Nicole Hassoun
Biographic Data
| ID | 1490244 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nicole Hassoun |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nicole |
| FAMILY NAME | Hassoun |
| SIGNATURE | HASSOUN N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Binghamton University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5547-1710 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Creative Resolve and the Threshold for a Minimally Good Life: A Reply to Critics
The author declares no conflicts of interest
Worship and the problems of human evil and suffering
Consider a simple argument that worshipping God is wrong. This world is not a nice place. Not only do humans persecute and inflict other evils on each other, but millions of people suffer and die every year from preventable poverty-related causes, and it seems that few, if any, deserve their plights. It is unclear that we should want to be associated with, never mind worship, a being with the capacity to make the world a much better place but who…
Measuring needs: Philosophy and the science of measurement
Legitimate distribution without legislation
Global Health Impact: Human rights, access to medicines, and measurement
Should people have a legal human right to health? And, if so, what exactly does protecting this right require? This essay defends some answers to these questions recently articulated in Global Health Impact . It explains how these answers depend on a particular way of thinking about health and the minimally good life, how quality of life matters at and over time, what various agents should do to help people who are unable to live well enough, and…
Pandemic preparedness and response: Beyond the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator
Nationalism has trumped solidarity, resulting in unnecessary loss of life and inequitable access to vaccines and therapeutics. Existing intellectual property (IP) regimens, trade secrets and data rights, under which pharmaceutical firms operate, have also posed obstacles to increasing manufacturing capacity, and ensuring adequate supply, affordable pricing, and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and other health products in low-income and midd…
The Past 110 Years: Historical Data on the Underrepresentation of Women in Philosophy Journals
This article provides the first large-scale, longitudinal study examining publication rates by gender in philosophy journals. We find that from 1900 to 1990 the proportion of women authorships in philosophy increased, but it has plateaued since the 1990s (unlike in other disciplines). Top Philosophy journals publish the lowest proportion of women, and anonymous review does not increase the proportion publishing in these journals (though it does i…
Good Enough? The Minimally Good Life Account of the Basic Minimum
What kind of basic minimum do we owe to others? This paper defends a new procedure for answering this question. It argues that its minimally good life account has some advantages over the main alternatives and that neither the first-, nor third-, person perspective can help us to arrive at an adequate account. Rather, it employs the second-person perspective of free, reasonable, care. There might be other conditions for distributive justice, and …
Just allocation of Covid-19 vaccines
Authorized COVID-19 vaccines must be distributed fairly. Several proposals have emerged offering guidelines for how to do this. However, insofar as the aim is to have the greatest health impact, these proposals fall short. We offer three suggestions to strengthen them The most advanced attempt at coordinating vaccine distribution is the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility, a collaboration that brings together governments, companies, …
Against vaccine nationalism
While rich countries like the USA and UK are starting to vaccinate their populations against COVID-19, poor countries may lack access to a vaccine for years. A global effort to provide vaccines through the COVAX facility (the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator) aims to distribute 2 billion vaccinations by the end of next year, but the USA has refused to join and even those rich countries that have joined are enterin…
Sufficiency and the Minimally Good Life
What, if anything, do we owe others as a basic minimum? Sufficiency theorists claim that we must provide everyone with enough – but, to date, few well-worked-out accounts of the sufficiency threshold exist, so it is difficult to evaluate this proposition. Previous theories do not provide plausible, independent accounts of resources, capabilities, or welfare that might play the requisite role. Moreover, I believe existing accounts do not provide n…
Distributing global health resources: Contemporary issues in political philosophy
How should states and international organizations allocate global health resources? This paper examines proposals for distributing these resources in the literature. First, we look at the literature on the metrics for measuring what matters and consider how they might be modified to avoid some common objections-e.g., that these measures discriminate against the disabled or fail to give due weight to helping the young (or old) or those in present …
