:: MARTIN O'NEILL ::
| ::
HALLSWORTH
RESEARCH FELLOW at :: Manchester Centre for Political Theory (MANCEPT) Politics -- School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester |
:: MAILING ADDRESS :: Politics -- School of Social Sciences 4th Floor, Arthur Lewis Building University of Manchester Manchester M13 9PL UK |
| :: E-MAIL :: martin.oneill [AT] manchester.ac.uk |
:: NAVIGATION ::
About Current Work Academic Biography Teaching Publications Reviews New Statesman pieces Work in Progress News Course Syllabi Links
:: ABOUT ::
Dr Martin O'Neill [MA, B.Phil. (Oxford); AM, Ph.D. (Harvard)] is currently (2007-2010) Hallsworth Research Fellow in Political Economy,
based at the Manchester Centre for Political Theory (MANCEPT), in the Politics Discipline Area of the
School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester.
As of January 2010, he will be moving to the Department of Politics at the University of York,
to take up a permanent Lectureship in Political Philosophy.
Martin spent February-March 2009 as a Hoover Fellow in Economic and Social Ethics,
at the Chaire Hoover d'éthique économique et sociale at the Université catholique de Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
At Manchester, Martin is involved with the Political Economy Institute (PEI), and its interdisciplinary research project on Unfree Labour.
He is also affiliated with the Manchester Centre for Emotion and Value (MANCEV), a research centre of the Philosophy Discipline Area.
His web-page at the University of Manchester is here.
Martin's wife, Mary Leng, is also a philosopher.
Mary works on issues in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mathematics, logic and philosophy of science.
She is a Lecturer in Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool.
From 2002-06, she was also a Research Fellow in Philosophy at St. John's College, Cambridge.
Mary is co-editor (with Alexander Paseau and Michael Potter) of Mathematical Knowledge (OUP, 2007),
and her monograph on Mathematics and Reality is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2010.
Martin & Mary's son, Tommy, was born on 24 November 2008.
:: CURRENT WORK ::
Martin's research is primarily in moral and political philosophy. He also has research interests in the philosophy of action, bioethics and applied ethics.
His topics of special interest include: freedom and responsibility, justice and equality, and issues at the intersection of political philosophy and public policy.
Martin is working on a monograph on Corporations, Capitalism and Social Justice.
Martin is currently working with Thad Williamson (of the University of Richmond, Virginia)
on an edited collection on Property-Owning Democracy: Rawls and Beyond, which is forthcoming from Wiley-Blackwell in 2010.
He is also working with Shepley Orr (of University College London), on an edited collection on Political Philosophy and Taxation.
This book follows a major interdisciplinary conference on Political Philosophy and Taxation, also co-organized by O'Neill and Orr,
which was held at University College London on 11-12 September 2008.
Martin also organized an international conference on Justice, Rights and Institutions: Themes from the Political Philosophy of T. M. Scanlon,
jointly sponsored by the Manchester Centre for Political Theory and the Philosophy Discipline Area at the University of Manchester,
which will be held at the School of Social Scienes at the University of Manchester on 22-23 May 2009. [More information here.]
A special issue of the Journal of Moral Philosophy on Scanlon's political philosophy, containing papers from this conference, is forthcoming in 2010/11.
Martin has written regularly for the New Statesman, on political ideas and the philosophical dimension of current politics. [Articles can be accessed here.]
He was a member of the working group on 'The Good Society' for Compass, the democratic left pressure group.
Before coming to Manchester, Martin was (2004-07) a Research Fellow in Philosophy and Politics at St John's College, Cambridge,
where he was affiliated with the Faculty of Philosophy and the Department of History and Philosophy of Science.
At Cambridge, Martin was also (January 2005-June 2006) External Director of Studies in Philosophy at Trinity Hall.
Martin completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University.
His dissertation was on Freedom, Fairness and Responsibility, written under the supervision of T. M. Scanlon, Derek Parfit, and Richard Moran.
In this dissertation, he developed a novel 'Hybrid View' on issues of freedom, responsibility and blame.
A brief abstract is available here, and the full dissertation is available on request.
At Harvard, Martin twice received the Francis Bowen Prize for Moral and Political Philosophy (awarded for the best student paper of each year).
Martin's dissertation won Harvard University's Emily & Charles Carrier Prize in Social, Political and Moral Philosophy.
Martin has previously been a Graduate Fellow in Ethics at the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, at the John F. Kennedy School of Government;
a Graduate Fellow in the Program on Justice, Welfare and Economics, an interdisciplinary project chaired by Amartya Sen, and based at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs; and a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.
