Books
Toleration. Polity Press, 2014.
Toleration and Freedom from Harm: Liberalism Reconceived. Routledge, 2018.
A Thinker’s Guide to Real Talk: How to Genuinely Engage Others–and Save Democracy. This is still a work in progress; if you’re interested in reading it and giving me feedback, contact me! Here is a description:
Polarization is now a formidable hindrance to progress. We seem unable to talk with people we might disagree with. We seem afraid of real talk altogether and, unsurprisingly, face an epidemic of loneliness. In response, Cohen argues that we need to engage each other more.
Cohen argues that failing to express real disagreement disrespects your potential interlocutors. Respect requires treating them as capable of understanding why you disagree and of changing their minds; it also requires recognizing they may be right.
In this book, Cohen provides a method for productive intellectual engagement. This method allows you to better determine the truth of whatever matter you discuss or the best way to proceed when people have opposing views about what should happen. The process will not only improve civil discourse, but in so doing, allow you to better develop your relationships with those you love, those you hate, and anyone else you engage with.
The method Cohen provides will help you to:
- improve your connections to others
- improve your (and society’s) knowledge base
- improve your reasoning
- reduce polarization, saving democratic institutions
The method uses six standard and intuitive principles from law and political philosophy that have had an enduring impact on both law and ordinary thinking. Cohen, a political philosopher who has spent two decades writing about toleration, and recent years working on civil discourse, uses numerous examples as well as straightforward discussion to provide what may be our best hope for reducing polarization and saving our democratic institutions.
Academic Papers
- “Bleeding Heart Libertarianism and the Social Justice or Injustice of Economic Inequality.” Is Social Justice Just?, Ed. Robert M. Whaples, C.J. Coyne, and M.C. Munger. Independent Institute, forthcoming. (A shortened and revised version of my 2020.)
- “The Possibility and Defensibility of NonState ‘Censorship’.” (with Andrew I. Cohen) New Directions in the Ethics and Politics of Speech, Ed. J.P. Messina. NY: Routledge, 2023: 13-31.
- “What about Opting Out of Liberalism? A comment on Raphael Cohen-Almagor’s Just, Reasonable, Multiculturalism.” Philosophia, forthcoming.
- “Defining Toleration.” The Palgrave Handbook of Toleration. Ed. Mitja Sardoč. Palgrave MacMillan. Forthcoming.
- “The Harm Principle and Corporate Welfare (or Market Libertarianism vs. Promotionism).” The Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy Volume 19, 2022: 787-812.
- “[Libertarianism,] Children, and the Family” (with Lauren Hall). The Routledge Companion to Libertarianism, Ed. Benjamin Ferguson and Matthew Zwolinski. NY: Routledge, 2022: 336-350.
- “The Harms of Silence: From Pierre Bayle to De-Platforming.” Social Philosophy and Policy, Volume 37, No. 2, 2021: 114-131.
- “The Harm Principle and Corporations.” Toleration and the Challenges to Liberalism, Ed. Johannes Drerup and Gottfried Schweiger, NY: Routledge, 2021: 202-217.
- “What Liberals Should Tolerate Internationally.” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, forthcoming Volume 24, No. 1, 2021: 64-86. (Published Online May 2019.) (Also printed in The Politics and Ethics of Toleration, Ed. by Johannes Drerup and Michael Kühler, NY: Routledge, 2021)
- “A Bleeding Heart Libertarian View of Inequality.” Ethics in Practice: An Anthology, Fifth Edition. Ed. Hugh Lafollette, John Wiley & Sons, 2020: 598-610.
- “Academic Values and the Possibility of an Academic Impartial Spectator: A Response to Emily Chamlee-Wright’s ‘Self-Censorship and Associational Life in the Liberal Academy’.” Society, Volume 56 No. 6, December 2019: 555-558.
- “Harm: An Event-Based Feinbergian Account.” The Value and Limits of Academic Speech, Ed. Donald Downs and Chris W. Surprenant. NY: Routledge Press, 2018: 115-135.
- “Why Paternalists and Social Welfarists Should Oppose Criminal Drug Laws” (with William Glod). Rethinking Punishment in the Era of Mass Incarceration, Ed. Chris W. Surprenant. NY: Routledge Press, 2018: 225-241.
- “The Harm Principle and Parental Licensing.” Social Theory and Practice, Volume 43, No. 4, October 2017: 825-849.
- “Psychological Harm and Free Speech on Campus.” Society, Volume 54 No. 2, July/August 2017: 320-325. (Available at http://rdcu.be/tXQt.)
- “Response to Emily M. Crookston and David Kelley” (symposium on Toleration). Reason Papers, Volume 38, No. 2, Winter 2016: 27-38.
- “Contemporary Liberalism and Toleration.” Cambridge Companion to Liberalism, Ed. Steve Wall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015: 189-211.
- “Toleration.” International Encyclopedia of Ethics. Ed. LaFollette, Hugh. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2013: 5150-5160.
- “Exchanges and Relationships: On Hard-headed Economics Capturing the Soft Side of Life.” Social Theory and Practice, Volume 38 No. 2, April 2012: 231-257.
- “A Conceptual and (Preliminary) Normative Exploration of Waste.” Social Philosophy and Policy, Volume 27 No. 2, Summer 2010: 233-273. (Also in Moral Obligation, edited by Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller, Jr., and Jeffrey Paul, Cambridge University Press, 2010: 233-273).
- “Existentialist Voluntarism as a Source of Normativity.” Philosophical Papers, Volume 37 No. 1, March 2008: 89-129.
- “What the Liberal State Should Tolerate Within Its Borders.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Volume 37 No. 4, December 2007: 479-513.
- “What Toleration Is.” Ethics, Volume 115 No. 1, October 2004: 68-95.
- “Defending Liberalism Against the Anomie Challenge.” Social Theory and Practice, Volume 30 No. 3, July 2004: 391-427.
- “Liberalism, Communitarianism, and Asocialism.” The Journal of Value Inquiry, Volume 34 Nos. 2-3, September 2000: 249-261. (Also in Liberalism: New Essays on Liberal Theory, ed. Narveson, Jan and Susan Dimock, Norwelt, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishing, 2000: 101-113).
- “Does Communitarianism Require Individual Independence?” The Journal of Ethics, Volume 4 No. 3, July 2000: 283-305.
- “On Universalism: Communitarians, Rorty, and (‘Objectivist’) ‘Liberal Metaphysicians’.” Southern Journal of Philosophy, Volume 38 No. 1, Spring 2000: 39-75.
- “In Defense of Nietzschean Genealogy.” Philosophical Forum, Volume 30 No. 4, December 1999: 269-288.
- “Communitarianism, ‘Social Constitution,’ and Autonomy.” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 80 No. 2, June 1999: 121-135.
- “A Defense of Strong Voluntarism.” American Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 35 No. 3, July 1998: 251-265.
Book Reviews
- Autonomy (Andrew Sneddon, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013). Journal of Moral Philosophy, Volume 13 No. 6, 2016 (764-767).
- The Justification of Religious Violence (Steve Clarke, John Wiley & Sons, 2014). Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Volume 94 No. 1, 2016 (206).
- Real Ethics: Rethinking the Foundations of Morality. (John Rist, Cambridge University Press, 2002). Utilitas, Volume 16 No. 1, March 2004 (115-117).
- Liberalism Beyond Justice (John Tomasi, Princeton University Press, 2001). Humane Studies Review, April 2002 (on-line journal; no longer available).
- A Case for Conservatism (John Kekes, Cornell University Press, 1998). Ethics, Volume 111 No. 2, January 2001 (411-414).
Andrew Jason Cohen 