Carl Knight
Biographic Data
| ID | 3602108 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Carl Knight |
| GIVEN NAMES | Carl |
| FAMILY NAME | Knight |
| SIGNATURE | KNIGHT C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Pennsylvania State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6093-2868 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 52 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 73 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 51 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1969 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Relational Egalitarianism: A Critique
Relational egalitarians endorse the positive thesis that achieving equality of social relations is fundamentally important, and sometimes also the negative thesis that distribution has no non‐relational importance. This article rejects both theses of relational egalitarianism. Contrary to the negative thesis, there are strong reasons supporting the non‐relational importance of distribution, as is brought out by considering a country with huge dis…
Basic-needs sufficientarianism
Basic-needs sufficientarianism holds that everyone should have enough in the sense of having their basic needs satisfied. Though a common form of sufficientarianism, basic-needs sufficientarianism is underexplored even by its proponents. This article significantly advances understanding of basic-needs sufficientarianism in three respects. First, it identifies basic-needs sufficientarians’ stances on key issues such as whether basic needs are of f…
Anti-homeless Hostile Design as Wrongful Discrimination
Philosophical accounts of discrimination distinguish the question of what discrimination is from the question of its wrongfulness. This article addresses these two questions in the context of anti-homeless hostile design of public spaces. Regarding the first question, all forms of anti-homeless hostile design amount to discrimination, with typical cases (for example, anti-homeless spikes or benches) being direct discrimination, but with some case…
Enough is too much: The excessiveness objection to sufficientarianism
The standard version of sufficientarianism maintains that providing people with enough, or as close to enough as is possible, is lexically prior to other distributive goals. This article argues that this is excessive – more than distributive justice allows – in four distinct ways. These concern the magnitude of advantage, the number of beneficiaries, responsibility and desert, and above-threshold distribution. Sufficientarians can respond by acce…
An Argument for All‐Luck Egalitarianism
No abstract available
Climate change, fundamental interests, and global justice
Political philosophers commonly tackle the issue of climate change by focusing on fundamental interests as a basis for human rights. This approach struggles, however, in cases where one set of fundamental interests requires one course of action, and another set of fundamental interests requires a contradictory course of action. This article advances an alternative response to climate change based on an account of global justice that gives weight …
Human–Environment Interactions: Case Studies
Justice for Foxes
A framework for luck egalitarianism in health and healthcare
Several attempts have been made to apply the choice-sensitive theory of distributive justice, luck egalitarianism, in the context of health and healthcare. This article presents a framework for this discussion by highlighting different normative decisions to be made in such an application, some of the objections to which luck egalitarians must provide answers and some of the practical implications associated with applying such an approach in the …
Abandoning the Abandonment Objection: Luck Egalitarian Arguments for Public Insurance
Theories of Distributive Justice and Post-Apartheid South Africa
South Africa is a highly distributively unequal country, and its inequality continues to be largely along racial lines. Such circumstances call for assessment from the perspective of contemporary theories of distributive justice. Three such theories—Rawlsian justice, utilitarianism, and luck egalitarianism—are described and applied. Rawls' difference principle recommends that the worst off be made as well as they can be, a standard which South Af…
Egalitarian Justice and Expected Value
Benefiting from Injustice and Brute Luck
Many political philosophers maintain that beneficiaries of injustice are under special obligations to assist victims of injustice. However, the examples favored by those who endorse this view equally support an alternative luck egalitarian view, which holds that special obligations should be assigned to those with good brute luck. From this perspective the distinguishing features of the benefiting view are (1) its silence on the question of wheth…
The Injustice of Discrimination
Discrimination might be considered unjust on account of the comparative disadvantage it imposes, the absolute advantage it imposes, the disrespect it shows, or the prejudice it shows. This article argues that each of these accounts overlooks some cases of unjust discrimination. In response to this state of affairs we might combine two or more of these accounts. A promising approach combines the comparative disadvantage and absolute disadvantage a…
What is grandfathering
Emissions grandfathering maintains that prior emissions increase future emission entitlements. The view forms a large part of actual emission control frameworks, but is routinely dismissed by political theorists and applied philosophers as evidently unjust. A sympathetic theoretical reconsideration of grandfathering suggests that the most plausible version is moderate, allowing that other considerations should influence emission entitlements, and…
