Kimberley Brownlee
Biographic Data
| ID | 3974006 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kimberley Brownlee |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kimberley |
| FAMILY NAME | Brownlee |
| SIGNATURE | BROWNLEE K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Warwick |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3933-0122 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 26 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Justice for Girls
When the US Supreme Court rejected the constitutional right to abortion care, several US states enacted bans. This legal change exposed critical moral questions about pregnancy in childhood: What do adults owe to an impregnated girl? This article shows that both opponents of abortion and defenders of women’s rights make a mistake by overlooking that a girl is a child. Her caregivers should view her impregnation as a malady and take steps to termi…
On the Ethics of Interacting
Ordinary interactions are the primary vehicle through which we show respect, give social pleasure, and grease the wheels of healthy sociality. When we do an interactional wrong to someone, we not only convey disrespect by disregarding their interactional needs, but also cause them social pain and erode healthy social relations. Interactional ethics – the study of the ethics of interacting – concerns both our conduct within our interactions and ou…
The Roots of Normativity
What a Home Does
Analytic philosophy has largely neglected the topic of homelessness. The few notable exceptions, including work by Jeremy Waldron and Christopher Essert, focus on our interests in shelter, housing, and property rights, but ignore the key social functions that a home performs as a place in which we are welcomed, accepted, and respected. This paper identifies a ladder of home-related concepts which begins with the minimal notion of temporary shelte…
Being Social
Human rights capture what people need to live minimally decent lives. Recognized dimensions of this minimum include physical security, due process, political participation, and freedom of movement, speech, and belief, as well as—more controversially for some—subsistence, shelter, health, education, culture, and community. This pioneering collection of original essays aims to remedy the neglect of social needs and rights in human rights theory and…
The Missing Measure of Loneliness
Prominent tools used to measure loneliness such as the UCLA Scale and DJGS include no items related to being needed, i.e., neededness . More recent scales such as the DLS and SELSA do include items on neededness, but only within their romantic loneliness subscales. This paper proposes that new iterations of loneliness scales should include in all subscales two items on neededness: (a) whether a person feels important to someone else and (b) wheth…
Being Sure of Each Other
To survive, let alone flourish, we need to be sure of—securely tied to—at least one other person. We also need to be sure of our general acceptance within the wider social world. This book explores the normative implications of taking our social needs seriously. Chapter 1 sketches out what our core social needs are, and Chapter 2 shows that they ground a fundamental, but largely neglected human right against social deprivation. Chapter 3 then arg…
Two Tales of Civil Disobedience
In his article 'In Defence of Penalizing (but not Punishing) Civil Disobedience ', David Lefkowitz (2017) neatly maps out the differences between his and my defences of the moral right to civil disobedience. We disagree, first, about its grounds and, second, about its scope
A Companion to Applied Philosophy
Applied philosophy has been a growing area of research for the last 40 years. Until now, however, almost all of this research has been centered around the field of ethics. A Companion to Applied Philosophy breaks new ground, demonstrating that all areasof philosophy, including epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind, can be applied, and are relevant to questions of everyday life. This perennial topic in philosophy…
Civil Disobedience and Conscientious Objection
Civil disobedience and conscientious objection are distinct but related social practices that display people’s opposition to specific laws, policies, directives, or schemes. In general, these two practices arise from people’s deeply held commitments. Civil disobedience is more overtly communicative and political than conscientious objection. Civil disobedience is also, almost by definition, a breach of law, which people engage in to push for chan…
The civil disobedience of Edward Snowden
This article responds to William Scheuerman’s analysis of Edward Snowden as someone whose acts fit within John Rawls’ account of civil disobedience understood as a public, non-violent, conscientious breach of law performed with overall fidelity to law and a willingness to accept punishment. It rejects the narrow Rawlsian notion in favour of a broader notion of civil disobedience understood as a constrained, conscientious and communicative breach …
Ethical Dilemmas of Sociability
There is a tension between our need for associative control and our need for social connections. This tension creates ethical dilemmas that we can call each-we dilemmas of sociability . To resolve these dilemmas, we must prioritize either negative moral rights to dissociate or positive moral rights to social inclusion. This article shows that we must prioritize positive social rights. This has implications both for personal morality and for polit…
