Research Interests

Political philosophy

Theories of distributive justice

The political thought of John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin

Philosophy of upbringing and education

Equality of opportunity and educational justice

The voting age

Publications

Books

How to Think about Religious Schools: Principles and Policies (with Andrew Mason, Adam Swift, and Ruth Wareham) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024).

Justice and Legitimacy in Upbringing (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).

Edited Books

Social JusticeLink opens in a new window (co-edited with Andrew Williams) [Blackwell Readings in Philosophy] (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004).

The Ideal of EqualityLink opens in a new window (co-edited with Andrew Williams) (London/New York: Macmillan and St. Martin's Press, 2000); paperback (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002). A PDF version of the opening chapter by the editors is available here: 'Some Questions for Egalitarians'.

Pamphlets

How to Regulate Faith Schools (with Andrew Mason, Adam Swift & Ruth Wareham) (Wiley, 2018). The Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain's IMPACT Series: Philosophical Perspectives on Education Policy, no. 25.

Faith Schooling, Policies and Principles (with Andrew Mason, Adam Swift & Ruth Wareham). A booklet summarising the findings of How to Regulate Faith Schools, designed to inform debates and study within secondary schools.


International Collaborations

'Social Progress: A Compass', in Rethinking Society for the 21st Century: Volume 1, Socio-Economic Transformations: Report of the International Panel on Social Progress (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 41-80. One of many authors on the International Panel on Social Progress.

Articles

'The Ethics of Influence in State-Regulated Schools: Tillson v. Rawls', Journal of Philosophy of Education, 58 (2024), 136–142.

'The Political Morality of School Composition: The Case of Religious Selection' (with Andrew Mason, Adam Swift & Ruth Wareham), British Journal of Political Science, 51 (2021), 827-844.

'The Poverty of Contractarian Moral Education' (with David Stevens), Journal of Moral Education, 48 (2019), 501-514.

'Further Thoughts on Talking to the Unreasonable: A Response to Wong' (with David Stevens), Res Publica, 25 (2019), 273-281.

'What is the Point of Religious Education?' (with David Stevens), Theory and Research in Education, 16 (2018), 65-81.

'Big Data and the Liberal Conception of Education' (with Daniel Halliday), Theory and Research in Education, 15 (2018), 290-305.

'Liberal Equality: Political not Erinaceous', Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 19 (2016), 416-433.

'Is the Free Market Acceptable to Everyone?' (with David Stevens), Res Publica, 21 (2015), 363-382.

'Dignified Morality' (with Zofia Stemplowska), Jurisprudence, 6 (2015), 309-326.

'When God Commands Disobedience: Political Liberalism and Unreasonable Religions' (with David Stevens), Res Publica, 20 (2014), 65-84.

'On Widening Participation in Higher Education Through Positive Discrimination', Journal of Philosophy of Education, 46 (2012), 414-431.

'The Case Against the Comprehensive Enrolment of Children', Journal of Political Philosophy, 20 (2012), 353-364.

'Equality, Justice and Legitimacy in Selection', Journal of Moral Philosophy, 9 (2012), 8-30. The pre-proof draft is available here.

'Reply to Morgan', Studies in Philosophy and Education, 28 (2009), 91-100.

'Should the Voting Age be Lowered to Sixteen? Normative and Empirical Considerations' (with Tak Wing Chan), Political Studies, 54 (2006), 533-558.

'School Choice and the Burdens of Justice'Link opens in a new window (with David Stevens), Theory and Research in Education, 2 (2004), 111-126.

'Liberal Equality and Ethics'Link opens in a new window, Ethics, 113 (2002), 8-22.

'Rawls and Natural Aristocracy'Link opens in a new window, Croatian Journal of Philosophy, 1 (2001), 239-259.

'The Resources of Liberal Equality'Link opens in a new window, Imprints, 5 (2000), 63-84.

'Political Liberalism, Disagreement, and Sectarianism', Polis: Revista de Stiinte Politice, 6 (1999), 71-92.

'Egalitarian Justice and Interpersonal Comparison' (with Andrew Williams), European Journal of Political Research, 35 (1999), 445-464.

'White on Autonomy, Neutrality and Well-Being', Journal of Philosophy of Education, 27 (1993), 101-12.

Book chapters

'Neurointerventions, Morality, and Children' (with Andres Moles), in David Birks & Thomas Douglas (eds.), Treatment for Crime: Philosophical Essays on Neurointerventions in Criminal Justice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 235-251.

'Children and Political Neutrality', in Anca Gheaus, Gideon Calder & Jurgen De Wispelaere (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Childhood and Children (London: Routledge, 2018), 328-338.

'Education', in Serena Olsaretti (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Distributive Justice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 438-459.

'Is Ethical Independence Enough?', in Cecile Laborde & Aurelia Bardon (eds.), Religion in Liberal Political Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 132-146.

'Rawls and Dworkin on Hypothetical Reasoning', in Timothy Hinton (ed.), The Original Position (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 97-118.

'How Much Do We Owe to Children?', in Sarah Hannan, Samantha Brennan & Richard Vernon (eds.), Permissible Progeny? The Morality of Procreation and Parenting (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 246-264.

'Anti-Perfectionist Childrearing', in Alexander Bagattini and Colin Macleod (eds.), The Nature of Children's Well-Being (Dordrecht: Springer, 2015), 123-140. The pre-proof draft is available here.

'Equal Inheritance: An Anti-Perfectionist View', in John Cunliffe and Guido Erreygers (eds.), Inherited Wealth, Justice and Equality (London: Routledge, 2012), 98-118.

'Justice and Distribution', in John Skorupski (ed.) The Routledge Companion to Ethics (London: Routledge, 2010), 692-703.

'A Puzzle about Ethics, Justice, and the Sacred', in Justine Burley (ed.), Dworkin and His Critics (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), 99-110.

'Individual Autonomy and Genetic Choice', in Justine Burley and John Harris (eds.), A Companion to Genethics (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), 191-205.

'Some Questions for Egalitarians' (with Andrew Williams), in M. Clayton & A. Williams (eds.), The Ideal of Equality (London/New York: Macmillan and St. Martin’s Press, 2000), 1-19.

Other things

'Contemporary Liberalism', in Mark Bevir (ed.) Encyclopedia of Political Theory (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2010), vol. 2, 802-808.

'Parents and Children's Rights', in Barry McGaw, Penelope Peterson and Eva Baker (eds.) The International Encyclopedia of Education, 3rd Edition, (Oxford: Elsevier, 2010), vol. 6, 17-21.

'The Limits of Equal Opportunity', European Political Science, 6 (2007), 412-420. (A critical notice of Andrew Mason's, Levelling the Playing Field: The Idea of Equal Opportunity and Its Place in Egalitarian Thought (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).)

'Liberalism', Encyclopedia of Globalization, eds. Roland Robertson & Jan Aart Scholte (New York: Routledge, 2007).

Work in progress

Independence for Children

Curriculum Matters for a Free and Equal Society (with David Stevens)

Ronald Dworkin (with Andrew Williams)

The Voting Age (with Wing Chan)