Books by Fay Niker
The COVID-19 pandemic is not simply a public health crisis. Policies implemented to contain its s... more The COVID-19 pandemic is not simply a public health crisis. Policies implemented to contain its spread have had profound social, political and economic consequences, raising deep and pressing questions of ethics and justice. In this collection of essays, experts from the fields of political philosophy and political theory explain what the crisis has revealed about our societies, and how we might move forward to build a better world. Organized around five central themes, the essays consider the impact of COVID-19 on social welfare and vulnerability, economic justice, democratic relations, speech and mis(information), and our ability to imagine and create a more just society in the future.
Journal Articles by Fay Niker
The Political Quarterly, 2021
The Political Quarterly, 2021
This article offers a distinctive way of grounding the regulative duties held by social media com... more This article offers a distinctive way of grounding the regulative duties held by social media companies (SMCs). One function of the democratic state is to provide what we term the right to democratic epistemic participation within the public sphere. But social media has transformed our public sphere, such that SMCs now facilitate citizens' right to democratic epistemic participation and do so on a scale that was previously impossible. We argue that this role of SMCs in expanding the scope of what counts as fair democratic epistemic participation, and in becoming the providers of access to the digital public sphere, brings with it duties of regulation.
The concept of paternalism is intricately tied to the concept of autonomy. It is commonly assumed... more The concept of paternalism is intricately tied to the concept of autonomy. It is commonly assumed that when paternalistic interventions are wrong, they are wrong because they impede individuals' autonomy. Our aim in this paper is to show that the recent shift towards conceiving of autonomy relationally highlights a separate conceptual space for a nonpaternalistic kind of interpersonal intervention termed maternalism. We argue that maternalism makes a twofold contribution to the debate over the ethics of interpersonal action and decision-making. Descriptively, it captures common experiences that, while not unusual in everyday life, are largely absent from the present discussion. Normatively, it describes a type of intervention with justification conditions distinct from the standard framework of paternal-ism. We explicate these contributions by describing six key differences between maternalism and paternalism, and conclude by anticipating and responding to potential objections.
Trust has generally been understood as an intentional mental phenomenon that one party (the trust... more Trust has generally been understood as an intentional mental phenomenon that one party (the truster) has towards another party (the trusted) with respect to some object of value for the truster. In the landmark work of Annette Baier, this trust is described as a three-place predicate: A entrusts B with the care of C, such that B has discretionary powers in caring for C. In this paper we propose that, within the context of thick interpersonal relationships, trust manifests in a different way: as a property of the relationship itself. We argue that this conceptualization has important implications for the debate over the ethics of interpersonal interventions. In particular, when trust is understood in this way, actions that would otherwise be deemed morally troubling may be permissible, or even morally desirable, on account of their role in strengthening trusting relationships.
Given the ubiquity and centrality of social and relational influences to the human experience, ou... more Given the ubiquity and centrality of social and relational influences to the human experience, our conception of self-governance must adequately account for such external influences. The inclusion of “relational” considerations into more traditional “individualist” accounts of autonomy has been an important feature of the debate over personal autonomy in recent years. But the relevant socio-temporal dynamics of autonomy are not only historical in nature. There are also important, yet under-examined, future-oriented questions about how we retain autonomy while incorporating new values into the existing set that guides our interaction with the world. In this paper, we examine these questions from two complementary perspectives: philosophy and neuroscience. After contextualizing the philosophical debate, we show the importance to autonomous agency of the capacity to appropriately adapt our values and beliefs, in light of relevant experiences and evidence, to changing circumstances. We present a plausible philosophical account of this process, which we claim is generally applicable to theories of autonomy, both internalist and externalist alike. We then evaluate this account by providing a model for how the incorporation of values might occur in the brain; one that is inspired by recent theoretical and empirical advances in our understanding of the neural processes by which our beliefs are updated by new information. Finally, we synthesize these two perspectives and discuss how the neurobiology might inform the philosophical discussion relating to this necessary condition of autonomy.
Advances in psychology and neuroscience have elucidated the social aspects of human agency, leadi... more Advances in psychology and neuroscience have elucidated the social aspects of human agency, leading to a broad shift in our thinking about fundamental concepts such as autonomy and responsibility. Here, we address a critical aspect of this inquiry by investigating how people consider the socio-relational nature of their own agency, particularly the influence of others on their perceived control over their decisions and actions. Specifically, in a series of studies using contrastive vignettes, we examine public attitudes about when external influences on everyday decisions are perceived as " undue " – that is, as undermining the control conditions for these decisions to be considered autonomous – vs. when they are perceived as appropriate and even supportive of autonomous decision-making. We found that the influence of preauthorized agents – individuals and institutions with whom we share a worldview – was judged to be less undue than non-preauthorized agents, even after controlling for the familiarity of the agent. These effects persisted irrespective of the extent to which respondents identified as communitarian or individualistic, and were consistent across two distinct scenarios. We also found that external influences that were rational were perceived as less undue than those that were arational. Our study opens new avenues of inquiry into the " folk conception " of autonomy, and we discuss the implications of our findings for the ethics of public policies designed to influence decisions and for information sharing in social networks.
