News at the Section Moral and Political Philosophy
Philosophie kontrovers: Nachhaltigkeit
11.04.24 | 19.30 Uhr | Hörsaal VIII
Prof. Dr. Claus Leggewie (Giessen)
Freiheit oder Nachhaltigkeit? Freiheit und Nachhaltigkeit
Respondent: Prof. Dr. Marc Oliver Bettzüge (Köln)
08.05.24 | 19.30 Uhr | Hörsaal VIII
Prof. Dr. Lukas Meyer (Graz)
Wie sind Emissionen bei der Transformation zu Netto-Null-Emissionen gerecht zu verteilen?
Respondentin: Prof. Dr. Christina Bogner (Köln)
11.06.24 | 19.30 Uhr | Hörsaal VIII
Prof. Dr. Sighard Neckel (Hamburg)
Die Zwickmühlen der Transformation. Zum sozial-ökologischen Dilemma der Gleichzeitigkeit
Respondentin: Prof. Dr. Birgit Weber (Köln)
Climate justice: German Ethics Council refers to University of Graz research
In its recently published statement on climate justice, the German Ethics Council argues in favor of a sufficiency-based threshold concept, a position that was developed under the leadership of Prof. Lukas Meyer at the University of Graz. "According to this concept, firstly, all people are fundamentally entitled to the same opportunities to lead a good, successful life (egalitarian). Secondly, threshold values for important basic goods or capabilities, such as health, food, water, security or mobility, which must not be undercut (sufficiencyarian), must be determined as a minimum requirement for such a life. Thirdly, climate protection measures should be aligned in such a way that those who are most affected by climate change can reach the relevant thresholds as a matter of priority (prioritarian)."
Such an understanding implies far-reaching consequences in the design of climate policy, both in terms of mitigation and adaptation measures and the assumption of the associated costs, both at national, regional and international level.
The Ethics Council refers to the following research findings, among others:
Gosseries, Axel; Meyer, Lukas (eds.) (2009): Intergenerational Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Meyer, Lukas, Intergenerational justice. In: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2021 Edition).
Meyer, Lukas; Roser, Dominic (2009): Enough for the Future. In: Intergenerational Justice, ed. A. Gosseries and L. Meyer, 219-48. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Meyer, Lukas; Roser, Dominic (2007): Intergenerational justice. The significance of future climate damage for today's climate policy.
For more on sufficiency justice, see in particular:
Meyer, Lukas; Thomas Pölzler, Basic Needs and Sufficiency (2021): The Foundations of Intergenerational Justice, in Stephen M. Gardiner (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Intergenerational Ethics.
Meyer Lukas; Stelzer, Harald (2018): Risk-Averse Sufficientarianism. The Imposition of Risks of Rights-Violations in the Context of Climate Change. In: Ethical Perspectives 25, 3, 447-470.
For interdisciplinary research:
Keith Williges, Lukas H. Meyer, Karl W. Steininger, Gottfried Kirchengast (2022): Fairness Critically Conditions the Carbon Budget Allocation Across Countries. Global Environmental Change 74.
Lukas Meyer, spokesperson for the Section of Moral and Political Philosophy at the University of Graz and the Climate Change Graz profile area, was one of the first philosophers to be among the main authors of the World Climate Report and was head of the Austrian Science Fund FWF-funded doctoral program Climate Change - Uncertainties, Thresholds, Strategies. Former staff members now research and teach at renowned universities in Europe, such as University College Dublin, the University of Rotterdam, the University of Heidelberg, University College Cork, FU Berlin, the University of Stockholm and KIT.
