Bart Engelen
Biographic Data
| ID | 1490211 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bart Engelen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bart |
| FAMILY NAME | Engelen |
| SIGNATURE | ENGELEN B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tilburg University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8915-9768 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 138 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
What I Really, Really Want: The Role, Nature, and Value of True Preferences in the Ethics of Nudging
In this article, we discuss the role that ‘true preferences’ can and should play in discussions on the possibility and desirability of paternalist nudges. Critics have claimed that such preferences do not exist, cannot be known reliably by third parties, and cannot justify whether and how to nudge people. In this article, we argue that these objections undermine the extent to which philosophers and laypeople can make sense of autonomy and authent…
AI-enhanced nudging in public policy: Why to Worry and How to Respond
What role can artificial intelligence (AI) play in enhancing public policy nudges and the extent to which these help people achieve their own goals? Can it help mitigate or even overcome the challenges that nudgers face in this respect? This paper discusses how AI-enhanced personalization can help make nudges more means paternalistic and thus more respectful of people’s ends. We explore the potential added value of AI by analyzing to what extent …
Market nudges and autonomy
Behavioural techniques or ‘nudges’ can be used for various purposes. In this paper, we shift the focus from government nudges to nudges used by for-profit market agents. We argue that potential worries about nudges circumventing the deliberative capacities or diminishing the control of targeted agents are greater when it comes to market nudges, given that these (1) are not constrained by the principles that regulate government nudges (mildness, s…
Pushed for Being Better: On the Possibility and Desirability of Moral Nudging
TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields
There Goes My Hero: The Role of Exemplars in Identity Formation
In this paper, we argue that who one is and wants to become is closely related to whom one admires. Although the links between identity formation and exemplars have been largely neglected, we claim that integrating both literature studies provides interesting new insights. First, exemplars can play an important role in and constitute a powerful tool for people’s identity construction. Second, insights into identity formation processes can help be…
The ethics of nudging: An overview
So-called nudge policies utilize insights from behavioral science to achieve policy outcomes. Nudge policies try to improve people's decisions by changing the ways options are presented to them, rather than changing the options themselves or incentivizing or coercing people. Nudging has been met with great enthusiasm but also fierce criticism. This paper provides an overview of the debate on the ethics of nudging to date. After outlining argument…
Nudging, Transparency, and Watchfulness
Nudges have been criticized for working 'in the dark', influencing people without their full awareness. To assess whether this property renders nudging an illegitimate policy tool in liberal democracies, we argue that in scrutinizing nudge transparency, we should adequately divide our focus between nudging techniques, the nudgers employing them, and the nudgees subjected to them. We develop an account of what it means for nudgees to be 'watchful'…
Nudging and rationality: What is there to worry
The literature on nudging has rekindled normative and conceptual debates surrounding the extent to which and the direction in which people can legitimately influence each other's actions. An oft-heard objection to nudging is that it exploits psychological mechanisms, manipulates people and thereby insufficiently respects their rational decision-making capacities. Bypassing and/or perverting people's rational capacities, nudges are said to undermi…
Paternalism Revisited: Definitions, Justifications and Techniques
Effective Vote Markets and the Tyranny of Wealth
What limits should there be on the areas of life that are governed by market forces? For many years, no one seriously defended the buying and selling votes for political elections. In recent years, however, this situation has changed, with a number of authors defending the permissibility of vote markets (e.g. Freiman 2014). One popular objection to such markets is that they would lead to a tyranny of wealth, where the poor are politically dominat…
Judging Nudging: Answering the Manipulation Objection
Is it ever justified to ‘nudge’ people towards their own health? In this article, we argue that it is. We do so by arguing (1) that nudges are not necessarily – as is commonly thought – manipulative; (2) that even those nudges that are manipulative can be justified, for instance, when they preserve rather than violate people’s autonomy; and (3) that even if nudges can be said to violate some people’s autonomy, they can still be the legitimate out…
Talking money: How market-based valuation can undermine environmental protection
Against the secret ballot: Toward a new proposal for open voting
Beyond markets and states: The Importance of Communities
status: Published
Why Liberals Can Favour Compulsory Attendance
It has been argued that compulsory voting conflicts with a number of liberal commitments, such as free thought, free speech and privacy. This article aims to show that compulsory voting, which is actually a misnomer for compulsory attendance, can in fact be defended on a liberal basis. If understood correctly, compulsory attendance laws and liberalism fit quite easily together
The Sources of Cooperation: On Strong Reciprocity and its Theoretical Implications
This article focuses on the explanations of human cooperation that dominate the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, and other social sciences. It argues that these accounts all frame cooperation in egoistic terms and thus cannot solve the evolutionary puzzle of strong reciprocity, defined as a propensity to cooperate with others similarly disposed and to punish others who violate norms, even at a personal cost and without any prospect of…
Rationality, Norms and Institutions: In Search of a Realistic Utopia
