36 found
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  1. What toleration is.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2004 - Ethics 115 (1):68-95.
    Attempting to settle various debates from recent literature regarding its precise nature, I offer a detailed conceptual analysis of toleration. I begin by isolating toleration from other notions; this provides us some guidance by introducing the eight definitional conditions of toleration that I then explicate and defend. Together, these eight conditions indicate that toleration is an agent’s intentional and principled refraining from interfering with an opposed other (or their behavior, etc.) in situations of diversity, where the agent believes she has (...)
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  2. Toleration.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2021 - In Hugh LaFollette (ed.), International Encyclopedia of Ethics. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. pp. 5150-5160.
    Contemporary philosophical debates surrounding toleration have revolved around three issues: What is toleration? Should we tolerate and, if so, why? What should be tolerated? These questions are of central importance to social and political thought.
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  3.  76
    Toleration.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2014 - Cambridge: Polity.
    In this engaging and comprehensive introduction to the topic of toleration, Andrew Jason Cohen seeks to answer fundamental questions, such as: What is toleration? What should be tolerated? Why is toleration important? Beginning with some key insights into what we mean by toleration, Cohen goes on to investigate what should be tolerated and why. We should not be free to do everythingÑmurder, rape, and theft, for clear examples, should not be tolerated. But should we be free to take drugs, hire (...)
  4. The Harm Principle and Parental Licensing.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2017 - Social Theory and Practice 43 (4):825-849.
    Hugh LaFollette proposed parental licensing in 1980 (and 2010)--not as a requirement for pregnancy, but for raising a child. If you have a baby, are not licensed, and do not get licensed, the baby would be put up for adoption. Despite the intervention required in an extremely personal area of life, I argue that those who endorse the harm principle ought to endorse parental licensing of this sort. Put differently, I show how the harm principle strengthens the case for parental (...)
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  5. Harms of silence: From Pierre Bayle to de-platforming.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2020 - Social Philosophy and Policy 37 (2):114-131.
    Early in the history of liberalism, its most important proponents were concerned with freedom of religion. As polities and individuals now accept a dizzying array of religions, this has receded to the background for most theorists. It nonetheless remains a concern. Freedom of speech is a similar concern and very much in the foreground for theorists looking at the current state of academia. In this essay, I argue that inappropriate limits to freedom of religion and inappropriate limits to freedom of (...)
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  6. What the Liberal State Should Tolerate Within Its Borders.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2007 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 37 (4):479-513.
    Two normative principles of toleration are offered, one individual-regarding, the other group-regarding. The first is John Stuart Mill’s harm principle; the other is “Principle T,” meant to be the harm principle writ large. It is argued that the state should tolerate autonomous sacrifices of autonomy, including instances where an individual rationally chooses to be enslaved, lobotomized, or killed. Consistent with that, it is argued that the state should tolerate internal restrictions within minority groups even where these prevent autonomy promotion of (...)
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  7.  56
    Toleration and Freedom From Harm: Liberalism Reconceived.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2018 - New York: Routledge.
    Toleration matters to us all. It contributes both to individuals leading good lives and to societies that are simultaneously efficient and just. There are personal and social matters that would be improved by taking toleration to be a fundamental value. This book develops and defends a full account of toleration—what it is, why and when it matters, and how it should be manifested in a just society. Cohen defends a normative principle of toleration grounded in a new conception of freedom (...)
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  8. A Defense of Strong Voluntarism.Andrew Jason Cohen - 1998 - American Philosophical Quarterly 35 (3):251-265.
    Critics of liberalism in the past two decades have argued that the fact that we are necessarily "situated" or "embedded" means that we can not always choose our own ends (for example, our conceptions of the good or our loyalties to others). Some suggest that we simply discover ourselves with these "connections." If correct, this would argue against (Rawlsian) hypothetical contract models and liberalism more broadly, make true impartiality impossible, and give support to traditionalist views like those of Alasdair MacIntyre, (...)
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  9. Communitarianism 'social constitution,' and autonomy.Andrew Jason Cohen - 1999 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 80 (2):121–135.
    Communitarians like Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, and Michael Sandel, defend what we may call the ‘social constitution thesis.’ This is the view that participation in society makes us what we are. This claim, however, is ambiguous. In an attempt to shed some light on it and to better understand the impact its truth would have on our beliefs regarding autonomy, I offer four possible ways it could be understood and four corresponding senses of individual independence and autonomy. I also indicate (...)