As an undergraduate, Martin took a First Class B.A. in Philosophy and Politics (PPE) at Balliol College, Oxford.
(He was awarded the Highest First in PPE in his year, being ranked 1st (out of approximately 300 candidates) in the Final Honour School.)
He later returned to Balliol College to take the B.Phil. in Philosophy, supervised by James Griffin, Derek Parfit and Joseph Raz.
:: PUBLICATIONS ::
:: EDITED BOOKS ::
[In preparation:] (Co-edited with Shepley Orr),
Taxation and Political Philosophy
I shall be contributing a chapter on "Corporate Taxation, Personal Taxation and Social Justice",
as well as co-authoring the "Introduction" with Shepley Orr.
List of contributors: Laura Biron (Cambridge), Geoffrey Brennan (RSSS, ANU & UNC, Chapel Hill), Gillian Brock (Auckland),
Alexander Cappelen & Bertil Tungodden (NHH, Bergen), Marc Fleurbaey (CNRS & CERSES, Paris), Barbara Fried (Stanford),
Alan Hamlin (Manchester), Serge-Christophe Kolm (EHESS, Paris), Véronique Munoz-Dardé & M.G.F. Martin (UCL),
Martin O'Neill (Manchester), Shepley Orr (UCL), Hillel Steiner (Manchester), Peter Vallentyne (Missouri), and Stuart White (Oxford).
[Forthcoming:] (Co-edited with Thad Williamson),
Property-Owning Democracy: Rawls and Beyond (Wiley-Blackwell: 2010)
As well as contributing one chapter, on 'Values, Principles of Justice, and Property-Owning Democracy',
I shall also be co-writing the 'Introduction' with Thad Williamson.List of contributors: Gar Alperovitz (NCESA/ Maryland), Corey Brettschneider (Brown), Simone Chambers (Toronto),
Joshua Cohen (Stanford), Zhiyuan Cui (Tsinghua, Beijing), Archon Fung (KSG, Harvard), Nien-hê Hsieh (Wharton, Pennsylvania),
Waheed Hussain (Wharton, Pennsylvania), Ben Jackson (Oxford), Martin O'Neill (Manchester), Ingrid Robeyns (Rotterdam),
David Schweickart (Loyola, Chicago), Sonia Sodha (Demos), Alan Thomas (Kent), Stuart White (Oxford),
and Thad Williamson (Richmond, Virginia).
:: ARTICLES ::
[Forthcoming:]
[10] (2010) "Values, Principles of Justice, and Property-Owning Democracy," in Martin O'Neill and Thad Williamson, (eds.),
Property-Owning Democracy: Rawls and Beyond (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010)
[9] (2009) "The Facts of Inequality," Journal of Moral Philosophy
[Published:]
[8] (2009) (with Thad Williamson)
"Property-Owning Democracy and the Demands of Justice," Living Reviews in Democracy
[7] (2009) "Liberty, Equality and Property-Owning Democracy," Journal of Social Philosophy, 40(3), 379-96. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9833.2009.01458.x
[This article is part of a Symposium on Rawls's Idea of a Property-Owning Democracy, also featuring articles by
Nien-hȇ Hsieh, Waheed Hussain and Thad Williamson.][Publisher's note: This is an electronic version of an article published in the Journal of Social Philosophy.
Complete citation information for the final version of the paper, as published in the print edition of the Journal of Social Philosophy,
is available on the Blackwell Synergy online delivery service, accessible via the journal’s website at
www.blackwellpublishing.com/papa or http://www.blackwell-synergy.com.]
[6] (2009) "Entreprises et Conventionnalisme: Régulation, Impôt et Justice Sociale," [in French], Raison Publique, 10 (Avril 2009), 171-200
[5] (2008) "Three Rawlsian Routes towards Economic Democracy," Revue de Philosophie Économique, 8(2), 29-55
[The link here is to a version of the pre-publication proofs, but its format and pagination is identical to the published version.]
[4] (2008) "What Should Egalitarians Believe?", Philosophy & Public Affairs, 36(2): 119-56
[Publisher's note: This is an electronic version of an article published in Philosophy & Public Affairs.
Complete citation information for the final version of the paper, as published in the print edition of Philosophy & Public Affairs,
is available on the Blackwell Synergy online delivery service, accessible via the journal’s website at
www.blackwellpublishing.com/papa or http://www.blackwell-synergy.com.][This article is discussed by Jeremy Moss in "Egalitarianism and the Value of Equality," Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (2009).]
