Ralf Bader
Prof. Dr.
ralf.bader@unifr.ch
+41 26 300 7520
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2619-1437
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Professeur·e ordinaire,
Département de philosophie
MIS 02 bu. 2007
Av. de l'Europe 20
1700 Fribourg
Biographie
Depuis 2020 à l'Université de Fribourg. Auparavant Fellow au Merton College et Associate Professor au département de philosophie de l'Université d'Oxford, et Bersoff Assistant Professor et Faculty Fellow au département de philosophie de l'Université de New York. Il travaille sur l'éthique, la métaéthique, la philosophie politique, la théorie de la décision et la métaphysique, de façon systématique et historique.
Recherche et publications
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Publications
35 publications
Robert Nozick
Bader, Ralf M (Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2010) | LivreKant’s Theory of Modality
Ralf Bader (Unpublished manuscript, Cambridge University Press (under contract), ) | LivrePerson-Affecting Population Ethics
Bader, Ralf M (Unpublished manuscript, Oxford University Press (under contract), ) | Livre -
Conférences
66 publications
Morality, Legality and Luck
Ralf Bader, Law and Morality in Kant, International Conference, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen: (7.2022) | ConférenceGrounding and reduction
Ralf Bader, Reductionism in Meta-ethics and the Philosophy of Mind, University of Oxford: (7.2021) | ConférenceKicking things to infinity – Kant on the priority of land ownership
Ralf Bader, Actualité des recherches kantiennes, Université Grenoble Alpes: (3.2021) | ConférenceLiberty, threats and ineligibility
Ralf Bader, Geneva Graduate Conference in Political Philosophy: (2.2021) | ConférenceMeta-ethical robustness
Ralf Bader, Fourth Taiwan Metaphysics Colloquium, National Taiwan University: (1.2020) | ConférenceNatural and normative properties
Ralf Bader, Nature and Normativity, Brussels: (10.2019) | ConférencePartiality and agent-relative value
Ralf Bader, Partiality Conference, University of Oxford: (7.2019) | ConférencePerson-affecting population ethics
Ralf Bader, Climate Ethics and Future Generations, Stockholm: (9.2018) | ConférenceRepresenting non-symmetric relations
Ralf Bader, Metaphysics and the Theory of Content, Universität Tübingen: (7.2018) | ConférenceAgent-relative value, options, and constraints
Ralf Bader, Conference on Value, OSU/Maribor/Rijeka Philosophy Conference in Dubrovnik: (6.2018) | Conférence -
Projets de recherche
Authority and Territory
Statut: En coursDébut 01.09.2022 Fin 31.08.2026 Financement FNS Voir la fiche du projet The fundamental question of political philosophy is whether there should be a state at all. This question arises because states are coercive. States utilise force as well as the threat of force to make those who are within their territory comply with the laws that they have promulgated. Explaining how they can permissibly do so is necessary for justifying the state. First, one needs to show how and under what conditions the state is justified in using coercion. Second, one has to justify the monopoly on coercion, explaining on what grounds the state occupies a privileged position so that it can forbid others from likewise using coercion. And, third, one needs to provide an explanation of the territorial dimension of the state, justifying how the state comes to occupy this privileged position with respect to a particular territory. Each of these tasks is fraught with difficulties. The coercion on the part of the state runs up against the liberty and autonomy of individuals. The monopoly on coercion requires one to introduce an asymmetry amongst moral equals, granting powers and permissions to some that others do not have. And, finally, the territorial nature of the state requires one to draw boundaries that exclude those who are outside them. These difficulties put substantial pressure on the idea that states can ever be justified. The project Authority and Territory aims to address these challenges by systematically developing a novel Kantian justification of the state. It argues that the state is not optional but morally necessary and, correspondingly, that the state need not be based on consent but can permissibly be established and maintained by coercion. By developing a distinctively normative assurance problem, it offers a reconceptualisation of the fundamental problem that makes the state necessary in the first place. In particular, it shows why the state of nature is, from a normative perspective, a condition of war and correspondingly why the state is necessary in order to establish a condition of peace in which interactions are rightful. As a result of reconceptualising the Kantian approach to political obligation in terms of a natural duty of peace, rather than in terms of the traditional natural duty of justice, it manages to particularise political obligation on the part of individuals and to establish the territorial aspect of the state, thereby showing how authority on the part of the state can be particularised and how the boundary problem can be solved within a functional account. Re-examining Anarchy, State, and Utopia
Statut: TerminéDébut 01.09.2022 Fin 30.11.2022 Financement FNS Voir la fiche du projet Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) is a classic of 20th Century philosophy that has had a huge impact on moral and political philosophy and that is still widely discussed and taught nowadays. The objective of the proposed conference 'Re-examining Anarchy, State, and Utopia', is to offer a reappraisal of Nozick's contributions to moral and political philosophy. It will provide a forum for leading contemporary thinkers to re-engage with Nozick's pathbreaking work, allowing them to evaluate in what ways Nozick's book has helped to shape moral and political philosophy over the course of the last 50 years and to assess its lasting significance and relevance, identifying which of Nozick's arguments and contributions have stood the test of time. The papers will be published in an edited volume entitled 'Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia at 50' in 2024 by Cambridge University Press, edited by Ralf Bader.