This paper examines how people think about aiding others in a way that can inform both theory and practice. It uses data gathered from Kiva, an online, non-profit organization that allows individuals to aid other individuals around the world, to isolate intuitions that people find broadly compelling. The central result of the paper is that people seem to give more priority to aiding those in greater need, at least below some threshold. That is, the data strongly suggest incorporating both a (...) threshold and a prioritarian principle into the analysis of what principles for aid distribution people accept. This conclusion should be of broad interest to aid practitioners and policy makers. It may also provide important information for political philosophers interested in building, justifying, and criticizing theories about meeting needs using empirical evidence. (shrink)

This paper presents data on the representation of women at 98 philosophy departments in the United States, which were ranked by the Philosophical Gourmet Report (PGR) in 2015 as well as all of those schools on which data from 2004 exist. The paper makes four points in providing an overview of the state of the field. First, all programs reveal a statistically significant increase in the percentage of women tenured/tenure-track faculty, since 2004. Second, out of the 98 US philosophy departments (...) selected for evaluation by Julie Van Camp in 2004, none in 2015 has 50% women philosophy faculty overall, while one has 50% women who are tenured/tenure track. Third, as of 2015, there is a clear pyramidal shape to the discipline: Women are better represented as Assistant than Associate and as Associate than Full professors. Fourth, women philosophy faculty, especially those who are tenured/tenure track, are better represented at Non-PGR ranked programs than at PGR ranked and PGR Top-20 programs in 2015. (shrink)

It may seem obvious that recognizing people’s human rights involves freeing them from poverty and thereby allowing them to exercise their agency. On closer inspection, however, it is not at all clear what recognizing people’s human rights, freeing them from poverty, and respecting their agency requires. Diana Meyers’s nice collection of essays carefully examines the meanings and practical normative implications of poverty, agency, and human rights in a way that points out various conceptual connections and potential practical dilemmas. The authors (...) consider, for instance, ways in which fighting poverty can compromise, as well as promote, aspects of women’s agency. They also consider how we can respect migrants’ human rights to take up decent jobs abroad without worsening their children’s experience of poverty back home. One general strand of argument running through the papers is that the narrow focus on individual agency and responsibility for harms is misplaced in our globalizing world. Recognizing this fact may better help us achieve global justice. (shrink)