[3] (2007) "Death and Taxes: Social Justice and the Politics of Inheritance Tax," Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy, 15(4): 62-71
[2] (2006) "Genetic Information, Life Insurance and Social Justice," The Monist, 89(4): 567-92
[1] (2001) "Explaining the Hardness of "the Logical Must": Wittgenstein on Grammar, Arbitrariness and Logical Necessity,"
[The argument of this article is discussed by Mark Henderson (Science Editor of The Times) in his popular book,
50 Genetics Ideas You Really Need to Know (Quercus, 2009)]
Philosophical Investigations, 24(1): 1-29
:: REVIEWS ::
(2) (2008) 'Trouble Brewing' (A Review of Taylor Clark, Starbucked), New Statesman, 25 Feb 2008: 55
(1) (2005) 'Only Fair' (A Review of Brian Barry, Why Social Justice Matters), New Statesman, 11 Jul 2005: 54-55.
:: OTHER WRITING ::
Reports for the Harvard University Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics:
(2008) Conference Report on 'Human Rights and the New Global Order'
(2006) Conference Report on 'Equality and the New Global Order'
(2003) On Joshua Cohen, 'Minimalism about Human Rights: The Most We Can Hope For?'
:: NEW STATESMAN ARTICLES ::
Martin's articles for the New Statesman can all be accessed here. Some of the more substantial of these pieces are:
The Politics of Proton Smashing (on media coverage of CERN, and whether the LHC gives us enough bang for our bucks);
The Cost of a Windfall (on the case for (and against) imposing a windfall tax on the energy companies);
When NICE is not enough (on healthcare rationing, QALYs, 'postcode lotteries', and the work of NICE);
42 Days (on civil liberties, democracy, and lazy thinking about the "balance" between liberty and security);
When it Pays to be Crazy (on the liquidity bubble, financial markets and Prisoners' Dilemmas);
Echoes of Enoch Powell (on the BBC, multiculturalism and Enoch Powell's infamous 'Rivers of Blood' speech);
The Politics of Leisure (on autonomy, discretionary time and the case for (at least) one more Bank Holiday);
Rowan WIlliams and the Attack on Secularism (on the Archbishop and sharia law);
The Ethics of Organ Transplantation (on 'opt-out' organ donation);
The Curious Business of Taxation (on corporate taxation); Policing and its Consequences (on shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes);
The Doublethink of 'Democracy' (on democracy and press ownership); and Death and Taxes (on inheritance tax).
At the University of Manchester (2007-):
Last year (2007-08), Martin co-taught a Politics MA Course on Normative Analysis and Moral Reasoning,
(in effect, an advanced Introduction to Theories of Justice) with Zofia Stemplowska.
At the University of Cambridge (2004-07):
In the academic year 2006-07, Martin taught a graduate course on 'The Political Philosophy of John Rawls' (Michaelmas 2006) with Fabian Freyenhagen.
Before that, in 2005-06, he taught a graduate course on 'Global Justice' (Lent 2006) with Andrea Sangiovanni.
Also with Andrea Sangiovanni, Martin co-taught a course for visiting U.S. students at the King's College & Pembroke College joint Summer School,
on 'Political Philosophy: Liberty, Equality and Justice in Context' (an intenstive introduction to political philosophy), in Summer 2006.
In 2004-05, he taught a graduate course on 'Justice, Equality and Responsibility' with Serena Olsaretti. This course divided into two parts: the first on
'Justice and Equality' (Michaelmas 2004) [syllabus here], and the second on 'Justice and Responsibility' (Lent & Easter 2005) [syllabus here].At Cambridge, Martin lectured on 'Liberty' (2005-07) for Political Philosophy Part IB, as well as lecturing on 'Healthcare, Genetics and Ethics' for the
Part II Biological and Biomedical Sciences course in 'History and Ethics of Medicine' (2005-07).Martin gave supervisions for the M.Phil. in History and Philosophy of Science (particularly on political issues in bioethics) and the M.Phil in Philosophy,
and acted as an examiner for both the M.Phil. in History and Philosophy of Science and the M.Phil. in Political Thought and Intellectual History.
Martin supervised undergraduate Philosophy students for papers in Ethics and in Political Philosophy (Part IA, Part IB and Part II);
he taught History of Political Thought to students in Social and Political Sciences (SPS) (Part II);
and gave supervisions on issues in bioethics to students taking Part II Biological and Biomedical Sciences.
