Andrew Williams

Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

Humanities

Andrew Williams read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford and was a graduate student at Nuffield College, Oxford and Harvard University. He then became a Junior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford, and later taught at York, Reading and Warwick, where he was a Professor of Philosophy before joining ICREA in October 2009. He has also been a visiting professor in the Program in Ethics, Politics and Economics at Yale University and the Department of Philosophy at Harvard, and a Faculty Fellow in Ethics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He is an Editor of Politics, Philosophy & Economics and his articles have been published in such journals as Ethics, Economics and Philosophy, Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophy & Public Affairs, and Utilitas.


Research interests

My interests lie in moral and political philosophy and practical rationality, as well as intersecting areas in economics and politics. I am especially interested in issues of distributive justice, including ones arising across states and generations. My current work examines how egalitarian distributive principles should accommodate concerns with risk and with personal and collective choice and responsibility. It also explores how such principles should guide the design of social institutions that shape the prospects of children, parents, the elderly, and future generations.

Selected publications

Williams A 2016, ‘Family Values: An Introduction’, Law, Ethics and Philosophy, vol. 3, pp. 178-179.


Selected research activities

Talks

Justice, Constructivism, and State-Given Reasons, Fudan-Harvard-NYU Conference on Justice, School of Philosopy, Fudan University, Shanghai, July 2, 2016

Justice, Age, and Insurance: What’s the Point of Pensions?, Panel on Ageing and Risk with Professor Paul Bouhabib in Workshop on Justice and Risk, Nuffield College, Oxford, July 14, 2016

Constructivism and State-Given Reasons, Themes from Scanlon, 7th Lauener Symposium on Analytical Philosophy, Bern, September 2, 2016

Access, Isolation, and Territory, Inaugural Conference of Academics Stand Against Poverty – Chile, University of Valparaiso, December 5, 2016

Fairness and Demographic Change, Law School, University of Chile, Santiago de Chile, December 7, 2016
Other Activities
Co-Editor, Politics, Philosophy & Economics
Coordinator of Marie Sklodowska-Curie Project by Professor Paul Bouhabib on Ethics and Aging, October 1, 2015 to September 29, 2017
Co-organized conference on Moral and Political Philosophy, Murphy Institute, Tulane University, February 19 – 20, 2016
Co-organized Fourth Annual Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy Conference, June 1 – 3, 2016
Supervised two successful PhD dissertations: Josep Ferret Mas, Distributive Justice, Political Legitimacy, and Independent Financial Institutions (Pompeu Fabra University); Tom Parr, On the Job (University of Warwick)
External Examiner of two DPhil dissertations (University of Oxford) and one PhD dissertation (University of Warwick)
ERC Panel Evaluator