William Tell

William Tell (Wilhelm, Guillaume) is the name of a legendary Swiss hero from Canton Uri in the present-day Swiss Confederation. From the first recorded appearances of Tell in the late 15th century until the Revolutionary Era of the late 18th century, the symbol of William Tell has been used in a variety of ways to shape the cultural mythology of Switzerland, Europe, and the Atlantic world. According to a variety of Swiss foundation myths, Tell stood up to tyranny in the late 13th or early 14th century and helped secure Swiss liberty by defeating (or helping to defeat) the tyrant known as Gessler. Most of the tales present Tell as a humble, virtuous citizen of the canton who refused to bow down to the arbitrary symbols of a tyrant’s authority. In reaction to Tell’s defiance, the tyrant forced Tell to shoot an apple off Tell’s son’s head, promising both father and son their freedom if Tell were successful. However, upon discovering a second arrow hidden on Tell’s person, which threatened the tyrant, Gessler tried to imprison Tell. A sudden storm, possibly divinely inspired, allowed Tell to escape the ship with his life and kill Gessler in revenge, while a Swiss uprising overthrew the tyrannical government. Differences in content and interpretation of the various Tell stories result from the answers to several questions: Did Tell plan and lead the revolt? Did he take part in the foundational oath at the Rütli Meadow, the mythical birthplace of the Swiss Republics? Did the revolt target local aristocrats or a foreign tyrant? Usually the Tell story broke into two camps: one supporting the elite leadership of the Swiss republics, and the other demanding more popular sovereignty. In this breakdown, Tell either acted in defense of his family against the foreign tyrant or sought to overthrow local, aristocratic rule, signaling a more popular rebellion. Eventually, these interpretations were easily expanded beyond Swiss boundaries and were used to support or challenge elite-led governments outside the Swiss Republics. During the Revolutionary Era, the figure of Tell evolved into a transnational proxy in an ongoing battle between those who saw true liberty as self-rule, free from the intervention of foreigners, and those who saw liberty as an egalitarian principle, available to the entire male citizenry.

Triage in a Public Health Crisis

This chapter examines triage in a public health crisis resulting from a bioterrorist attack. Systems of triage, whether informal or formal, generally have an implicit or explicit utilitarian rationale—they are usually designed to produce the greatest good for the greatest number under conditions of scarcity. It is important to distinguish medical utility from social utility and, within the latter, between broad and narrow social utilitarian judgments. Judgments of broad social utility recognize the differential social value of people’s lives, whereas judgments of narrow social utility recognize the differential value of specific social functions and roles and assign priority to the individuals discharging certain functions and performing certain roles. Judgments of broad social utility infringe the egalitarian principle of equal regard in a way that judgments of medical utility do not. It is not justifiable to use broad social utility as a basis for rationing in general or in an emergency, but it is possible to justify triage based on medical utility and also on narrow social utility. Public trust will be essential in any public health crisis—hence, the public needs to have confidence that the procedures and standards of triage are fair and are fairly implemented.

Conclusion: Natural Resource Justice and Climate Change

This chapter summarizes the argument of the work. It situates the conception of natural resource justice that has been defended between the (egalitarian) principle of equal division and the (statist) principle of resource sovereignty. As an interpretation of relational egalitarianism concerning natural resources, the view is shown to avoid three of the most common objections to global egalitarianism. This is because the view is compatible with collective self-determination, protects cultural diversity, and avoids the metric problem. The chapter concludes that the method of partial integrationism adopted in the work, considering questions of climate justice by reference to a conception of justice for natural resources alone, has been productive. A remaining task is to integrate this conception of natural resource justice with a more general theory of global justice, encompassing other important goods, institutions, practices, and relations.

Rebuilding after Disaster

Liberal egalitarians face unappreciated challenges in explaining why the state should assist citizens in disaster recovery and why the state should ever assist in rebuilding in high-risk areas. Addressing these challenges and justifying state-funded disaster recovery assistance requires invoking the most politically salient aspect of disasters: their tendency to increase social inequality. A liberal egalitarian principle of equal opportunity justifies assistance in recovery, at least for disadvantaged citizens. But further argument is required to show why the state should ever subsidize rebuilding as opposed to relocation, if citizens can have access to equally good opportunities in a low-risk area. I argue that displacement has costs which matter under equal opportunity – but this rationale for disaster recovery extends to other causes of displacement, such as gentrification.