Economic Justice and the Minimally Good Human Life Account of Needs
Globalization and Global Justice
As globalization shrinks distance and increases international interdependence, it raises an important question about global distributive justice: how does increasing social, political, and economic integration influence the way benefits and burdens generated by our shared lives should be dispersed? That is, what impact (if any) should the growth of global economic and political institutions have on our understanding of what we owe others? The way…
Basic Capacities, Coercion, and Liberal Legitimacy
The Human Right to Health
Is there a human right to health? If so, what are its grounds? Can a legal or moral human right to health provide any practical guidance when it comes to making decisions about, for instance, the allocation of scarce health resources? There are many possible answers to these questions in the literature. This article surveys some of these replies. First, however, it examines the distinctions between legal and moral human rights and rights to healt…
Raz on the Right to Autonomy
In The Morality of Freedom , Joseph Raz argues against a right to autonomy. This argument helps to distinguish his theory from his competitors'. For, many liberal theories ground such a right. Some even defend entirely autonomy‐based accounts of rights. This paper suggests that Raz's argument against a right to autonomy raises an important dilemma for his larger theory. Unless his account of rights is limited in some way, Raz's argument applies a…
Global Justice and Charity: A Brief for a New Approach to Empirical Philosophy
What does global justice or charity requires us to give to other people? There is a large theoretical literature on this question. There is much less experimental work in political philosophy relevant to answering it. Perhaps for this reason, this literature has yet to have any major impact on theoretical discussions of global justice or charity. There is, however, some experimental research in behavioral economics that has helped to shape the fi…
Human Rights and the Minimally Good Life
All people have human rights and, intuitively, there is a close connection between human rights, needs, and autonomy. The two main theories about the nature and value of human rights often fail to account for this connection. Interest theories, on which rights protect individuals’ important interests, usually fail to capture the close relationship between human rights and autonomy; autonomy is not constitutive of the interests human rights protec…
The Problem of Debt‐for‐Nature Swaps from a Human Rights Perspective
At first blush, debt‐for‐nature swaps seem to provide win‐win solutions to the looming problems of environmental degradation and extreme poverty. So, one might naturally assume that they are morally permissible, if not obligatory. This article will argue, however, that debt‐for‐nature swaps are sometimes morally questionable, if not morally impermissible. It suggests that some criticisms of traditional (economic) conditions placed on loans to poo…
Global Health Impact: A Basis for Labeling and Licensing Campaigns
Most of the world's health problems afflict poor countries and their poorest inhabitants. There are many reasons why so many people die of poverty‐related causes. One reason is that the poor cannot access many of the existing drugs and technologies they need. Another, is that little of the research and development (R&D) done on new drugs and technologies benefits the poor. There are several proposals on the table that might incentivize pharmaceut…
The anthropocentric advantage? Environmental ethics and climate change policy
Environmental ethicists often criticize liberalism. For many liberals embrace anthropocentric theories on which only humans have non‐instrumental value. Environmental ethicists argue that such liberals fail to account for many things that matter or provide an ethic sufficient for addressing climate change. These critics suggest that many parts of nature – e.g. non‐human individuals, other species, ecosystems and the biosphere ‐ often these critic…
An aspect of variable population poverty comparisons
Global Poverty and Individual Responsibility: An Adequate Account
Meeting Need
This article considers the question ‘How should institutions enable people to meet their needs in situations where there is no guarantee that all needs can be met?’ After considering and rejecting several simple principles for meeting needs, it suggests a new effectiveness principle that (1) gives greater weight to the needs of the less well off and (2) gives weight to enabling a greater number of people to meet their needs. The effectiveness pri…
Meeting Need
This article considers the question ‘How should institutions enable people to meet their needs in situations where there is no guarantee that all needs can be met?’ After considering and rejecting several simple principles for meeting needs, it suggests a new effectiveness principle that (1) gives greater weight to the needs of the less well off and (2) gives weight to enabling a greater number of people to meet their needs. The effectiveness pri…