New Publication: Supersession and compensation for historical injustice
Lukas H. Meyer & Timothy Waligore (2024) Supersession and compensation for historical injustice, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, DOI: 10.1080/13698230.2024.2309051
Abstract
This article examines the relationship between Jeremy Waldron’s supersession thesis and compensation. Recently, Waldron has argued that claims for material compensation for the original injustice cannot be superseded. He limits supersession to issues of restitution. Waldron’s supersession thesis is frequently cited by opponents of claims based on historical injustice, so his view of compensation warrants close examination. In our article, we explain the details of Waldron’s ‘simple model’ of compensation, offer an internal critique of it, and try to sympathetically reconstruct it. We contend that a crucial claim about this model does not work; his model would result in many more backward-looking compensatory claims than he realizes. Waldron’s allowing for material compensation claims from historical injustice is in tension with, or incompatible with, his long-expressed view that the spirit of the supersession thesis is that justice should be forward-looking and look to present-day costs. We have argued elsewhere that the abstract possibility that restitution claims may be superseded due to changing circumstances (what we call the ‘supersession thesis proper’) is separable from the question of whether justice has a forward-looking or backward-looking orientation. We argue here that Waldron’s model of compensation can best be made sense of through our distinction of ‘full supersession’ and ‘partial supersession.’ This allows us to show that Waldron’s model relies on a more strongly backward-looking orientation than he seems to endorse in his earlier works on restitution and his most recent article discussing compensation. We conclude by offering external criticisms of Waldron’s model of compensation.
Harald Stelzer started as a (Senior) Scientist at the Section in March 2024
Harald Stelzer is a (senior) scientist at the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Graz. He is a member of the Field of Excellence Climate Change Graz at the University of Graz, where he has been working as research manager since 2019. Previously, Harald was Professor of Political Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Graz (2014-2019). His previous research stays have also taken him to Germany, where he worked as a project scientist at the IASS (Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies) in Potsdam, as well as to the USA to the University of Washington as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar and Lecturer and to the University of Minnesota, where he worked as a research assistant at the Center for Austrian Studies during his PhD. He was involved in various FWF and EU projects.
His research focuses on the development of criteria that can be used for the normative assessment of technologies and climate change pathways. An important background in this context is the question of the extent to which technical solutions can provide an adequate answer to sustainability problems. Ideological and normative considerations on the role of science and technology in solving behavioral problems play an important role at both an individual and collective level. An extension of his research, which he will now be working on as a Senior Scientist, is the question of the changing relationship between humans and nature, which plays a decisive role in social transformation processes. Questions of balancing interests play a major role in all of these topics. These processes are particularly interesting from a normative perspective, especially when they take place under conditions of uncertainty and involve balancing risks in the future and existing interests in the present.
Harald loves to spend time in nature and has become one of the leading wildlife photographers in Austria. So do not forget to check out his Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/wildnature_harald_stelzer/
Santiago Truccone started as a university assistant with doctorate at the Section in February 2024
Research: My current research focuses on climate and intergenerational justice, specifically examining how climate burdens should be distributed globally and within countries. Concerning the global distribution of climate burdens, I am exploring two main aspects. Firstly, I am searching for the best possible normative responses to the objections that deny historical moral responsibility for global warming. Secondly, my present research investigates the conditions, if any, under which emissions of greenhouse gases could warrant criminal punishment.
Concerning the distribution of climate burdens within countries, I am working on how a transition to net-zero emissions societies should be carried out. Concerning this research topic, I assess and investigate into two key areas: the normative relevance of legitimate expectations regarding greenhouse gas emissions and how their frustration may justify compensation during the transitional process; and how procedural and substantive justice can be integrated into policy design aimed at achieving a carbon-neutral society.
My papers have appeared in the European Journal of Political Theory, Moral Philosophy and Politics, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy and Environmental Values, among others.