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  10. (1 other version)Libertarianism, the Family, and Children.Andrew Jason Cohen & Lauren Hall - 2022 - In Matt Zwolinski & Benjamin Ferguson (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Libertarianism. Routledge. pp. 336-350.
    We explain libertarian thought about family and children, including controversial issues in need of serious attention. To begin our discussion of marriage, we distinguish between procedural and substantive contractarian approaches to marriage, each endorsed by various libertarians. Advocates of both approaches agree that it is a contract that makes a marriage, not a license, but disagree about whether there are moral limits to the substance of the contract with only advocates of the substantive approach accepting such. Either approach, though, offers (...)
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  11. Contemporary Liberalism and Toleration.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2015 - In Philip Cook (ed.), Liberalism, Contractarianism, and the Problem of Exclusion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 189-211.
    Liberalism, historically, is closely associated with increased toleration, so it is unsurprising that a variety of contemporary authors (Hampton, Kukathas, Barry, Ten) consider toleration to be “the substantive heart of liberalism” (Hampton 1989, 802). The precise role of toleration in liberalism, though, is unclear; different liberals have different views. In this essay, I will discuss three sorts of liberal theories and indicate how they approach questions of toleration, arguing that one of them supports toleration of more sorts of activities (including (...)
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  12. Psychological Harm and Free Speech on Campus.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2017 - Society 2 (54):320-325.
    The basic idea of this essay is that it is a mistake to deny the existence of psychological harms or that such harms may justify limiting certain sorts of speech acts in certain sorts of circumstances, but that such circumstances are not part of the paradigmatic college environment.
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  13. (1 other version)A conceptual and (preliminary) normative exploration of waste.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2010 - Social Philosophy and Policy 27 (2):233-273.
    In this paper, I first argue that waste is best understood as (a) any process wherein something useful becomes less useful and that produces less benefit than is lost—where benefit and usefulness are understood with reference to the same metric—or (b) the result of such a process. I next argue for the immorality of waste. My concluding suggestions are that (W1) if one person needs something for her preservation and a second person has it, is avoidably wasting it, and refuses (...)
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  14. Bleeding Heart Libertarianism and the Social Justice or Injustice of Economic Inequality.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2019 - In Christopher J. Coyne, Michael C. Munger & Robert M. Whaples (eds.), Is social justice just? Oakland, California: Independent Institute.
    We live in a market system with much economic inequality. This may not be an essential characteristic of market systems but seems historically inevitable. How we should evaluate it, on the other hand, is contentious. I propose that bleeding heart libertarianism provides the best diagnosis and prescription.
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  15. A Bleeding Heart Libertarian View of Inequality.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2020 - In Hugh Lafollette (ed.), Ethics in Practice: An Anthology, Fifth Edition. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 598-610.
    We live in a market system and witness much economic inequality. Although such inequality may not be an essential characteristic of market systems, it seems historically inevitable. How we should evaluate this inequality, on the other hand, is contentious. I propose that bleeding heart libertarians provide the best diagnosis and prescription.
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  16. Existentialist Voluntarism as a Source of Normativity.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2008 - Philosophical Papers 37 (1):89-129.
    I defend a neo-Kantian view wherein we are capable of being completely autonomous and impartial and argue that this ability can ground normativity. As this view includes an existentialist conception of the self, I defend radical choice, a primary component of that conception, against arguments many take to be definitive. I call the ability to use radical choice “existentialist voluntarism” and bring it into a current debate in normative philosophy, arguing that it allows that we can be distanced from all (...)
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  17. The Harm Principle and Corporate Welfare (or Market Libertarianism vs. Promotionism).Andrew Jason Cohen - 2022 - Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy 19:787-812.
    I aim in this paper to provide defense of one way to look at what should be regulated in the market place. In particular, I discuss what should be tolerated and argue against corporate welfare. I begin by endorsing John Stuart Mill’s harm principle as a normative principle of toleration. I call strict commitment to the harm principle when considering the regulatory structure of markets market libertarianism and oppose that to promotionism, the view that endorses government interference to promote business (...)
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  18. The Possibility and Defensibility of NonState ‘Censorship’.Andrew Jason Cohen & Andrew I. Cohen - 2022 - In J. P. Messina (ed.), New Directions in the Ethics and Politics of Speech. New York, NY: Routledge. pp. 13-31.