An aspect of variable population poverty comparisons
Nanotechnology, Enhancement, and Human Nature
Sufficiency and the Minimally Good Life
What, if anything, do we owe others as a basic minimum? Sufficiency theorists claim that we must provide everyone with enough – but, to date, few well-worked-out accounts of the sufficiency threshold exist, so it is difficult to evaluate this proposition. Previous theories do not provide plausible, independent accounts of resources, capabilities, or welfare that might play the requisite role. Moreover, I believe existing accounts do not provide n…
The anthropocentric advantage? Environmental ethics and climate change policy
Environmental ethicists often criticize liberalism. For many liberals embrace anthropocentric theories on which only humans have non‐instrumental value. Environmental ethicists argue that such liberals fail to account for many things that matter or provide an ethic sufficient for addressing climate change. These critics suggest that many parts of nature – e.g. non‐human individuals, other species, ecosystems and the biosphere ‐ often these critic…
Searching for Sustainability
The Case for Renewable Energy and a New Energy Plan
Nanotechnology, Enhancement, and Human Nature
Global Poverty and Individual Responsibility: An Adequate Account
Meeting Need
This article considers the question ‘How should institutions enable people to meet their needs in situations where there is no guarantee that all needs can be met?’ After considering and rejecting several simple principles for meeting needs, it suggests a new effectiveness principle that (1) gives greater weight to the needs of the less well off and (2) gives weight to enabling a greater number of people to meet their needs. The effectiveness pri…
Free Trade and the Environment
Department of Philosophy technical report
The anthropocentric advantage? Environmental ethics and climate change policy
Environmental ethicists often criticize liberalism. For many liberals embrace anthropocentric theories on which only humans have non‐instrumental value. Environmental ethicists argue that such liberals fail to account for many things that matter or provide an ethic sufficient for addressing climate change. These critics suggest that many parts of nature – e.g. non‐human individuals, other species, ecosystems and the biosphere ‐ often these critic…
An aspect of variable population poverty comparisons
The Problem of Debt‐for‐Nature Swaps from a Human Rights Perspective
At first blush, debt‐for‐nature swaps seem to provide win‐win solutions to the looming problems of environmental degradation and extreme poverty. So, one might naturally assume that they are morally permissible, if not obligatory. This article will argue, however, that debt‐for‐nature swaps are sometimes morally questionable, if not morally impermissible. It suggests that some criticisms of traditional (economic) conditions placed on loans to poo…
Global Health Impact: A Basis for Labeling and Licensing Campaigns
Most of the world's health problems afflict poor countries and their poorest inhabitants. There are many reasons why so many people die of poverty‐related causes. One reason is that the poor cannot access many of the existing drugs and technologies they need. Another, is that little of the research and development (R&D) done on new drugs and technologies benefits the poor. There are several proposals on the table that might incentivize pharmaceut…
Human Rights and the Minimally Good Life
All people have human rights and, intuitively, there is a close connection between human rights, needs, and autonomy. The two main theories about the nature and value of human rights often fail to account for this connection. Interest theories, on which rights protect individuals’ important interests, usually fail to capture the close relationship between human rights and autonomy; autonomy is not constitutive of the interests human rights protec…
Raz on the Right to Autonomy
In The Morality of Freedom , Joseph Raz argues against a right to autonomy. This argument helps to distinguish his theory from his competitors'. For, many liberal theories ground such a right. Some even defend entirely autonomy‐based accounts of rights. This paper suggests that Raz's argument against a right to autonomy raises an important dilemma for his larger theory. Unless his account of rights is limited in some way, Raz's argument applies a…
Global Justice and Charity: A Brief for a New Approach to Empirical Philosophy
What does global justice or charity requires us to give to other people? There is a large theoretical literature on this question. There is much less experimental work in political philosophy relevant to answering it. Perhaps for this reason, this literature has yet to have any major impact on theoretical discussions of global justice or charity. There is, however, some experimental research in behavioral economics that has helped to shape the fi…
Globalization and Global Justice
As globalization shrinks distance and increases international interdependence, it raises an important question about global distributive justice: how does increasing social, political, and economic integration influence the way benefits and burdens generated by our shared lives should be dispersed? That is, what impact (if any) should the growth of global economic and political institutions have on our understanding of what we owe others? The way…