Former positions: Before this position, I was University Assistant with Doctorate from October 2022 till January 2024, and ÖAW (Austrian Academy of Sciences) Post-DocTrack Fellow from May 2022 till September 2022. I have been a member of the Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft project “JUSTDECARB”, the Austrian Climate Research Program (ACRP) project “LEXAT”, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project Historical Injustice and Changed Circumstances, and of the the Fogarty International Center (NIH) and Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) project “The Ethics, Climate Change and Health (ECCH) Mentorship”. Before coming to Austria i had a doctoral fellowship by the National Scientific and Technical Research Council - Argentina (CONICET)
Rutger Lazou will start as postdoctoral researcher at the University of Heidelberg in May 2024
Rutger Lazou received his doctorate from the University of Graz in January 2024 with a dissertation titled "What is Owed to the Losers of the Energy Transition? The Case of Fossil Fuel Reserve Owners" under the supervision of Lukas Meyer (supervisor) and Birgit Bednar-Friedl (co-supervisor). From 1 May 2024 onwards, Rutger will start working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Heidelberg where he will teach political and practical philosophy and where he will do more research on issues related to the just energy transition:
"In my new research project, I would like to focus on the gaps in the literature I identified during my doctoral research, relating to the role of expectations in the context of just transitions. The literature, I noticed, has only focused on whether existing expectations justify measures such as grandfathering or compensation, without investigating which duties there are to actively create expectations. An additional limitation of the existing literature is its narrow focus on expectations about regulatory change, while the relevance of expectations about economic and physical change is not discussed. Finally, the existing literature has focused only on how high emitters should be able to rely on expectations. Expectations about the future, however, are also important for those who benefit from societal change.
My research project will address these gaps in the literature by exploring which duties regulators have to create expectations both about regulatory and non-regulatory change and both towards losers and winners of the energy transition. I divide this central research question into three subquestions, i.e. why, when, and how regulators should create expectations. The question of why to inform leads to further questions about whether having correct expectations is intrinsically or instrumentally valuable, what the responsibilities of governmental agents are to inform, and what the responsibilities of non-governmental agents are. The question of when to inform will be given most attention and leads to three further questions. Firstly, I will investigate how to deal with the limits to governmental agents' capacities to provide information and citizens' capacities to process information. Secondly, I will investigate how governmental agents should deal with uncertainties about future changes, related to both the uncertainty about physical change and the lack of predictability of regulatory change that arises as a consequence from the fact that, at least in democratic regimes, governments change. Thirdly, I will investigate the normative relevance of the performative role of expectations, which refers to the fact that expectations affect the likelihood that the climate transition will succeed, and what this implies for the duty to provide reliable expectations that increase agents' ability to plan. The question of how to inform leads to further questions about the channels through which one should inform, how one should make information understandable, and the timing of the release of the information."
Dissertation Rutger Lazou
With his dissertation with the titleWhat is Owed to the Losers of the Energy Transition? The Case of Fossil Fuel Reserve Owners , Rutger Lazou received his doctorate from the University of Graz in January 2024. The thesis was supervised by Lukas Meyer and co-supervised by Birgit Bednar-Friedl. We congratulate him on his graduation!
Abstract
The knowledge of the dangerous and irreversible effects of climate change due to the emissions from fossil fuel use necessitates one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced: the transition towards a low-carbon society and economy. Although realizing the energy transition would avoid immense harms, it also imposes significant transitional losses on some agents given the benefits they can no longer realize. This gives rise to the question of what is owed to these transitional losers, the agents who are disadvantaged by the transition succeeding. In this dissertation, I analyze the existing theories that have responded to this question, mainly by focusing on the concept of legitimate expectations. I develop an account on the normative relevance of expectations and clarify the role this plays in a general theory of just transitions. I apply this to the case of fossil fuel owners, whose reserves represent a large and clearly defined category of potentially stranded assets.
According to my account, fossil fuel owners who should keep their reserves in the ground according to general principles of justice can claim limited transitional measures based on expectations about regulatory stability. These general principles of justice require that about two thirds of the proved recoverable fossil fuel reserves remain unproduced, mostly in countries that are wealthy or have a lot of carbon intensive fossil fuels. I reject arguments for transitional measures that rely on libertarian values, distributing mitigation burdens instead of the remaining benefits, the intrinsic value of conservatism, or feasibility. Legitimate expectations, I argue, refer to the relevance of promises (the Rawlsian understanding) or expectations (the Humean understanding). Promises about production permissions made in laws and contracts should be considered in transitioning, I contend. However, they are only made by states towards companies, there is no strong, centralized regulatory body on the international level that could ground similar claims for states that own fossil fuels and they only concern the past or the near future. Moreover, since they should be just before they may be fulfilled, they do not justify fossil fuel productions that are inconsistent with the fair budgets of the countries where they would find place.