Distant Strangers
Judith Lichtenberg's thoroughly engaging Distant Strangers aims to identify the responsibilities that comfortably-off people have to alleviate the staggering levels of poverty that pervade our world today. In tackling this problem, Lichtenberg eschews traditional approaches, which she rightly finds frustrating since they give an either/or gloss to the best solution: ‘...either we ought to give up a great deal to alleviate global poverty, or our m…
A Human Right Against Social Deprivation
A Human Right Against Social Deprivation
Human rights debates neglect social rights. This paper defends one fundamentally important, but largely unacknowledged social human right. The right is both a condition for and a constitutive part of a minimally decent human life. Indeed, protection of this right is necessary to secure many less controversial human rights. The right in question is the human right against social deprivation. In this context, ‘social deprivation’ refers not to pove…
Conscience and Conviction
This book shows that civil disobedience is more defensible than private conscientious objection. Part I distinguishes conviction from conscience, shedding light on the former as something non-evasive and communicative, and on the latter as something much richer, namely, genuine moral responsiveness. Each of these concepts informs a distinct argument for civil disobedience. The conviction argument shows that, as a constrained, communicative practi…
Moral Aspirations and Ideals
My aim is to vindicate two distinct and important moral categories – ideals and aspirations – which have received modest, and sometimes negative, attention in recent normative debates. An ideal is a conception of perfection or model of excellence around which we can shape our thoughts and actions. An aspiration , by contrast, is an attitudinal position of steadfast commitment to, striving for, or deep desire or longing for, an ideal. I locate the…
Disability and Disadvantage
This book offers a much-needed investigation of moral and political issues concerning disability, and explores how the experiences of people with disabilities can lead to reconsideration of prominent positions on normative issues. Thirteen new chapters examine such topics as the concept of disability, the conditions of justice, the nature of autonomy, healthcare distribution, and reproductive choices.
Features of a Paradigm Case of Civil Disobedience
Obedience, conformity, and deference
Features of a Paradigm Case of Civil Disobedience
The civil disobedience of Edward Snowden
This article responds to William Scheuerman’s analysis of Edward Snowden as someone whose acts fit within John Rawls’ account of civil disobedience understood as a public, non-violent, conscientious breach of law performed with overall fidelity to law and a willingness to accept punishment. It rejects the narrow Rawlsian notion in favour of a broader notion of civil disobedience understood as a constrained, conscientious and communicative breach …
A Human Right Against Social Deprivation
Human rights debates neglect social rights. This paper defends one fundamentally important, but largely unacknowledged social human right. The right is both a condition for and a constitutive part of a minimally decent human life. Indeed, protection of this right is necessary to secure many less controversial human rights. The right in question is the human right against social deprivation. In this context, ‘social deprivation’ refers not to pove…
Moral Aspirations and Ideals
My aim is to vindicate two distinct and important moral categories – ideals and aspirations – which have received modest, and sometimes negative, attention in recent normative debates. An ideal is a conception of perfection or model of excellence around which we can shape our thoughts and actions. An aspiration , by contrast, is an attitudinal position of steadfast commitment to, striving for, or deep desire or longing for, an ideal. I locate the…
Ethical Dilemmas of Sociability
There is a tension between our need for associative control and our need for social connections. This tension creates ethical dilemmas that we can call each-we dilemmas of sociability . To resolve these dilemmas, we must prioritize either negative moral rights to dissociate or positive moral rights to social inclusion. This article shows that we must prioritize positive social rights. This has implications both for personal morality and for polit…
Two Tales of Civil Disobedience
In his article 'In Defence of Penalizing (but not Punishing) Civil Disobedience ', David Lefkowitz (2017) neatly maps out the differences between his and my defences of the moral right to civil disobedience. We disagree, first, about its grounds and, second, about its scope
Features of a Paradigm Case of Civil Disobedience
Obedience, conformity, and deference
Disability and Disadvantage
This book offers a much-needed investigation of moral and political issues concerning disability, and explores how the experiences of people with disabilities can lead to reconsideration of prominent positions on normative issues. Thirteen new chapters examine such topics as the concept of disability, the conditions of justice, the nature of autonomy, healthcare distribution, and reproductive choices.