Luck Egalitarianism
Luck egalitarianism is a family of egalitarian theories of distributive justice that aim to counteract the distributive effects of luck. This article explains luck egalitarianism's main ideas, and the debates that have accompanied its rise to prominence. There are two main parts to the discussion. The first part sets out three key moves in the influential early statements of Dworkin, Arneson, and Cohen: the brute luck/option luck distinction, the…
In defence of global egalitarianism
This essay argues that David Miller's criticisms of global egalitarianism do not undermine the view where it is stated in one of its stronger, luck egalitarian forms. The claim that global egalitarianism cannot specify a metric of justice which is broad enough to exclude spurious claims for redistribution, but precise enough to appropriately value different kinds of advantage, implicitly assumes that cultural understandings are the only legitimat…
Distributive Luck
AbstactThis article explores the Rawlsian goal of ensuring that distributions are not influenced by the morally arbitrary. It does so by bringing discussions of distributive justice into contact with the debate over moral luck initiated by Williams and Nagel. Rawls’ own justice as fairness appears to be incompatible with the arbitrariness commitment, as it creates some equalities arbitrarily. A major rival, Dworkin’s version of brute luck egalita…
Unit-Ideas Unleashed: A Reinterpretation and Reassessment of Lovejovian Methodology in the History of Ideas
This article argues for an unconventional interpretation of Arthur O. Lovejoy's distinctive approach to method in the history of ideas. It is maintained that the value of the central concept of the 'unit-idea' has been misunderstood by friends and foes alike. The commonality of unit-ideas at different times and places is often defined in terms of familial resemblance. But such an approach must necessarily define unit-ideas as being something othe…
Responsibility and distributive justice
Under what conditions are people responsible for their choices and the outcomes of those choices? How could such conditions be fostered by liberal societies? Should what people are due as a matter of justice depend on what they are responsible for? For example, how far should healthcare provision depend on patients' past choices? What values would be realized and which hampered by making justice sensitive to responsibility? Would it give people w…
Climate change and the duties of the disadvantaged: Reply to Caney
Discussions of where the costs of climate change adaptation and mitigation should fall often focus on the ‘polluter pays principle’ or the ‘ability to pay principle’. Simon Caney has recently defended a ‘hybrid view’, which includes versions of both of these principles. This article argues that Caney’s view succeeds in overcoming several shortfalls of both principles, but is nevertheless subject to three important objections: first, it does not d…
In Defence of Cosmopolitanism
David Miller has objected to the cosmopolitan argument that it is arbitrary and hence unfair to treat individuals differently on account of things for which they are not responsible. Such a view seems to require, implausibly, that individuals be treated identically even where (unchosen) needs differ. The objection is, however, inapplicable where the focus of cosmopolitan concern is arbitrary disadvantage rather than arbitrary treatment. This 'unf…
Global Environmental Change: Challenges to Science and Society in Southeastern Europe
This book comprises selected papers presented during the International Conference "Global Environmental Change: Challenges for Science and Society in South-Eastern Europe" held 19-21 May 2008 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The conference goal was to assess recent knowledge on global environmental change and related impacts in countries of the Balkan and neighboring southeastern European region. The focus on this region is due to the present sensitivity to g…
Justice and the Grey Box of Responsibility
Even where an act appears to be responsible, and satisfies all the conditions for responsibility laid down by society, the response to it may be unjust where that appearance is false, and where those conditions are insufficient. This paper argues that those who want to place considerations of responsibility at the centre of distributive and criminal justice ought to take this concern seriously. The common strategy of relying on what Susan Hurley …
Climate Change: The Health of a Planet in Peril
Key Words: assessmentclimate changeglobal warmingpoliticssustainability Notes 1. See http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/peoples-agreement/#more-1584 (last accessed 6 May 2010). 2. For example, Amazon.com recently listed more than 6,000 printed books and 365 books available for its Kindle reading system; BarnesandNoble.com offered more than 5,500 books as well as 148 electronic items on the same date (consulted 2 May 2010). Some of these items …
Luck Egalitarianism
Luck egalitarianism is a family of egalitarian theories of distributive justice that aim to counteract the distributive effects of luck. This article explains luck egalitarianism's main ideas, and the debates that have accompanied its rise to prominence. There are two main parts to the discussion. The first part sets out three key moves in the influential early statements of Dworkin, Arneson, and Cohen: the brute luck/option luck distinction, the…
The emerging water crisis in Bulgaria
The Ecology of African Sleeping Sickness