When promises about production permissions are lacking or unjust, I argue, expectations may still justify transitional claims. Based on their expectation of regulatory stability, fossil fuel companies have invested substantial sums in explorations and extractive infrastructures. Forward-looking views on the relevance of expectations that focus on the interest to have one's expectations fulfilled only lead to positive duties of charity to fulfill these expectations. To explain how expectations can ground duties of justice, I develop a backward-looking account according to which states should compensate fossil fuel companies if they are responsible for the harm they caused by creating false expectations about regulatory stability. For this to be the case, causing the expectation-related harm should be avoidable and foreseeable. This explains why expectations should be reasonable before they can be legitimate, which is the case for expectations that were created before states pledged to mitigate climate change under the Paris Agreement. Importantly, I argue, states should only compensate the costs of relying on the expectation of regulatory stability in terms of investments, since only these costs would not have occurred if they did not create those expectations. They should also actively create expectations about future regulations, the probability of change, and its determining factors, given their capacities to control and predict future regulations and their special duties towards fossil fuel companies over whom they exercise a right to rule.
Lukas Meyer has been MOPP Editor in Chief since 01.01.2024
About this journal
Moral Philosophy and Politics (MOPP) is an international, peer-reviewed journal that publishes original philosophical articles addressing matters of public relevance. The notion 'public relevance' is construed broadly to encompass various domains and aspects. The journal has a special focus on the philosophical assessment of policies and their normative foundations, analyses of the philosophical underpinnings or implications of political discourse, and discussions of the justice or injustice inherent in social and political structures that govern human conduct.
MOPP is committed to the ideals of clarity, evidence-based reasoning, and intellectual openness. interdisciplinary work and historical approaches are encouraged when they are relevant to contemporary issues. MOPP considers both theoretical and meta-ethical works, as well as those tackling conceptual problems, provided they offer insights into political, moral, economic or social issues that characterize contemporary societies. Contributors are expected to make clear how their work relates to these issues.
The Department of Philosophy During the Nazi Era
The Student Council for Philosophy, in cooperation with the Section Moral and Political Philosophy, has investigated the Nazi past of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Graz and published the results in a brochure with the title "Kontinuitäten und Brüche. Das Grazer Philosophische Institut im Nationalsozialismus".
International Conference “Climate Change and Needs-Based Justice: From Theory to Application”
Department of Philosophy | Section Moral and Political Philosophy
We are pleased to invite you to the final conference of the project: Basic Needs and Intergenerational Climate Justice. The project, led by Prof. Dr Lukas Meyer, runs from 1 October 2020 to 30 September 2024 and is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). The project aims to contribute to assessing the climate-related intergenerational equity obligations of states from the perspective of a needs-based principle of sufficiency. In this two-day conference we would like to present some of our results and discuss them with international scholars and stakeholders.
University of Graz | April 18-19, 2024*
*all times Central European Summer Time (CEST, UTC+02:00)
Location: Universitätsplatz 3, Main Building, Ground floor, Room: GEWI Sitzungszimmer
Zoom Link: https://uni-graz.zoom.us/j/62522967592
Zoom Meeting ID and Login Code: 625 2296 7592 | 087515
Further information, including speakers, commentators and the timetable, can be found in the conference programme.
Science-Stakeholder Workshop "Just Energy Transition Partnerships"
APRIL 18, 09:30 – 12:30, ONLINE
Zoom Link: https://uni-graz.zoom.us/j/67526165361
Zoom Meeting ID and Login Code: 675 2616 536 | 873257
Further information, including speakers, commentators and the timetable, can be found in the workshop programme.
