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March 4, 2024 • Springer

“Equal Opportunity, Not Reparations” in the Handbook of Equality of Opportunity (2024)

By Thomas Mulligan

The thesis of this essay is that equal opportunity (EO) “strictly dominates” (in the game-theoretic sense) reparations. That is, (1) all the ways reparations would make our world more just […]

July 20, 2022 • Inquiry

“A Bayesian Solution to Hallsson’s Puzzle”

By Thomas Mulligan

Politics is rife with motivated cognition. People do not dispassionately engage with the evidence when they form political beliefs; they interpret it selectively, generating justifications for their desired conclusions and […]

May 13, 2022 • Social Choice and Welfare

“Optimizing political influence: a jury theorem with dynamic competence and dependence”

By Thomas Mulligan

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate, formally, an ambiguity in the exercise of political influence. To wit: A voter might exert influence with an eye toward maximizing the […]

February 9, 2022 • Journal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture

“How East Meets West: Justice and Consequences in Confucian Meritocracy

By Thomas Mulligan

“Meritocracy” has historically been understood in two ways. The first is an an approach to governance. On this understanding, we seek to put meritorious (somehow defined) people into public office […]

September 9, 2021 • Episteme

“The Epistemology of Disagreement: Why Not Bayesianism?”

By Thomas Mulligan

Disagreement is a ubiquitous feature of human life, and philosophers have dutifully attended to it. One important question related to disagreement is epistemological: How does a rational person change her […]

January 9, 2021 • Springer

“Equal Pay for All: An Idea Whose Time Has Not, and Will Not, Come”

By Thomas Mulligan

The proposal on offer is a radical form of egalitarianism. Under it, each citizen receives the same income, regardless of profession or indeed whether he or she works or not. […]

December 5, 2020 • New York Daily News

Affirmative action, fairness, and America’s future

By Thomas Mulligan

On Election Day, California voters decisively rejected Proposition 16, which would have repealed California’s constitutional ban on discrimination. This result has, understandably, been overshadowed by the presidential race. But it […]

September 6, 2020 • Newsday

How to best guard against cancel culture

By Thomas Mulligan

We are becoming less tolerant of differing opinions, less inclined to judge them with open minds or at least charity.