African sleeping sickness or trypanosomiasis is unique to Africa; it is one of the continent's most significant diseases because it may infect both man and domestic animals. Sleeping sickness has been an important control in the history and geography of Africa, and is still a critical element for rural development planning. The disease is spread by the tsetse fly, with an intermediary reservoir in domestic and wild animals. The geographical distr…
Economic Development and Economic Change: The Case of East African Cattle [and Comments and Replies]
Exploring anew the old question of why East African pastoral peoples tend to be conservative, this paper suggests that a de-Westernized cross-cultural application of economic theory, both statics and dynamics, coupled with transaction theory, (social exchange), reveals a distinction between economic development, the exponential growth of a specific economy, and economic change, a shift from one specific kind of economy to another. Economic develo…
Abandoning the Abandonment Objection: Luck Egalitarian Arguments for Public Insurance
In Defence of Luck Egalitarianism
Unit-Ideas Unleashed: A Reinterpretation and Reassessment of Lovejovian Methodology in the History of Ideas
This article argues for an unconventional interpretation of Arthur O. Lovejoy's distinctive approach to method in the history of ideas. It is maintained that the value of the central concept of the 'unit-idea' has been misunderstood by friends and foes alike. The commonality of unit-ideas at different times and places is often defined in terms of familial resemblance. But such an approach must necessarily define unit-ideas as being something othe…
Ethnogeography and Change
Technicians like systems and systematic thinking. It is very tempting to try to rebuild the world into a rational, schematic framework and ask men to fit themselves into it... the wisdom of the researcher ... aims at concrete solutions, immediately applicable, designed for men as they are
An Argument for All‐Luck Egalitarianism
No abstract available
The water resources of Bulgaria: An overview
Theories of Distributive Justice and Post-Apartheid South Africa
South Africa is a highly distributively unequal country, and its inequality continues to be largely along racial lines. Such circumstances call for assessment from the perspective of contemporary theories of distributive justice. Three such theories—Rawlsian justice, utilitarianism, and luck egalitarianism—are described and applied. Rawls' difference principle recommends that the worst off be made as well as they can be, a standard which South Af…
Drought in Bulgaria and atmospheric synoptic conditions over Europe
Water resource impacts of climate change in southwestern Bulgaria
Water resources of Bulgaria: Introduction to a special issue of GeoJournal
The Injustice of Discrimination
Discrimination might be considered unjust on account of the comparative disadvantage it imposes, the absolute advantage it imposes, the disrespect it shows, or the prejudice it shows. This article argues that each of these accounts overlooks some cases of unjust discrimination. In response to this state of affairs we might combine two or more of these accounts. A promising approach combines the comparative disadvantage and absolute disadvantage a…
What is grandfathering
Emissions grandfathering maintains that prior emissions increase future emission entitlements. The view forms a large part of actual emission control frameworks, but is routinely dismissed by political theorists and applied philosophers as evidently unjust. A sympathetic theoretical reconsideration of grandfathering suggests that the most plausible version is moderate, allowing that other considerations should influence emission entitlements, and…
In defence of global egalitarianism
This essay argues that David Miller's criticisms of global egalitarianism do not undermine the view where it is stated in one of its stronger, luck egalitarian forms. The claim that global egalitarianism cannot specify a metric of justice which is broad enough to exclude spurious claims for redistribution, but precise enough to appropriately value different kinds of advantage, implicitly assumes that cultural understandings are the only legitimat…
Distributive Luck
AbstactThis article explores the Rawlsian goal of ensuring that distributions are not influenced by the morally arbitrary. It does so by bringing discussions of distributive justice into contact with the debate over moral luck initiated by Williams and Nagel. Rawls’ own justice as fairness appears to be incompatible with the arbitrariness commitment, as it creates some equalities arbitrarily. A major rival, Dworkin’s version of brute luck egalita…
In Defence of Cosmopolitanism
David Miller has objected to the cosmopolitan argument that it is arbitrary and hence unfair to treat individuals differently on account of things for which they are not responsible. Such a view seems to require, implausibly, that individuals be treated identically even where (unchosen) needs differ. The objection is, however, inapplicable where the focus of cosmopolitan concern is arbitrary disadvantage rather than arbitrary treatment. This 'unf…
Climate Change: The Health of a Planet in Peril
Key Words: assessmentclimate changeglobal warmingpoliticssustainability Notes 1. See http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/peoples-agreement/#more-1584 (last accessed 6 May 2010). 2. For example, Amazon.com recently listed more than 6,000 printed books and 365 books available for its Kindle reading system; BarnesandNoble.com offered more than 5,500 books as well as 148 electronic items on the same date (consulted 2 May 2010). Some of these items …
A pluralistic approach to global poverty