Moral Aspirations and Ideals
My aim is to vindicate two distinct and important moral categories – ideals and aspirations – which have received modest, and sometimes negative, attention in recent normative debates. An ideal is a conception of perfection or model of excellence around which we can shape our thoughts and actions. An aspiration , by contrast, is an attitudinal position of steadfast commitment to, striving for, or deep desire or longing for, an ideal. I locate the…
Conscience and Conviction
This book shows that civil disobedience is more defensible than private conscientious objection. Part I distinguishes conviction from conscience, shedding light on the former as something non-evasive and communicative, and on the latter as something much richer, namely, genuine moral responsiveness. Each of these concepts informs a distinct argument for civil disobedience. The conviction argument shows that, as a constrained, communicative practi…
A Human Right Against Social Deprivation
A Human Right Against Social Deprivation
Human rights debates neglect social rights. This paper defends one fundamentally important, but largely unacknowledged social human right. The right is both a condition for and a constitutive part of a minimally decent human life. Indeed, protection of this right is necessary to secure many less controversial human rights. The right in question is the human right against social deprivation. In this context, ‘social deprivation’ refers not to pove…
Ethical Dilemmas of Sociability
There is a tension between our need for associative control and our need for social connections. This tension creates ethical dilemmas that we can call each-we dilemmas of sociability . To resolve these dilemmas, we must prioritize either negative moral rights to dissociate or positive moral rights to social inclusion. This article shows that we must prioritize positive social rights. This has implications both for personal morality and for polit…
Distant Strangers
Judith Lichtenberg's thoroughly engaging Distant Strangers aims to identify the responsibilities that comfortably-off people have to alleviate the staggering levels of poverty that pervade our world today. In tackling this problem, Lichtenberg eschews traditional approaches, which she rightly finds frustrating since they give an either/or gloss to the best solution: ‘...either we ought to give up a great deal to alleviate global poverty, or our m…
A Companion to Applied Philosophy
Applied philosophy has been a growing area of research for the last 40 years. Until now, however, almost all of this research has been centered around the field of ethics. A Companion to Applied Philosophy breaks new ground, demonstrating that all areasof philosophy, including epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind, can be applied, and are relevant to questions of everyday life. This perennial topic in philosophy…
Civil Disobedience and Conscientious Objection
Civil disobedience and conscientious objection are distinct but related social practices that display people’s opposition to specific laws, policies, directives, or schemes. In general, these two practices arise from people’s deeply held commitments. Civil disobedience is more overtly communicative and political than conscientious objection. Civil disobedience is also, almost by definition, a breach of law, which people engage in to push for chan…
The civil disobedience of Edward Snowden
This article responds to William Scheuerman’s analysis of Edward Snowden as someone whose acts fit within John Rawls’ account of civil disobedience understood as a public, non-violent, conscientious breach of law performed with overall fidelity to law and a willingness to accept punishment. It rejects the narrow Rawlsian notion in favour of a broader notion of civil disobedience understood as a constrained, conscientious and communicative breach …
Two Tales of Civil Disobedience
In his article 'In Defence of Penalizing (but not Punishing) Civil Disobedience ', David Lefkowitz (2017) neatly maps out the differences between his and my defences of the moral right to civil disobedience. We disagree, first, about its grounds and, second, about its scope
Being Sure of Each Other
To survive, let alone flourish, we need to be sure of—securely tied to—at least one other person. We also need to be sure of our general acceptance within the wider social world. This book explores the normative implications of taking our social needs seriously. Chapter 1 sketches out what our core social needs are, and Chapter 2 shows that they ground a fundamental, but largely neglected human right against social deprivation. Chapter 3 then arg…
The Missing Measure of Loneliness
Prominent tools used to measure loneliness such as the UCLA Scale and DJGS include no items related to being needed, i.e., neededness . More recent scales such as the DLS and SELSA do include items on neededness, but only within their romantic loneliness subscales. This paper proposes that new iterations of loneliness scales should include in all subscales two items on neededness: (a) whether a person feels important to someone else and (b) wheth…
What a Home Does
Analytic philosophy has largely neglected the topic of homelessness. The few notable exceptions, including work by Jeremy Waldron and Christopher Essert, focus on our interests in shelter, housing, and property rights, but ignore the key social functions that a home performs as a place in which we are welcomed, accepted, and respected. This paper identifies a ladder of home-related concepts which begins with the minimal notion of temporary shelte…
Being Social
Human rights capture what people need to live minimally decent lives. Recognized dimensions of this minimum include physical security, due process, political participation, and freedom of movement, speech, and belief, as well as—more controversially for some—subsistence, shelter, health, education, culture, and community. This pioneering collection of original essays aims to remedy the neglect of social needs and rights in human rights theory and…
The Roots of Normativity
On the Ethics of Interacting
Ordinary interactions are the primary vehicle through which we show respect, give social pleasure, and grease the wheels of healthy sociality. When we do an interactional wrong to someone, we not only convey disrespect by disregarding their interactional needs, but also cause them social pain and erode healthy social relations. Interactional ethics – the study of the ethics of interacting – concerns both our conduct within our interactions and ou…
Justice for Girls
When the US Supreme Court rejected the constitutional right to abortion care, several US states enacted bans. This legal change exposed critical moral questions about pregnancy in childhood: What do adults owe to an impregnated girl? This article shows that both opponents of abortion and defenders of women’s rights make a mistake by overlooking that a girl is a child. Her caregivers should view her impregnation as a malady and take steps to termi…
Political science (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Law (12 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works)