M.A. Princeton University; A.B. (hon.), Brown University
Thesis Title: A Field Guide to Citizenship
Committee: Charles Beitz, Philip Pettit, Anna Stilz
Abstract:
My dissertation explores the moral demands of citizenship in contemporary states. consider both the methodology that political theory should use to address questions of this sort, and the moral responsibilities of ordinary citizens.
I argue that we need a conscious methodology to how we approach questions about the ethics of political life. This approach must be attentive to the issues in moral psychology that face individuals who undertake moral deliberation. Building on historical theories that use the state of nature, I develop an approach to ethical questions that focus on the moral features of particular roles. I show that this approach has unconsciously guided moral discourse about political life, but that our ability to understand the moral requirements we face as members of political communities has been stymied by an overly shallow analysis of concepts like citizenship and states.
Undertaking a more self-conscious methodological approach, and incorporating the work of the empirical social sciences shows us that our traditional concepts are poorly suited to advancing our understanding the ethical responsibilities we have as members of political communities. Instead of talking about citizenship and states, I develop a typology of distinctively political normative roles. This framework allows us to see more clearly a range of important moral concerns that were previously obscured. As a result, the framework gives us the ability to understand the moral questions that confront real citizens in real states.
Using this framework I consider several moral concerns that confront citizens in modern political communities, including our political responsibilities as businesspeople and consumers, our relationship to administrative agencies, the political responsibilities of social leaders, and how we can adapt theories of civic ethics to speak more clearly to the responsibilities of citizens in weak states.
