@JacobAriBarrett

assistant professor of philosophy and political science @VanderbiltU

 Nashville, Tennessee
jacobbarrett.org
Joined September 2022
  • Tweets142
  • Following279
  • Followers478
8Media
Jacob Barrett retweeted
Kirun Sankaran@bad80smusicSep 26
SOME PROFESSIONAL NEWS: My paper "Stasis Undermines Equality: Or, What's Wrong with Urban Growth Controls" has been published in Philosophical Perspectives. 1/n
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I wrote a decision theory paper?? Out now (open access) in Phil Studies! It's about tiny probabilities of enormous value, and why we shouldn't worry too much about them, despite what "fanatics" claim. (The title is a play on @HaydenWilko's "In Defense of Fanaticism.") link below
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link.springer.com/article/10…

In defense of moderation

Philosophical Studies - A decision theory is fanatical if it says that, for any sure thing of getting some finite amount of value, it would be better to almost certainly get nothing while having...

link.springer.com
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New paper out (open access) at PPA! Philanthropy and democracy can seem at odds, but what about philanthropy that specifically aims to benefit the disenfranchised? I argue that we can and should encourage this, while discouraging certain other sorts of philanthropy. (link below)
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onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…

Philanthropy for the Disenfranchised

Philanthropy has an uneasy relationship with democracy. It distributes decision-making power plutocratically, in proportion to wealth. It allows unelected, unaccountable, and often untrustworthy...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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Jacob Barrett retweeted
Steven N. Durlauf
@sndurlaufApr 26
I just finished this superb book by Jacob Barrett @JacobAriBarrett. Charles Mills and Amartya Sen have persuasively argued that the Ideal/Non-Ideal distinction is critical to thinking about normative dimensions of inequality and in conceptualizing policy remedies. This book succeeds in synthesizing conceptual issues in 66 pages and does so with exceptional clarity and accessibility.
Jacob Barrett@JacobAriBarrettMar 3
Curious about the ideal and non-ideal theory debate? My book, Ideal and Non-Ideal Theory, is now out open access with Cambridge Elements in Political Philosophy! Read the book that David Estlund has called "easily the best full treatment of the topic that we have." (link below)
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Curious about the ideal and non-ideal theory debate? My book, Ideal and Non-Ideal Theory, is now out open access with Cambridge Elements in Political Philosophy! Read the book that David Estlund has called "easily the best full treatment of the topic that we have." (link below)
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cambridge.org/core/elements/… (Due to a metadata error the book is currently listed under Elements in Political Psychology—but ignore that! The book does touch on related debates in ethics, epistemology, etc., but I promise it is mainly about political philosophy, not psychology.)

Ideal and Non-Ideal Theory

Cambridge Core - Political Philosophy - Ideal and Non-Ideal Theory

cambridge.org
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New paper in Political Philosophy: “What Can We Learn from the Diversity Trumps Ability Theorem?” No, diversity doesn’t *trump* ability, but the theorem illuminates a baton-passing mechanism by which diversity can help us find better options (even when we disagree about values!)
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What Can We Learn from the Diversity Trumps Ability Theorem?

The Diversity Trumps Ability theorem suggests that, under certain conditions, more diverse groups outperform groups of more individually competent members. Despite initial excitement about the...

politicalphilosophyjournal.org
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Today, we're launching the 'Essays on Longtermism' competition, over on the EA Forum. Prizes up to $1000, judged by our expert panel: @willmacaskill, @DavidThorstad, Hilary Greaves, @evavivalt, and @JacobAriBarrett. More details in 🧵 :
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The full (open access) pdf for Essays on Longtermism is now available here, in case you are champing at the bit to read Part IV! fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/…
Jacob Barrett@JacobAriBarrett2 Sep 2025
Very pleased that our volume, Essays on Longtermism, is now out! (Currently dealing with a glitch on the website where the six chapters in part IV are missing from the online version, but this should be fixed soon.)
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Very pleased that our volume, Essays on Longtermism, is now out! (Currently dealing with a glitch on the website where the six chapters in part IV are missing from the online version, but this should be fixed soon.)
David Thorstad@DavidThorstad2 Sep 2025
Today's the day! Essays on longtermism is now out (open access) with Oxford University Press. academic.oup.com/book/60794

Essays on Longtermism: Present Action for the Distant Future

Abstract. Recent years have seen a flurry of interest in longtermism: roughly, the view that positively influencing the long-term future is a key moral pri

academic.oup.com
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Today's the day! Essays on longtermism is now out (open access) with Oxford University Press. academic.oup.com/book/60794

Essays on Longtermism: Present Action for the Distant Future

Abstract. Recent years have seen a flurry of interest in longtermism: roughly, the view that positively influencing the long-term future is a key moral pri

academic.oup.com
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new paper out (open access) in PPR! I challenge the common view that justice is the first virtue of social institutions, arguing that political discussions focus too much on justice and should pay more attention to beneficence
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onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…

Social beneficence

A background assumption in much contemporary political philosophy is that justice is the first virtue of social institutions, taking priority over other values such as beneficence. This assumption...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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The Global Priorities Institute has now shut its doors. For an overview of what it achieved, see: globalprioritiesinstitute.or…
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It’s not the em-dash—it’s this sentence structure.
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WINNER ANNOUNCED: The 2025 Fifth Annual Gaus Memorial Prize goes to Ismail Kurun (Vanderbilt) for his paper, “The Epistemology of Public Reason: Open-Mindedness, Human Psychology, and Liberal Institutions.” ppesociety.org/2025/07/25/20…
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Attention philosophers, x-philosophers and moral psychologists - I'm hiring! Two, 3-year research fellowships on an interdisciplinary project in the Philosophical Moral Psychology Lab at the Uehiro Institute, Oxford. Pass it on! For more info and to apply: tinyurl.com/mrwwuyaw
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