At Harvard University (2000-04):
Martin was also a (2001-2004) Non-Resident Tutor in Philosophy at Pforzheimer House, one of the Harvard undergraduate Residential Houses.
At Harvard, Martin was a Teaching Fellow (2000-2003) for courses in political philosophy and its history (Michael Sandel's 'Justice');
in moral philosophy and its history (T. M. Scanlon's 'Issues in Ethics', and Melissa Barry's 'Reason and Morality');
and in the philosophy of law (Michael Blake's 'Reasoning in and about the Law').
He is a five-time recipient of the Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, awarded by the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning
(once for each semester in which he taught at Harvard).
:: NEWS: (RECENT AND FORTHCOMING) ::
Forthcoming talks:
** Title TBC, Morrell Political Theory Seminar, Department of Politics, University of York, January 2010
** Title TBC, MANCEPT Research Seminar, Politics Discipline Area, University of Manchester, December 2009
** "What Political Philosophers Can Learn from the Epidemiology of Inequality (and What Epidemiologists Can Learn from Political Philosophers),"
Vice-Chancellor's Interdisciplinary Seminar on Inequality, Heslington Hall, University of York, November 2009
** On 'Equality of Opportunity, Value and Time', conference on 'Equality of Opportunity', Universidade Nova de Lisboa, October 2009
** On Markets, Inequality and Financial Inclusion, Conference on Financial Inclusion and Equality, Runnymede Trust, London, October 2009
** On Tax Justice and Social Justice, Panel on Tax Justice, Annual Congress of the SP.A (Flemish Socialist Party), Brussels, Belgium, October 2009
** On 'Contractualism, Choice and Inequality', Centre for the Study of Equality and Multiculturalism, University of Copenhagen, September 2009
** On 'Equality of Opportunity, Value and Time', Department of Philosophy, Education and Rhetoric, University of Copenhagen, September 2009
Recent conferences organized (2008-09):
** Justice, Rights and Institutions: Themes from the Political Philosophy of T. M. Scanlon
22-23 May 2009, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester
** Political Philosophy and Taxation, organized with Shepley Orr, 11-12 Sept 2008, UCL, London
Recent Talks (2008-09):
** 'Status, Self-Respect and Social Justice',
Department of Politics, University of York, August 2009
Politics Discipline Area, University of Manchester, July 2009
** 'Liberty, Equality and Property-Owning Democracy',
AHRC Workshop on Egalitarian Justice, Department of Politics, University of Exeter, June 2009
Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics (EIPE), Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, March 2009
Lovanium Seminar in Ethics and Public Policy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, March 2009
** 'Contractualism, Choice and Inequality', conference on 'Justice, Rights and Institutions:
Themes from the Political Philosophy of T. M. Scanlon', University of Manchester, May 2009
** 'Strawson, Spock and the Whisky Priest: On the Reactive and Objective Attitudes,'
Department of Philosophy, UCL, April 2009
** 'The Ethics and Politics of Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Tests', conference on
'Policy, Groups and Populations in a Genomic Era', University of Cambridge, April 2009
** 'Corporations, the Basic Structure and Social Justice',
Tuesday Seminar, Chaire Hoover d'éthique économique et sociale, Université catholique de Louvain, March 2009
** 'Bread and Roses? Labour Unions and Social Justice',
CERSES, Université Paris V Descartes, February 2009
MANCEPT Research Seminar, University of Manchester, December 2008
** 'Conceptions of Liberty and Forms of Unfree Labour', ESRC Seminar on Unfree Labour,
School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, January 2009
** 'Strawson, Spock and the Whisky Priest: On the Nature of the Objective Attitude',
Philosophy Research Seminar, University of Manchester, October 2008
** 'Corporate Taxation, Personal Taxation and Social Justice',
Conference on Political Philosophy and Taxation, University College London, September 2008
Some recent articles (2008-09):
** (2009) "Liberty, Equality and Property-Owning Democracy," Journal of Social Philosophy, 40(3), 379-96
** (2009) "Entreprises et Conventionnalisme: Régulation, Impôt et Justice Sociale," [in French], Raison Publique, 10 (Avril 2009), 171-200
** (2008) "Three Rawlsian Routes towards Economic Democracy," Revue de Philosophie Économique, 8(2), 29-55
** (2008) "What Should Egalitarians Believe?", Philosophy & Public Affairs, 36(2), 119-56 [See publisher's note above.]
