Drafts by Fabian Gruben
The relation between rightness and goodness is a topic of major dispute in normative theory. Rece... more The relation between rightness and goodness is a topic of major dispute in normative theory. Recently, Ferguson has argued for Betterness of Permissibility (BoP) as a metanormative condition for the relation between permissibility and goodness: Permissible act are morally better than impermissible acts. He also argues that one cannot endorse BoP and deny teleological theories. In this paper, I argue that this latter claim is mistaken, since there exist normative theories that are non-teleological and consistent with BoP.
Benjamin Ferguson (Ferguson 2013) recently proposed an account of exploitation that is based on H... more Benjamin Ferguson (Ferguson 2013) recently proposed an account of exploitation that is based on Hillel Steiner's libertarian account of Exploitation (Steiner 1984, 1987). In this paper, I argue that Ferguson's account provides neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for exploitation due to the libertarian framework that underlies his account. An additional claim is that Ferguson's account of exploitation is faced with a trilemma: It is either an account of the concept of exploitation, or an account of a libertarian conception of exploitation, or an account of a non-libertarian conception of exploitation. In the first case, it does provide neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for exploitation. In the second case, the amendments that Ferguson makes to Steiner's account make it inconsistent with libertarianism. In the third case, Ferguson fails to spell out the conceptual framework that underlies his account.
A review of Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the 21st century" that provides a summary and critique o... more A review of Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the 21st century" that provides a summary and critique of the answers that Piketty gives to two questions: How did inequality of wealth and income (from both capital and labor) develop over the last two hundred years and what role did inheritance flows play? The second question is theoretical: How can the long-term development of inequality of wealth and income be explained?
Thesis Chapters by Fabian Gruben
Excerpt from author's master thesis, 2018
I provide a critique of Kevin D. Hoover's description of his causal model in "Causality in Macroe... more I provide a critique of Kevin D. Hoover's description of his causal model in "Causality in Macroeconomics". For the case of Hoover's linear model, I analyze the semantic ambiguities in Hoover's definition of a causal order. I also try to find more precise definitions that are consistent with Hoover's usage of the relevant terms (independence, dependence, minimal self-contained subsystem etc.) in the examples given by Hoover. In the case of his non-linear causal model, I argue that it is - contrary to his claims - not clear how his definitions can be understood as a generalization of the modeling approach in the linear case. I also provide an alternative definition of the non-linear causal model that goes back to Mesarovic's 1969 paper.
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Drafts by Fabian Gruben
Thesis Chapters by Fabian Gruben