In this commentary on an article by Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby (AJOB 16:5-15, 2016), we discuss ho... more In this commentary on an article by Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby (AJOB 16:5-15, 2016), we discuss how external influences on decisions affect personal autonomy. Specifically, we introduce the idea of “pre-authorization” as an evaluative stance by which an individual gives a certain agent preferential access to influencing her decision-making processes. Influences arising from pre-authorized agents may then be seen as promoting, rather than infringing upon, autonomy. While the idea that an external influence can be autonomy-promoting may be inconsistent with individualistic conceptions of autonomy, it aligns well with more relational conceptions that recognize the social milieu in which decisions are made. We suggest that pre-authorization provides a framework for thinking about how relational accounts of autonomy might work mechanistically.
Book Chapters by Fay Niker
Political Philosophy in a Pandemic: Routes to a More Just World, 2021
This chapter introduces the motivation and central themes of this collection of essays. It also p... more This chapter introduces the motivation and central themes of this collection of essays. It also provides a chapter-by-chapter overview of book.
Political Philosophy in a Pandemic: Routes to a More Just Future, 2021
Public debate surrounding COVID-19 has been infused with a dimension of hope. This chapter examin... more Public debate surrounding COVID-19 has been infused with a dimension of hope. This chapter examines the nature and value of this optimism. First, it argues that crises perform the epistemic function of transforming people’s understanding of the world in significant ways. Second, drawing on interdisciplinary literature about salience and nudging, the chapter explores how this epistemic function might be enhanced through both direct and indirect means, for the purposes of achieving a more just world. In so doing, it addresses some psychological and ethical concerns that such means raise.
Neuroscience and the Future of Freedom of Thought, 2021
This chapter sets out two main insights gleaned from examining how empirical research enriches ou... more This chapter sets out two main insights gleaned from examining how empirical research enriches our understanding of the nature of autonomy. The first insight adds to existing externalist concerns by considering the degree to which people exhibit evidence-responsiveness: how one’s beliefs and values relate to reality. This understudied aspect of the relation between critical reflection and autonomy is complemented by a second insight into the phenomenon of preauthorization: a novel, internalist dimension of the way in which a person’s decision-making is influenced by external factors and actors. This theoretical analysis is then applied to situations in which infringement of autonomy is a concern, such as nudging and persuasive technologies, to draw out its practical implications.
The Philosopher Queens, eds. R. Buxton and L. Whiting, 2020
The Theory and Practice of Virtue Education, eds. T. Harrison and D. Walker
This chapter examines what role new behaviour-modification policies – commonly known as “nudges” ... more This chapter examines what role new behaviour-modification policies – commonly known as “nudges” – might play in cultivating virtues. At first sight, they would appear to be ruled out as a candidate means; but, by offering a more nuanced analysis, the chapter argues that some nudges have virtue-cultivating properties. It distinguishes between two kinds of nudges – 'automatic-behavioural' and 'discernment-developing' – and shows that what divides them is the ability of the latter, which the former lacks, to play an ecological-educative role in developing the virtue of practical reason, which is required for the other virtues too. It thus provides an answer to the question of whether virtue-cultivating nudges are possible, while remaining neutral on whether virtue cultivation is, or under what conditions it could be, a legitimate aim of liberal-democratic states.
Book Reviews by Fay Niker
Economics & Philosophy, 2021
Framing effects get a bad rap. Arguably, they have pride of place within the narrative that has t... more Framing effects get a bad rap. Arguably, they have pride of place within the narrative that has taken hold in recent decades about our irremediable and predictable irrationality. But is susceptibility to framing effects always revealing of faulty rationality? In Frame it Again: New Tools for Rational Decision-Making, José Luis Bermúdez argues persuasively that it's not. Contra standard theories of rationality, he argues that being sensitive to how things are framed can be perfectly rational and that, once we understand why this is so, the value of frame-dependent reasoning for rational decision-making comes into view. Bermúdez's book is a welcome contribution to the important, broader task of problematizing and challenging the powerful narrative that he labels the 'litany of irrationality' (8). This is grounded in the work of psychologistsmost famously, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahnemanwhich has shaped theoretical and public debates over rational decision-making over the past 40 years or so. The experimental 'discovery' of numerous cognitive biases and heuristics formed the basis of Tversky and Kahneman's (1986) prospect theory and this in turn influenced the development of behavioural economics and nudge theory. The narrative generated by these findings is one of 'human fallibility' (Thaler and Sunstein 2009: 40): there is 'an ineliminable gap' (76) between how rational agents ought to make decisions and how we actually do reason practically, where the latter is 'often divorced from rationality' (Ariely 2009: xi). However, this litany of irrationality only makes sense against the backdrop of the normative theory of rationality assumed by this experimental and theoretical paradigmknown variously as rational choice theory, Bayesian decision theory or expected utility theory (17). Taking framing and framing effects as his focus, Bermúdez sets out to defuse this narrative by showing that frame-dependent reasoning can be 'rational in the normative sense' (18). He offers an insightful and engaging argument to this end, much of which I find plausible. I outline this argument, noting some places where questions remain for me and some others where I think there are further opportunities to link his innovative analysis with existing and burgeoning philosophical debates. Framing is a ubiquitous part of our mental lives. Salience plays a key role in how we sort and understand our experience (e.g. de Sousa 1997); and a frame is the lens through which we see and interpret this experience once one aspect of it has been picked out as particularly salient. This continuous but often unconscious mental activity is significant because the lens through which we see the world affects how we evaluate our different options and the outcomes they might bring about (10). Shifting frames, then, can lead to evaluative shiftssuch as having
Blog Posts, Interviews, etc. by Fay Niker
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Books by Fay Niker
Journal Articles by Fay Niker
Book Chapters by Fay Niker
Book Reviews by Fay Niker
Blog Posts, Interviews, etc. by Fay Niker