Civic and Cosmopolitan Justice

This is the text of The Lindley Lecture for 2000, given by Onora O'Neill, a British philosopher

Autonomia, pluralidade e razão pública

I shall offer a reading of Kant’s conception of autonomy, distinguish it from some other ideas that go by the name of autonomy, and propose some reasons for thinking that autonomy in Kant’s sense of the term is indeed both a conception of practical reason and fundamental to morality. The line of thought I shall pursue is, I hope, both compatible with and a sympathetic extension of claims that Schneewind makes about Kant’s position.Pretendo oferecer uma leitura da concepção kantiana de autonomia, distingui-la de algumas outras concepções que recebem o nome de autonomia e propor algumas razões para pensar que a autonomia no sentido que Kant atribui ao termo é decerto tanto uma concepção de razão prática como também fundamental para a moralidade. A linha de pensamento que seguirei é, espero, compatível com as afirmações queSchneewind faz sobre a posição de Kant e, ao mesmo tempo, uma ampliação que favorece essas afirmações

Forst on Reciprocity of Reasons: a Critique

According to Rainer Forst, (i) moral and political claims must meet a requirement of reciprocal and general acceptability (RGA) while (ii) we are under a duty in engaged discursive practice to justify such claims to others, or be able to do so, on grounds that meet RGA. The paper critically engages this view. I argue that Forst builds a key component of RGA, i.e., reciprocity of reasons, on an idea of the reasonable that undermines both (i) and (ii): if RGA builds on this idea, RGA is viciously regressive and a duty of justification to meet RGA fails to be agent transparent. This negative result opens the door for alternative conceptions of reciprocity and generality. I then suggest that a more promising conception of reciprocity and generality needs to build on an idea of the reasonable that helps to reconcile the emancipatory or protective aspirations of reciprocal and general justification with its egalitarian commitments. But this requires to downgrade RGA in the order of justification and to determine on prior, substantive grounds what level of discursive influence in reciprocal and general justification relevant agents ought to have

Onora O'Neill, 'Vertrouwen en gemedieerde communicatie'

O'Neill, Onora. 'Vertrouwen en gemedieerde communicatie'. Vertaald door Paulus Van Borten & Marie-Jeanne Bellen. In: P. Van Bortel (ed.). Wij en de media. Kritische reflecties over media, waarheid & vertrouwen. Kalmthout/Zoetermeer, Pelckmans/Klement, 2013, pp. 29-53.status: publishe

Integrity and Quality in Universities: Accountability, Excellence and Success

The essay focuses on the tension between the integrity of a university’s ideal or mission (academic freedom, innovation, excellence in research and teaching) and approaches to accountability that are used to monitor performance and to establish criteria for university funding. The paper examines evaluation systems and the distorting effects of the incentives some of them create, especially when different metrics are combined in order to rank academic institutions. Such league tables prioritise comparative success rather than excellence, which is not a positional good. Yet better forms of accountability are possible. Some simple aspects of academic and educational achievements can be measured reasonably accurately and are less open to manipulation. These include hours of study, standards of writing, and the amount of feedback on written work received by students