    Whether Social Media Companies (hereafter, SMCs) such as Twitter and Facebook limit speech is an empirical question. No one disputes that they do. Whether they “censor” speech is a conceptual question, the answer to which is a matter of dispute. Whether they may do so is a moral question, also a matter of dispute. We address both of these latter questions and hope to illuminate whether it is morally permissible for SMCs to restrict speech on their platforms. This could be (...)
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  19. Toleration Defined.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2020 - In Mitja Sardoč (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Toleration. Palgrave-Macmillan.
    The task of this paper is to provide what is necessary for a conceptual analysis of toleration such that one would have a clear definition of this central liberal tenet. First, notions related to but different from toleration are discussed; this provides guidance by introducing the likely definitional conditions of toleration. Next, those conditions are explicated and defended. Putting the conditions together, we can say an agent tolerates when she intentionally and on principle refrains from interfering with an opposed other (...)
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  20. Why Paternalists and Social Welfarists Should Oppose Criminal Drug Laws.Andrew Jason Cohen & William Glod - 2017 - In Chris W. Surprenant (ed.), Rethinking Punishment in the Era of Mass Incarceration. Routledge. pp. 225-241.
    We discuss the crucial, but easily missed, link between paternalism and incarceration. Legal paternalists believe law should be used to help individuals stay healthy or moral or become healthier or morally better. Criminal laws are paternalistic if they make it illegal to perform some action that would be bad for the actor to do, regardless of effects on others. Yet, one result of such laws is the punishment, including incarceration, of the very same actors—also clearly bad for them even if (...)
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  21. Academic Values and the Possibility of an Academic Impartial Spectator.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2019 - Society 2019 (56):555-558.
    Emily Chamlee-Wright is clearly right that self-censorship is an issue of concern within the academy. How much of a problem it is—how widespread and how bad it is when it occurs—is unclear and difficult to quantify. Administrators, faculty, and students all self-censor from time to time. Sometimes the self-censorship is just a matter of being polite or exercising pedagogical restraint, as Chamlee-Wright notes. The worry, of course, is that sometimes it prevents open and honest discussion about difficult topics and thus (...)
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  22. What liberals should tolerate internationally.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2021 - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 24 (1):64-86.
    The purpose of this paper is to shed light on what liberal states should tolerate outside their borders. This requires definitions of `liberalism, ́ `toleration, ́ and `state. ́ In the first section of this paper, I briefly indicate how I use those and other terms necessary to the discussion and introduce the normative principle I take liberals to be committed to. In the second section, I continue clearing the path for the rest of my discussion. In the rest of (...)
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  23. Harm: An Event-Based Feinbergian Account.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2018 - In Donald Alexander Downs & Chris W. Surprenant (eds.), The Value and Limits of Academic Speech: Philosophical, Political, and Legal Perspectives. Routledge. pp. 115-135.
    In this paper, I defend an account of harm as event-based but also in the mold of the account offered by Joel Feinberg in his magnum opus, The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law.3 The analysis I offer is meant, that is, to be serviceable in a project like Feinberg’s–that is, it is one of normative political philosophy—and, importantly here, useful for determining when speech might rightly be limited. On the account defended here, to undergo a harm is to be (...)
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  24. Does communitarianism require individual independence?Andrew Jason Cohen - 2000 - The Journal of Ethics 4 (3):283-304.
    Critics of liberalism have argued that liberal individualismmisdescribes persons in ignoring the degree to which they aredependent on their communities. Indeed, they argue that personsare essentially socially constituted. In this paper, however, Iprovide two arguments – the first concerning communitariandescriptive claims about persons, our society, and the communitarian ideal society, and the second regarding thecommunitarian view of individual autonomy – that the communitariantheory of Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, and Michael Sandel,relies on individuals either being independent from theircommunities or having a (...)
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  25. Response to Emily M. Crookston and David Kelley.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2016 - Reason Papers 2 (38):27-38.
    A response to critical commentaries. Crookston begins her commentary by noting that my book would have been better with answers to “the following three questions: (1) Why is the harm principle the right principle upon which to base a theory of toleration? (2) How is Cohen thinking of the concept of volenti? (p. x ) Is interference (i.e., the abandonment of toleration) ever morally required by the harm principle?” (p. x ). She is right, and I address these questions below (...)
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  26. On Universalism: Communitarians, Rorty, and (“Objectivist”) “Liberal Metaphysicians”1.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2010 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 38 (1):39-75.