Rationality, Norms and Institutions: In Search of a Realistic Utopia The main goal of political philosophers is to search for a realistic utopia by taking individuals as they are and institutions, rules and laws as they might be. Instead of trying to change either individuals or institutions in order to improve society, this article argues that both strategies should be combined, since there are causal connections running both ways. Because indiv…
Thinking Things Through: The Value and Limitations of James Buchanan's Public Choice Theory
James Buchanan, one of the founders of Public Choice theory, applies the conceptual apparatus of economics to the public domain. This article investigates which assumptions are crucial to Buchanan's project, concentrating on methodological individualism and the Homo Economicus model. It shows that Buchanan from time to time moves away from these economic concepts, though only in minor ways. The article also focuses on Buchanan's normative emphasi…
Why Compulsory Voting Can Enhance Democracy
Solving the Paradox: The Expressive Rationality of the Decision to Vote
The renowned paradox of voting arises when one tries to explain the decision to go out and vote in an exclusively instrumental framework. Instead of postulating that voters always derive utility from the act of voting, I want to search for the reasons that underlie the absence or presence of a preference for voting. In my non-instrumental account of expressive rationality, citizens want to express who they are and what they care about. Whether or…
The ethics of nudging: An overview
So-called nudge policies utilize insights from behavioral science to achieve policy outcomes. Nudge policies try to improve people's decisions by changing the ways options are presented to them, rather than changing the options themselves or incentivizing or coercing people. Nudging has been met with great enthusiasm but also fierce criticism. This paper provides an overview of the debate on the ethics of nudging to date. After outlining argument…
Why Compulsory Voting Can Enhance Democracy
Why Liberals Can Favour Compulsory Attendance
It has been argued that compulsory voting conflicts with a number of liberal commitments, such as free thought, free speech and privacy. This article aims to show that compulsory voting, which is actually a misnomer for compulsory attendance, can in fact be defended on a liberal basis. If understood correctly, compulsory attendance laws and liberalism fit quite easily together
Against the secret ballot: Toward a new proposal for open voting
Judging Nudging: Answering the Manipulation Objection
Is it ever justified to ‘nudge’ people towards their own health? In this article, we argue that it is. We do so by arguing (1) that nudges are not necessarily – as is commonly thought – manipulative; (2) that even those nudges that are manipulative can be justified, for instance, when they preserve rather than violate people’s autonomy; and (3) that even if nudges can be said to violate some people’s autonomy, they can still be the legitimate out…
Talking money: How market-based valuation can undermine environmental protection
Nudging and rationality: What is there to worry
The literature on nudging has rekindled normative and conceptual debates surrounding the extent to which and the direction in which people can legitimately influence each other's actions. An oft-heard objection to nudging is that it exploits psychological mechanisms, manipulates people and thereby insufficiently respects their rational decision-making capacities. Bypassing and/or perverting people's rational capacities, nudges are said to undermi…
Solving the Paradox: The Expressive Rationality of the Decision to Vote
The renowned paradox of voting arises when one tries to explain the decision to go out and vote in an exclusively instrumental framework. Instead of postulating that voters always derive utility from the act of voting, I want to search for the reasons that underlie the absence or presence of a preference for voting. In my non-instrumental account of expressive rationality, citizens want to express who they are and what they care about. Whether or…
Paternalism Revisited: Definitions, Justifications and Techniques
What I Really, Really Want: The Role, Nature, and Value of True Preferences in the Ethics of Nudging
In this article, we discuss the role that ‘true preferences’ can and should play in discussions on the possibility and desirability of paternalist nudges. Critics have claimed that such preferences do not exist, cannot be known reliably by third parties, and cannot justify whether and how to nudge people. In this article, we argue that these objections undermine the extent to which philosophers and laypeople can make sense of autonomy and authent…
AI-enhanced nudging in public policy: Why to Worry and How to Respond
What role can artificial intelligence (AI) play in enhancing public policy nudges and the extent to which these help people achieve their own goals? Can it help mitigate or even overcome the challenges that nudgers face in this respect? This paper discusses how AI-enhanced personalization can help make nudges more means paternalistic and thus more respectful of people’s ends. We explore the potential added value of AI by analyzing to what extent …
Solving the Paradox: The Expressive Rationality of the Decision to Vote
The renowned paradox of voting arises when one tries to explain the decision to go out and vote in an exclusively instrumental framework. Instead of postulating that voters always derive utility from the act of voting, I want to search for the reasons that underlie the absence or presence of a preference for voting. In my non-instrumental account of expressive rationality, citizens want to express who they are and what they care about. Whether or…
Rationality, Norms and Institutions: In Search of a Realistic Utopia
Rationality, Norms and Institutions: In Search of a Realistic Utopia The main goal of political philosophers is to search for a realistic utopia by taking individuals as they are and institutions, rules and laws as they might be. Instead of trying to change either individuals or institutions in order to improve society, this article argues that both strategies should be combined, since there are causal connections running both ways. Because indiv…
Thinking Things Through: The Value and Limitations of James Buchanan's Public Choice Theory