A large proportion of humankind today lives in avoidable poverty. This article examines whether affluent individuals and governments have moral duties to change this situation. It is maintained that an alternative to the familiar accounts of transdomestic distributive justice and personal ethics put forward by writers such as Peter Singer, John Rawls, and Thomas Pogge is required, since each of these accounts fails to reflect the full range of re…
Fieldwork and Local Government: An Example from Tanzania
The problem of obtaining permission of national governments for field research in Africa has been frequently documented. The Research Liaison Committee of the African Studies Association was formed in 1966 with the purpose of serving as a center for collection and dissemination of information on U.S. scholars and their research in Africa, communications on the role and mode of research in Africa, referral of questions it was unable to answer itse…
The Ecology of African Sleeping Sickness
African sleeping sickness or trypanosomiasis is unique to Africa; it is one of the continent's most significant diseases because it may infect both man and domestic animals. Sleeping sickness has been an important control in the history and geography of Africa, and is still a critical element for rural development planning. The disease is spread by the tsetse fly, with an intermediary reservoir in domestic and wild animals. The geographical distr…
Ethnogeography and Change
Technicians like systems and systematic thinking. It is very tempting to try to rebuild the world into a rational, schematic framework and ask men to fit themselves into it... the wisdom of the researcher ... aims at concrete solutions, immediately applicable, designed for men as they are
Mbozi
Economic Development and Economic Change: The Case of East African Cattle [and Comments and Replies]
Exploring anew the old question of why East African pastoral peoples tend to be conservative, this paper suggests that a de-Westernized cross-cultural application of economic theory, both statics and dynamics, coupled with transaction theory, (social exchange), reveals a distinction between economic development, the exponential growth of a specific economy, and economic change, a shift from one specific kind of economy to another. Economic develo…
Lake Kariba: A Man-Made Tropical Ecosystem in Central Africa
General Contents.- I Limnological Study of a Tropical Reservoir by A. G. Physiography.- 2. Geology and soils.- 3. Climate.- 4. Flora, fauna and human population.- Section II The rivers and their characteristics.- 5. The Zambezi River.- 6. Secondary rivers in the lake catchment.- Section III Lake Kariba physico-chemical characteristics.- 7. Hydrology.- 8. Morphometry and morphology.- 9. Sampling methodology.- 10. Optical properties.- 11. Thermal p…
Ecology and Change: Rural Modernization in an African Community
One Nigeria? A Regional View from Western State
Contemporary Africa: Geography and Change
Resources and development in Africa
Contemporary Africa: Geography and Change
Natural resource development in the tropics
Spatial dimensions of growth
The emerging water crisis in Bulgaria
The water resources of Bulgaria: An overview
Water resources of Bulgaria: Introduction to a special issue of GeoJournal
Globalization and global change research
Drought in Bulgaria and atmospheric synoptic conditions over Europe
Water resource impacts of climate change in southwestern Bulgaria
Climate change research in central and eastern Europe
Liberal Multiculturalism Reconsidered
This article starts by setting out the evaluative criteria provided by Will Kymlicka's liberal account of individual freedom and equality. Kymlicka's theory of cultural minority rights is then analysed using these criteria and found to be defective in two respects. First, his assignment of different rights to national and ethnic groups is shown to be inegalitarian with regard to generations after the first. Second, his recommendation of strong cu…
In Defence of Luck Egalitarianism
The Metaphysical Case for Luck Egalitarianism
The article defends the concept of luck egalitarianism. Luck egalitarianism states that social and economic inequality is justifiable only if the person concerned is responsible for their position. If birth, circumstance or disability results in inequality, then the person is entitled to compensation. Metaphysical arguments are often used to dispute luck egalitarianism. Arguments have been made that given metaphysical libertarianism, i.e. people …
A pluralistic approach to global poverty
A large proportion of humankind today lives in avoidable poverty. This article examines whether affluent individuals and governments have moral duties to change this situation. It is maintained that an alternative to the familiar accounts of transdomestic distributive justice and personal ethics put forward by writers such as Peter Singer, John Rawls, and Thomas Pogge is required, since each of these accounts fails to reflect the full range of re…
Egalitarian Justice and Valuational Judgment
Contemporary discussions of egalitarian justice have often focused on the issue of expensive taste. G.A. Cohen has recently abandoned the view that all chosen disadvantages are non-compensable, now maintaining that chosen expensive judgmental tastes—those endorsed by valuational judgment—are compensable as it is unreasonable to expect persons not to develop them. But chosen expensive brute taste—the main type of non-compensable expensive taste on…
Political science (35 works) · Law (28 works) · Sociology (25 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (24 works) · Philosophy (23 works) · Economics (21 works) · Epistemology (21 works) · Law and economics (21 works) · Geography (19 works) · Politics (18 works)