    It is often claimed that liberalism is falsely and perniciously universalist. I take this charge seriously, exploring three positions: the communitarians’, Rorty’s, and that of “comprehensive” liberalism. After explaining why universalism is thought impossible, I examine the communitarian view that value is determined within communities and argue that it results in a form of relativism that is unacceptable. I next discuss Richard Rorty’s liberal acceptance of “conventionalism” and explain how, despite his rejection of universalism, Rorty remains a liberal. I then (...)
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  27. In defense of Nietzschean genealogy.Andrew Jason Cohen - 1999 - Philosophical Forum 30 (4):269–288.
    Using Alasdair MacIntyre as a foil, I defend what I take to be a viable Nietzschean genealogical account, showing that a proper perspectivism is neither perniciously subjectivist nor absolutist. I begin by arguing against MacIntyre’s assertion that genealogists are committed to the view that rationality requires neutrality and that as there is no neutrality, there is no rationality. I then continue by offering something of a reconstruction of Nietzsche’s view, designed partly to clarify the error pinpointed in MacIntyre’s arguments, but (...)
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  28. (1 other version)Exchanges and Relationships.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2012 - Social Theory and Practice 38 (2):231-257.
    Many social scientists think of exchange in terms far broader than philosophers. I defend the broader use of the term as well as the claim that meaningful human relationships are usefully understood as constituted by exchanges. I argue, though, that we must recognize that a great number of non-monetary and non-material goods are part of our daily lives and exchanges. Particularly important are emotional goods. I defend my view against the important objection that it demeans intimate relationships. As an addendum, (...)
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  29.  37
    (1 other version)The Harm Principle and Corporations.Andrew Jason Cohen - 2020 - In Johannes Drerup & Gottfried Schweiger (eds.), Toleration and the Challenges to Liberalism. Routledge. pp. 202-217.
    In this paper, I defend what may seem a surprising view: that John Stuart Mill’s famous harm principle would, if taken to be what justifies government action, disallow the existence of corporations. My claim is not that harmful activities of currently existing corporations warrants their losing corporate status according to the harm principle. The claim, rather, is that taken strictly, the harm principle and the legal possibility of incorporation are mutually exclusive. This view may be surprising—and I do not at (...)
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  30.  49
    The Communitarian Critique of Liberalism's Individualism.Andrew Jason Cohen - 1997 - Dissertation, Georgetown University
    The recent debate between liberals and their communitarian critics has reached a false plateau, with liberals conceding more than they should. After explicating the central communitarian thesis, the four ways that thesis could be understood, and the corresponding four senses of "independence," I argue that communitarians are right that liberalism requires a view of the self as 'unencumbered,' but I defend that view as superior to the alternatives. This allows me to defend true moral impartiality and universality as well as (...)
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  31. What about Opting out of Liberalism? A comment on Raphael Cohen-Almagor’s Just, Reasonable Multiculturalism. [REVIEW]Andrew Jason Cohen - 2022 - Philosophia 50 (5):2357-2367.
    In this short comment on Just, Reasonable Multiculturalism, I concentrate on the permissible extent of interference by a liberal state in a community within that state when such interference aims to protect individuals within that community from it. He and I both value individuals and want them protected, of course. This shared value, however, leads us to different conclusions. On any liberal view, individuals must be allowed to act as they wish subject only to specific sorts of justified limitations. In (...)
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  32. Autonomy, written by Andrew Sneddon. [REVIEW]Andrew Jason Cohen - 2016 - Journal of Moral Philosophy 13 (6):764-767.
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  33. Liberalism Beyond Justice: Citizens, Society, and the Boundaries of Political Theory by John Tomasi. [REVIEW]Andrew Jason Cohen - 2002 - Humane Studies Review 2002.
    Review of John Tomasi's Liberalism Beyond Justice: Citizens, Society, and the Boundaries of Political Theory .
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  34. The Justification of Religious Violence, by Steve Clarke: Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell, 2014, pp. xii + 259, US$29.95. [REVIEW]Andrew Jason Cohen - 2016 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 94 (1):206-206.
  35. (1 other version)John Kekes, A Case for Conservatism:A Case for Conservatism. [REVIEW]Andrew Jason Cohen - 2001 - Ethics 111 (2):411-414.
    Review of John Kekes' *A Case for Conservatism*.
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  36. John Rist, real ethics (cambridge: Cambridge university press, 2002), pp. VIII+295. [REVIEW]Andrew Jason Cohen - 2004 - Utilitas 16 (1):115-117.
    Book review of John Rist's *Real Ethics*.
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