Virtues and the State - Non-material Principles of Eudaimonic Societies
Lecture by Prof. Andrej Zwitter
23 April 2024 | 17.00-18.30
Room SR 15.13, RESOWI B/I
The lecture and discussion will be held in English. You can receive the paper in advance. Please contact christian.hiebaum(at)uni-graz.at or katharina.hiebaum(at)uni-graz.at.
An event organised by the Institute of the Foundations of Law and the Section Moral and Political Philosophy of the University of Graz.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Hannah Arendt in Paris (1933-1940)
Book presentation and lecture by Prof. Dr. Thomas Meyer
In his lecture, philosopher and biographer Thomas Meyer will discuss the interrelationship between Hannah Arendt's thoughts and actions during her years of exile in Paris. In particular, he will focus on the connection between Arendt's reflections on modern anti-Semitism and her commitment to the organization "Kinder- und Jugend-Alijah", whose aim was to rescue Jewish children and young people abroad during the Nazi era.
Thomas Meyer is Professor of Philosophy at the LMU Munich. He received his doctorate there with a dissertation on Ernst Cassirer and habilitated with a book on Jewish thought between 1933 and 1938.
Since October 2020, he has been editing a twelve-volume study edition of Hannah Arendt's works, of which eight volumes have already been published. September 2023 saw the publication of "Hannah Arendt. The Biography", which is already in its fourth edition. The French edition is expected to be published by Calmann-Lévy in 2025.
09.04.2024, 5 p.m.
UR 09.51, Heinrichstraße 26/5th floor, 8010 Graz
An event organized by the Center for Jewish Studies in cooperation with the Department of German Studies and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Graz
Ross Mittiga started as a university assistant at the Section in October 2023
Ross Mittiga is a university assistant at the University of Graz’s Department of Philosophy, and a member of Uni-Graz’s Climate Change Field of Excellence. Before coming to Graz, he held an assistant professorship in political theory at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s Instituto de Ciencia Política. He received his PhD in Government from the University of Virginia in 2018.
Ross’s primary research centers on the political and ethical implications of the climate crisis. His work has appeared in a number of leading journals, including the American Political Science Review, Philosophical Studies, Contemporary Political Theory, and the Review of Politics, and has been covered in various media outlets, including the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. His book, Climate Change as Political Catastrophe: Before Collapse, was published with Oxford University Press in February 2024.
Ross has served as an invited guest editor for the American Political Science Review (December 2023), and as co-editor of the Revista de Ciecnia Política (2022-2023). He has also served as an expert consultant for US governmental reports and as a reviewer for top journals and book publishers in the fields of political theory and ethics. Over the last five years, Ross has won a number of competitive external funding awards, including a Ramón y Cajal grant from the Agencia Estal de Investiación, Gobierno de España (2023), a Climate Change Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from the Climate Change Excellence Cluster at the University of Graz (2022), and a Fondecyt de Iniciación Research Grant from Chile’s Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarollo (October 2020 – October 2023).
Ethics at the Interface of Future Generations and Nature
Workshop, 21st to 23rd of March 2024
The workshop brings together experts in generational and climate ethics, animal ethics, and the value of biodiversity and nature. We will explore how issues in these research fields are interrelated and what we learn when we discuss issues from these often separate fields of inquiry together.
Speakers: Workineh Kelbessa Golga, Simo Kyllönen, Lukas Meyer, Keith Williges, Nadia Mazouz, Pierre André, Tongdong Bai, Angie Pepper, Markku Oksanen, Dieter Birnbacher, Ivo Wallimann-Helmer
Organisers: Nadia Mazouz and Lukas Meyer
Venue: ETH Zurich, Villa Hatt, Freudenbergstrasse 112, 8044 Zurich
21st to 23rd of March 2024
For more information click here
Lukas Meyer in Die Presse
Lukas Meyer in conversation with Die Presse about the distribution of greenhouse gas emissions: Results from the FWF project "Basic Needs and Intergenerational Equity", among others.
Article "How many greenhouse gases are each country entitled to fairly?"