Suzy Killmister
Biographic Data
| ID | 1607468 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Suzy Killmister |
| GIVEN NAMES | Suzy |
| FAMILY NAME | Killmister |
| SIGNATURE | KILLMISTER S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Massey University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1082-783X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
What’s Wrong with Gender-Critical Feminism
In early 2023 Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull—also known as Posie Parker—took her “Let Women Speak” tour throughout Australasia. One of those rallies made international headlines due to the attendance of a small group of neo-Nazis (members of the National Socialist Network) who proceeded to perform Nazi salutes on the steps of Parliament House and on the surrounding streets. At that very same rally an academic philosopher, Holly Lawford-Smith, gave a sp…
Constructing Moral Equality
Moral equality—the idea that ‘we’ all have equal moral worth, our interests ought to count for the same, and we possess the same bundle of basic rights—is one of the most central principles of liberal thought, being regularly drawn on as a presupposition of moral and political inquiry. Perhaps because it is so often relied on as a presupposition, however, moral equality is more often assumed than argued for. When moral equality is argued for, the…
‘I Am a Man’
All too often, social kinds function as sites of oppression. To be a woman, to be Black, to be trans – each, in its own way, situates someone at the lower end of a social hierarchy. Membership in such groups thus constitutes a liability: notwithstanding the goods people draw from sharing in these identities, they also stand at perpetual risk of those same identities exposing them to significant harm. What, if anything, can members of oppressed gr…
Kantian Ethics, Dignity and Perfection
Supplementing the capabilities approach
Covid-19 and the right of return
Throughout 2020 and 2021, a human right most Australians presumably took for granted was effectively suspended by the Australian government: if you were an Australian citizen overseas, you no longer had any guaranteed right of return. Taking as given that we do in fact have a moral right to re-enter the country of which we are a citizen, in this commentary I draw on the work of philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson to critically examine three possibl…
The Warty conception of human rights
In this article I explain and defend a new conception of human rights, drawing upon Jeremy Waldron’s account of dignity and Richard Rorty’s account of human rights. Following Rorty, I argue for a conception of human rights on which the central question is not “what is human nature?”: but rather “what kind of world should we leave to future generations?” I suggest that we can make progress on this question by developing Waldron's claim that dignit…
Taking the Measure of Autonomy
Taking the Measure of Autonomy
This book takes a radically different approach to the concept of autonomy. Killmister defends a theory of autonomy that is four-dimensional and constituted by what she calls ‘self-definition,’ ‘self-realisation,’ ‘self-unification,’ and 'self-constitution.' While sufficiently complex to inform a full range of social applications, this four-dimensional theory is nonetheless unified through the simple idea that autonomy can be understood in terms o…
Autonomy and the Problem of Socialization
One of the more intractable problems in the debate over autonomy is how we should distinguish autonomy-enhancing from autonomy-compromising forms of socialization. In this paper I first survey a range of theories of autonomy, from the procedural through to the substantive, and argue that none offers sufficient resources to resolve the problem of socialization. In the second half of the paper I develop an alternative theory that can both different…
Autonomy, Liberalism, and Anti-Perfectionism
Why group membership matters
The question of why group-differentiated rights might be a requirement of justice has been a central focus of identity politics in recent decades. I attempt to bring some clarity to this discussion by proposing a typology to track the various ways in which individuals can be harmed or benefited as a consequence of their membership in social groups. It is the well-being of individuals that group-differentiated rights should be understood as protec…
Group-Differentiated Rights and the Problem of Membership
Taking the Measure of Autonomy
This book takes a radically different approach to the concept of autonomy. Killmister defends a theory of autonomy that is four-dimensional and constituted by what she calls ‘self-definition,’ ‘self-realisation,’ ‘self-unification,’ and 'self-constitution.' While sufficiently complex to inform a full range of social applications, this four-dimensional theory is nonetheless unified through the simple idea that autonomy can be understood in terms o…
Group-Differentiated Rights and the Problem of Membership
Why group membership matters
The question of why group-differentiated rights might be a requirement of justice has been a central focus of identity politics in recent decades. I attempt to bring some clarity to this discussion by proposing a typology to track the various ways in which individuals can be harmed or benefited as a consequence of their membership in social groups. It is the well-being of individuals that group-differentiated rights should be understood as protec…
Autonomy and the Problem of Socialization
One of the more intractable problems in the debate over autonomy is how we should distinguish autonomy-enhancing from autonomy-compromising forms of socialization. In this paper I first survey a range of theories of autonomy, from the procedural through to the substantive, and argue that none offers sufficient resources to resolve the problem of socialization. In the second half of the paper I develop an alternative theory that can both different…
Autonomy, Liberalism, and Anti-Perfectionism
Taking the Measure of Autonomy
Taking the Measure of Autonomy
This book takes a radically different approach to the concept of autonomy. Killmister defends a theory of autonomy that is four-dimensional and constituted by what she calls ‘self-definition,’ ‘self-realisation,’ ‘self-unification,’ and 'self-constitution.' While sufficiently complex to inform a full range of social applications, this four-dimensional theory is nonetheless unified through the simple idea that autonomy can be understood in terms o…
The Warty conception of human rights
In this article I explain and defend a new conception of human rights, drawing upon Jeremy Waldron’s account of dignity and Richard Rorty’s account of human rights. Following Rorty, I argue for a conception of human rights on which the central question is not “what is human nature?”: but rather “what kind of world should we leave to future generations?” I suggest that we can make progress on this question by developing Waldron's claim that dignit…
Covid-19 and the right of return
Throughout 2020 and 2021, a human right most Australians presumably took for granted was effectively suspended by the Australian government: if you were an Australian citizen overseas, you no longer had any guaranteed right of return. Taking as given that we do in fact have a moral right to re-enter the country of which we are a citizen, in this commentary I draw on the work of philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson to critically examine three possibl…
Supplementing the capabilities approach
Constructing Moral Equality
Moral equality—the idea that ‘we’ all have equal moral worth, our interests ought to count for the same, and we possess the same bundle of basic rights—is one of the most central principles of liberal thought, being regularly drawn on as a presupposition of moral and political inquiry. Perhaps because it is so often relied on as a presupposition, however, moral equality is more often assumed than argued for. When moral equality is argued for, the…
‘I Am a Man’
All too often, social kinds function as sites of oppression. To be a woman, to be Black, to be trans – each, in its own way, situates someone at the lower end of a social hierarchy. Membership in such groups thus constitutes a liability: notwithstanding the goods people draw from sharing in these identities, they also stand at perpetual risk of those same identities exposing them to significant harm. What, if anything, can members of oppressed gr…
Kantian Ethics, Dignity and Perfection
What’s Wrong with Gender-Critical Feminism
In early 2023 Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull—also known as Posie Parker—took her “Let Women Speak” tour throughout Australasia. One of those rallies made international headlines due to the attendance of a small group of neo-Nazis (members of the National Socialist Network) who proceeded to perform Nazi salutes on the steps of Parliament House and on the surrounding streets. At that very same rally an academic philosopher, Holly Lawford-Smith, gave a sp…
Political science (11 works) · Law (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (7 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Politics (5 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Autonomy (4 works)