James Buchanan, one of the founders of Public Choice theory, applies the conceptual apparatus of economics to the public domain. This article investigates which assumptions are crucial to Buchanan's project, concentrating on methodological individualism and the Homo Economicus model. It shows that Buchanan from time to time moves away from these economic concepts, though only in minor ways. The article also focuses on Buchanan's normative emphasi…
Why Compulsory Voting Can Enhance Democracy
The Sources of Cooperation: On Strong Reciprocity and its Theoretical Implications
This article focuses on the explanations of human cooperation that dominate the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, and other social sciences. It argues that these accounts all frame cooperation in egoistic terms and thus cannot solve the evolutionary puzzle of strong reciprocity, defined as a propensity to cooperate with others similarly disposed and to punish others who violate norms, even at a personal cost and without any prospect of…
Why Liberals Can Favour Compulsory Attendance
It has been argued that compulsory voting conflicts with a number of liberal commitments, such as free thought, free speech and privacy. This article aims to show that compulsory voting, which is actually a misnomer for compulsory attendance, can in fact be defended on a liberal basis. If understood correctly, compulsory attendance laws and liberalism fit quite easily together
Beyond markets and states: The Importance of Communities
status: Published
Against the secret ballot: Toward a new proposal for open voting
Talking money: How market-based valuation can undermine environmental protection
Effective Vote Markets and the Tyranny of Wealth
What limits should there be on the areas of life that are governed by market forces? For many years, no one seriously defended the buying and selling votes for political elections. In recent years, however, this situation has changed, with a number of authors defending the permissibility of vote markets (e.g. Freiman 2014). One popular objection to such markets is that they would lead to a tyranny of wealth, where the poor are politically dominat…
Judging Nudging: Answering the Manipulation Objection
Is it ever justified to ‘nudge’ people towards their own health? In this article, we argue that it is. We do so by arguing (1) that nudges are not necessarily – as is commonly thought – manipulative; (2) that even those nudges that are manipulative can be justified, for instance, when they preserve rather than violate people’s autonomy; and (3) that even if nudges can be said to violate some people’s autonomy, they can still be the legitimate out…
Paternalism Revisited: Definitions, Justifications and Techniques
Nudging, Transparency, and Watchfulness
Nudges have been criticized for working 'in the dark', influencing people without their full awareness. To assess whether this property renders nudging an illegitimate policy tool in liberal democracies, we argue that in scrutinizing nudge transparency, we should adequately divide our focus between nudging techniques, the nudgers employing them, and the nudgees subjected to them. We develop an account of what it means for nudgees to be 'watchful'…
Nudging and rationality: What is there to worry
The literature on nudging has rekindled normative and conceptual debates surrounding the extent to which and the direction in which people can legitimately influence each other's actions. An oft-heard objection to nudging is that it exploits psychological mechanisms, manipulates people and thereby insufficiently respects their rational decision-making capacities. Bypassing and/or perverting people's rational capacities, nudges are said to undermi…
The ethics of nudging: An overview
So-called nudge policies utilize insights from behavioral science to achieve policy outcomes. Nudge policies try to improve people's decisions by changing the ways options are presented to them, rather than changing the options themselves or incentivizing or coercing people. Nudging has been met with great enthusiasm but also fierce criticism. This paper provides an overview of the debate on the ethics of nudging to date. After outlining argument…
There Goes My Hero: The Role of Exemplars in Identity Formation
In this paper, we argue that who one is and wants to become is closely related to whom one admires. Although the links between identity formation and exemplars have been largely neglected, we claim that integrating both literature studies provides interesting new insights. First, exemplars can play an important role in and constitute a powerful tool for people’s identity construction. Second, insights into identity formation processes can help be…
Market nudges and autonomy
Behavioural techniques or ‘nudges’ can be used for various purposes. In this paper, we shift the focus from government nudges to nudges used by for-profit market agents. We argue that potential worries about nudges circumventing the deliberative capacities or diminishing the control of targeted agents are greater when it comes to market nudges, given that these (1) are not constrained by the principles that regulate government nudges (mildness, s…
Pushed for Being Better: On the Possibility and Desirability of Moral Nudging
TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields
What I Really, Really Want: The Role, Nature, and Value of True Preferences in the Ethics of Nudging
In this article, we discuss the role that ‘true preferences’ can and should play in discussions on the possibility and desirability of paternalist nudges. Critics have claimed that such preferences do not exist, cannot be known reliably by third parties, and cannot justify whether and how to nudge people. In this article, we argue that these objections undermine the extent to which philosophers and laypeople can make sense of autonomy and authent…
AI-enhanced nudging in public policy: Why to Worry and How to Respond
What role can artificial intelligence (AI) play in enhancing public policy nudges and the extent to which these help people achieve their own goals? Can it help mitigate or even overcome the challenges that nudgers face in this respect? This paper discusses how AI-enhanced personalization can help make nudges more means paternalistic and thus more respectful of people’s ends. We explore the potential added value of AI by analyzing to what extent …
Political science (15 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Law (14 works) · Economics (12 works) · Epistemology (12 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Law (10 works) · Law and economics (9 works) · Positive economics (9 works) · Politics (8 works)