David Owens

Biographic Data

ID3603661
NAMEDavid Owens
GIVEN NAMESDavid
FAMILY NAMEOwens
SIGNATUREOWENS D
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Wales
ORCID0000-0002-5080-2736
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS106
TOTAL CITATIONS306
AUTHOR COUNT106
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1942
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX11

  • Storytelling and political theory

    Open AccessAdriana Alfaro Altamirano, Carmen Dege et al.ARTICLEContemporary Political Theory2026

  • Liberty, Equality, Authority

    Open AccessDavid OwensARTICLEJournal of Ethics and Social…2026

    Directive authorities (for example, political authorities with powers of command and coercion) pose a problem of legitimacy, but there are different ways of understanding the problem. On the one hand, it has been thought to rest on the inequality of social power between ruler and ruled. On this view, proprietorial authority (the authority possessed by an owner over the things that they own) creates much the same problem as directive authority, at…

  • Preparing students for the modern information landscape and navigating science–technology–society issues

    Open AccessJerrid Kruse, Sarah Vo et al.ARTICLEJournal of Research in Science…2025Cited by: 2References: 188

    The goals of science education must be sufficiently broad to support learners navigating changing scientific, social, and media landscapes. This position paper builds upon existing scholarship to articulate a set of constructs useful for navigating the modern information landscape including constructs with a long history in science education (e.g., science content knowledge, science practices, nature of science) as well as those still relatively …

  • Joseph Raz as a Political Philosopher

    Open AccessD H Owens, David OwensARTICLEModern Law Review2022

    The Roots of Normativity is the last work Joseph Raz published before his death in May 2022. Like many of his books it is a collection of papers. Some focus on issues that will likely be of most interest to philosophers of mind and ethics, topics such as the nature of intention, the binding force of a promise, the components of human well-being and the theoretical significance of the notion of a reason. Others consider topics in social philosophy…

  • Bound by Convention: Obligation and Social Rules

    David OwensBOOKBound by Convention2022

  • Ambivalences of Hospitality

    David Owens, David OwenARTICLESocial research2022References: 2

    This essay addresses the ambivalences, limits, and possibilities of an ethics of hospitality. It argues for three claims. First, there is a significant disjuncture between an ethics of hospitality and a politics of hospitality expressed as cosmopolitan right. Second, a cosmopolitan right of universal hospitality does not, and cannot, fully capture our obligations to refugees. Third, there is a significant role of an ethics of hospitality in a for…

  • The Roles of Rights

    D H Owens, David OwensCHAPTERCivil Wrongs and Justice in…2020

    This chapter aims to clarify the moral foundations of private law’s response to wrongs, as well as the underlying deontic structure of relationships of right, duty, wrong, and remedy in ethics and in law. It begins by introducing the idea of ethical individualism. Ethical individualism implies that: duties are individuated, individuation of duties entails that the right-holder will ordinarily enjoy certain powers in relation to the normative sign…

  • A New Iri-Saĝrig “Sacristy” Inventory Text in the Lanier Theological Library

    David Owens, David I OwenARTICLERevue d assyriologie et d…2020

  • Property and Authority

    Open AccessDavid OwensARTICLEJournal of Political Philosophy2019Cited by: 3References: 3

    It is widely believed that personal property rights are to be justified by reference to the interest potential owners have in controlling things that matter to them. The first part of the paper develops one form of this view, highlighting its several theoretical merits. I then raise two problems for the control interest hypothesis (as I call it) and defend a novel alternative, one based on the idea that human beings have an interest in controllin…

  • The Democratic Production of Political Cohesion: Partisanship, Institutional Design and Life Form

    Open AccessR Bellamy, Matteo Bonotti et al.ARTICLEContemporary Political Theory2019Cited by: 1References: 23

  • Sortition, Rotation, and Mandate: Conditions for Political Equality and Deliberative Reasoning

    Open AccessDavid Owens, David Owen et al.ARTICLELatin American Politics and Society2018Cited by: 26

    The proposal to create a chamber selected by sortition would extend this democratic procedure into the legislative branch of government. However, there are good reasons to believe that, as currently conceived by John Gastil and Erik Olin Wright, the proposal will fail to realize sufficiently two fundamental democratic goods, namely, political equality and deliberative reasoning. It is argued through analysis of its historic and contemporary appli…

  • Habitual agency

    Open AccessDavid OwensARTICLEPhilosophical Explorations2017

    It is often maintained that practical freedom is a capacity to act on our view of what we ought to do and in particular on our view of what it would be best to do. Here, I discuss an important exception to that claim, namely habitual agency. Acting out of habit is widely regarded as a form of reflex or even as compulsive behaviour but much habitual agency is both intentional and free. Still it is true that, in so far as we act out of habit, we ha…

