel bad about yourself, read the philosophical literature on friendship.It is full of descriptions of deep, profound, intense friendships, presented as illustrations of real friendship, true friendship, good friendship, deep friendship, or friendship at its best."(2023, 1) Such friendships are conceptualised as holding between two people; Keller provides numerous historical a…
How Thresholds Matter: On the Bounds and Demands of Justice
Two important tasks for theorists of justice are to determine the bounds of justice, which explain why some claims are matters of justice and others are not, and to determine the demands of justice, which settle conflicts that fall within those bounds. In this paper, we clarify the distinction between bounds and demands, revealing two striking things. First, while thresholds have typically been understood to be demands of justice, their use as su…
Children as Public Goods: At What Cost
All children have rights to care, education, food, shelter, and more besides. The creation of children is, therefore, the creation of costly entitlements. But who, other than the parents, can be expected to share these costs? And how much can they be expected to contribute? To date, political theorists have only attended to the first question. But without a well-reasoned answer to the second question, we won’t know whether sharing should be gener…
Political Philosophy and Ethics (9 works) · Economics (7 works) · Law and economics (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Positive economics (5 works) · Economic Justice (4 works)