Basic Capacities, Coercion, and Liberal Legitimacy
The Human Right to Health
Is there a human right to health? If so, what are its grounds? Can a legal or moral human right to health provide any practical guidance when it comes to making decisions about, for instance, the allocation of scarce health resources? There are many possible answers to these questions in the literature. This article surveys some of these replies. First, however, it examines the distinctions between legal and moral human rights and rights to healt…
Economic Justice and the Minimally Good Human Life Account of Needs
Distributing global health resources: Contemporary issues in political philosophy
How should states and international organizations allocate global health resources? This paper examines proposals for distributing these resources in the literature. First, we look at the literature on the metrics for measuring what matters and consider how they might be modified to avoid some common objections-e.g., that these measures discriminate against the disabled or fail to give due weight to helping the young (or old) or those in present …
Just allocation of Covid-19 vaccines
Authorized COVID-19 vaccines must be distributed fairly. Several proposals have emerged offering guidelines for how to do this. However, insofar as the aim is to have the greatest health impact, these proposals fall short. We offer three suggestions to strengthen them The most advanced attempt at coordinating vaccine distribution is the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility, a collaboration that brings together governments, companies, …
Against vaccine nationalism
While rich countries like the USA and UK are starting to vaccinate their populations against COVID-19, poor countries may lack access to a vaccine for years. A global effort to provide vaccines through the COVAX facility (the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator) aims to distribute 2 billion vaccinations by the end of next year, but the USA has refused to join and even those rich countries that have joined are enterin…
Sufficiency and the Minimally Good Life
What, if anything, do we owe others as a basic minimum? Sufficiency theorists claim that we must provide everyone with enough – but, to date, few well-worked-out accounts of the sufficiency threshold exist, so it is difficult to evaluate this proposition. Previous theories do not provide plausible, independent accounts of resources, capabilities, or welfare that might play the requisite role. Moreover, I believe existing accounts do not provide n…
The Past 110 Years: Historical Data on the Underrepresentation of Women in Philosophy Journals
This article provides the first large-scale, longitudinal study examining publication rates by gender in philosophy journals. We find that from 1900 to 1990 the proportion of women authorships in philosophy increased, but it has plateaued since the 1990s (unlike in other disciplines). Top Philosophy journals publish the lowest proportion of women, and anonymous review does not increase the proportion publishing in these journals (though it does i…
Good Enough? The Minimally Good Life Account of the Basic Minimum
What kind of basic minimum do we owe to others? This paper defends a new procedure for answering this question. It argues that its minimally good life account has some advantages over the main alternatives and that neither the first-, nor third-, person perspective can help us to arrive at an adequate account. Rather, it employs the second-person perspective of free, reasonable, care. There might be other conditions for distributive justice, and …
Pandemic preparedness and response: Beyond the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator
Nationalism has trumped solidarity, resulting in unnecessary loss of life and inequitable access to vaccines and therapeutics. Existing intellectual property (IP) regimens, trade secrets and data rights, under which pharmaceutical firms operate, have also posed obstacles to increasing manufacturing capacity, and ensuring adequate supply, affordable pricing, and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and other health products in low-income and midd…
Global Health Impact: Human rights, access to medicines, and measurement
Should people have a legal human right to health? And, if so, what exactly does protecting this right require? This essay defends some answers to these questions recently articulated in Global Health Impact . It explains how these answers depend on a particular way of thinking about health and the minimally good life, how quality of life matters at and over time, what various agents should do to help people who are unable to live well enough, and…
Political science (17 works) · Law (16 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Philosophy (15 works) · Economics (13 works) · Epistemology (13 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (11 works) · Law and economics (10 works) · Business (8 works) · Computer Science (6 works)