  • Machiavelli’s il Principe and the Politics of Glory

    Open AccessDavid OwensARTICLEEuropean Journal of Political…2017Cited by: 2References: 16

    This article offers a reading of Machiavelli’s il Principe and its relationship to his Discorsi which defends, first, the coherence of Machiavelli’s appeal to the figure of the one-man ordinatore and, second, a republican interpretation of il Principe. Its particular focus is on the pivotal role played in Machiavelli’s text-act by ‘love of worldly glory’. It is argued, first, that it is through love of glory that Machiavelli can coherently aim to…

  • Hans Lindahl’s Fault Lines of Globalization

    Open AccessAndrew Schaap, David Owens et al.ARTICLEContemporary Political Theory2017

  • Promises and Conflicting Obligations

    Open AccessDavid OwensARTICLEJournal of Ethics and Social…2016

    This paper addresses two questions. First, can a binding promise conflict with other binding promises and thereby generate conflicting obligations? Second, can binding promises conflict with other non-promissory obligations, so that we are obliged to keep so-called “wicked promises”? The answer to both questions is yes. The discussion examines both “natural right” and “social practice” approaches to promissory obli-gation, and I conclude that nei…

  • The Conformists

    David Owens, David OwenARTICLENew left review2016

  • Reasons and practices of reasoning: On the analytic/Continental distinction in political philosophy

    Open AccessDavid Owens, David OwenARTICLEEuropean Journal of Political…2016Cited by: 4References: 28

    This essay argues that whereas ‘analytic’ political philosophy is focussed on generating reasons that are oriented to the issue of articulating norms of justice, legitimacy and so on, that guide political judgements about institutions and/or forms of conduct; ‘Continental’ political philosophy is oriented to critically assessing the practices of reasoning that characterise our social and political institutions and forms of conduct as well as our …

  • Humanism from an agonistic perspective: Themes from the work of Bonnie Honig

    Open AccessMathew Humphrey, David Owens et al.ARTICLEContemporary Political Theory2014Cited by: 3References: 34

  • Shaping the Normative Landscape

    David OwensBOOKShaping The Normative Landscape2012

    'Shaping the Normative Landscape' is an investigation of the value of obligations and of rights, of forgiveness, of consent and refusal, of promise and request. David Owens shows that these are all instruments by which we exercise control over our normative environment.

  • Scales of Justice: Reimagining Political Space in a Globalizing World by Nancy Fraser

    Open AccessDavid OwensARTICLEConstellations2012

  • Allies of the State: China's Private Entrepreneurs and Democratic Change – By Jie Chen and Bruce J. Dickson

    Open AccessDavid OwensARTICLEAsian Politics & Policy2012References: 2

  • Inequalities in Use of the Internet for Job Search: Similarities and Contrasts by Economic Status in Great Britain

    Open AccessAnne E Green, Anne Green et al.ARTICLEEnvironment and Planning A…2012Cited by: 4References: 25

    By 2009 four in every five job seekers in Great Britain were making use of the Internet in job search, generally alongside other methods. While the Internet has created new opportunities for job seekers, there are concerns that inequalities in use of and access to the Internet will intensify difficulties experienced by disadvantaged groups in finding work. This paper analyses the incidence and determinants of online job search in Great Britain, u…

  • The Possibility of Consent

    Open AccessDavid OwensARTICLERatio2011Cited by: 2

    Worries about the possibility of consent recall a more familiar problem about promising raised by Hume. To see the parallel here we must distinguish the power of consent from the normative significance of choice . I'll argue that we have normative interests, interests in being able to control the rights and obligations of ourselves and those around us, interests distinct from our interest in controlling the non‐normative situation. Choice gets it…

  • The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves—And Why It Matters – By B. R. Myers

    Open AccessDavid OwensARTICLEAsian Politics & Policy2011References: 1

  • Rural Development and Labour Supply Challenges in the UK: The Role of Non-UK Migrants

    Anne E Green, Anne Green et al.ARTICLERegional Studies2008Cited by: 10References: 2

    Green A. E., De Hoyos M., Jones P. and Owen D. Rural development and labour supply challenges in the UK: the role of non-UK migrants, Regional Studies. Characteristic features of the demographic structure of rural areas in the UK include net out-migration of young adults and an older than average age profile. These features pose a labour supply challenge for rural areas. However, many rural areas are experiencing in-migration (from other parts of…