Andrew Williams

Universitat Pompeu Fabra

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. His work has 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 political science. I am especially interested in issues of distributive justice, including ones arising across states and generations. I explore how egalitarian distributive principles  should guide the design of social institutions that shape the prospects of children, parents, the elderly, and future generations. My current work focuses on how we should deal with the needs of the elderly and with variations in lifespan.

 


Selected research activities

* Editor-in-Chief, Politics, Philosophy & Economics.

* Coordinator of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Project by Professor Paul Bou-Habib on Ethics and Aging.

* Collaborator, Centre for Experimental Research on Fairness, Inequality and Rationality (FAIR), Norwegian School of Economics.

* Invited talks:

- “On ‘Consent to Sexual Interactions’”, Murphy Institute, Tulane University, February 23, 2018.

- “Comments on 'Global Taxes and Poverty Measurement'”, Poverty Measurement Workshop, Escuela de Filosofia, Universidad de Costa Rica, April 30, 2018.

- “Demographic Change and Global Justice”, Conference on Global Justice and Climate Change, Escuela de Filosofia, Universidad de Costa Rica, May 7, 2018.

- “Asymmetric Procreative Justice: A Defense” (co-presented with Paula Casal), Political Theory Workshop, Department of Political Science, Stanford University, May 11, 2018.

- Invited Participant in The Impact of Technology on the World of Work, Annual Chief Economists' Workshop, Bank of England, May 20-21, 2018.

- “Longevity and Liability: What Difference Does Variation in Lifespans Make to the Demands of Fairness?” (co-authored with Paul Bou-Habib), Inaugural Conference for FAIR, Norwegian School of Economics, Bergen, June 19, 2018.

- "Time, Age, and the Priority View", Workshop on Prioritarianism, 15th Conference of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, July 28, 2018, & Fundació Catalunya Europa Seminar Series on Inequality, Palau Macaya, November 20, 2018.

- “The External Effects of Reproduction”, Princeton-UPF Political Theory Conference, Princeton University, October 12, 2018.

- “Why Inequality Matters” (co-presented with Paula Casal), Fundació Catalunya Europa Public Lecture Series on Inequality, Palau Macaya, November 19, 2018.

* Supervised two successful PhD dissertations and three successful Masters dissertations at Universitat Pompeu Fabra.