A profile of humanity: the cultural signature of Earth's inhabitants beyond the atmosphere

The eclectic range of artefacts and ‘messages’ we dispatch into the vast expanse of space may become one of the most enduring remnants of our present civilization, but how does his protracted legacy adequately document the plurality of societal values and common, cultural heritage on our heterogeneous world? For decades now, this rendition of the egalitarian principle has been explored by the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence community in order to draft theoretical responses to ‘who speaks for Earth?’ for hypothetical extra-terrestrial communication strategies. However, besides the moral, ethical and democratic advancements made by this particular enterprise, there remains little practical exemplars of implementing this garnered knowledge into other experimental elements that could function as mutual emissaries of Earth; physical artefacts that could provide accessible details about our present world for future archaeological observations by our space-faring progeny, potential visiting extrasolar denizens or even for posterity. While some initiatives have been founded to investigate this enduring dilemma of humanity over the last half-century, there are very few comparative studies in regards to how these objects, time capsules and transmission events collectively disseminate content about the aggregate of our species and the Earth system it inhabits. This catalogue, assembled for extended study as part of the Beyond the Earth foundation, is intended as an initial, dialogic step towards evaluating such a ‘profile of humanity’. This investigation will endeavour to collate all cultural resources that can presently be garnered from spacecraft (non-mission orientated, cultural material that conveys an impression of Earth) and non-terrestrial transmissions (electromagnetic signals that are intentionally aimed off-world to embody humanities’ evolving, philosophical identity) in the expanse beyond our planetary borders in order to cross-analyse how we presently illustrate the diversity of our planet before, subsequently, deducing how we could appropriately depict our collective human civilization [and biosphere] within deep space and cosmic time.

Distributive justice in disaster triage

Disasters that produce an overwhelming number of casualties demand that healthcare resources be rationed. Given the gravity of these decisions, it is imperative that they be guided by acceptable principles of distributive justice. Utilitarianism governs current disaster triage protocols because the efficient use of resources prevents the greatest amount of disability and mortality in the population. However, this conflicts with maximin egalitarianism, which demands that the most severely injured patients be prioritized even if it is not an efficient use of resources. Utilitarian triage also conflicts with the egalitarian principle of equal chances, which states that all people should be given an opportunity to be given treatment since all persons value their lives equally. Utilitarianism protects the needs of the entire population, and so demands that an individual patient’s right to autonomy and a fiduciary relationship with their physician must be sacrificed. Like other policies in a democratic society, the legitimacy of disaster triage protocols comes from support by the majority. For this reason, choosing the values that guide disaster triage requires open and transparent communal disaster planning that reflects the values of all members of society. Rather than prioritizing one principle over another, it is likely that the most just approach to allocating resources in disaster triage may be to apply a mixture of distributive justice principles.

Epistemic democracy and political legitimacy

My dissertation aims to answer two questions: (1) Is democracy epistemically valuable? (2) Is the epistemic value of democracy, if it has any, necessary for justifying its legitimacy? I argue that democracy in certain form can be epistemically valuable. However, I also argue that the epistemic value of democracy is not necessary for justifying its legitimacy. To defend the epistemic value of democracy, I propose a postdeliberation version of Condorcet's jury theorem. I argue that this version of the jury theorem can avoid the common challenges against the classic version. To reject the necessity of epistemic value for democratic legitimacy, I argue that, given that the epistemic value of democracy is subject to disagreement, it cannot be used to justify legitimacy. In addition, I provide a purely proceduralist argument for democratic legitimacy, which appeals to the egalitarian principle that every citizens ought to be equally respected by the state. This argument, if succeeds, shows that the epistemic value of democracy is not necessary for justifying democratic legitimacy.

Basic Income: An Instrument for Transformation in the Twenty-First Century

This paper argues a basic income system could transform the means of income redistribution and social empowerment in society, and move us decisively towards the egalitarian principle of giving everyone equal access to the conditions to live a flourishing life. Basic income is a universal non-conditional payment, paid at the same level to everyone regardless of income or wealth. The paper considers basic income as a transformative strategy from a number of perspectives: economic, social, cultural and environmental, and then considers basic income as an alternative and transformative idea for Ireland. It presents three potential pathways in which it could be implemented and elaborates and provides full costings on how one such proposal could be funded and concludes it is affordable, feasible and politically viable in Ireland today.

Global Taxes on Natural Resources

Thomas Pogge's Global Resources Dividend relies on a flat tax on the use of natural resources to fund the eradication of world poverty. Hillel Steiner's Global Fund taxes the full rental value of owned natural resources and distributes the proceeds equally. The paper compares the Dividend and the Fund and defends the Global Share, a novel proposal that taxes either use or ownership, does so (when possible) progressively, and distributes the revenue according to a prioritarian rather than a sufficientarian or egalitarian principle.