The manufacturing processes of many products around the world often have devastating consequences for humans, animals and the environment. A revealing example is the smartphone market, an industry that has been growing rapidly since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 (Arthur 2012). In the first quarter of 2018, nearly Read more…
Introduction Contemporary liberal societies often operate on the idea that all citizens ought to be treated equally. This endeavour is mainly based on liberal egalitarianism, which has been emboldened by John Rawls’s famous book A Theory of Justice (1971). In here, Rawls stated that a society ought to be equal Read more…
Global media cover many stories about worldwide agony that is related to the working methods of multinational companies. For instance, printed and online media cover the horrific working conditions in Bangladesh H&M factories, explain how child labour was found in Chinese Apple factories or point out that human slavery is Read more…
INTRODUCTION According to the World Inequality Report 2018, recent decades have shown a large rise in global income inequality in nearly all countries in the world. For example, in the United States, the people with the top 10% income shared 34% of the American national income in 1980, while they Read more…
Introduction While the European Union has been built to reduce nationalistic influences that caused so much harm in the 20th century, it seems that nationalism in contemporary times is on the rise again. There are several factors that play a part in this process and the consequences of this rise Read more…
In 1997, acclaimed philosopher Richard Rorty (1931-2007) published his book Achieving Our Country, in which he describes his vision on American Leftism (‘the Left’). In this book, he is deeply critical at a new Left that arose in the 1960’s, the ‘Cultural Left’, a movement that contradicts with what he Read more…
The way in which the benefits and burdens of society should be distributed is a widely discussed subject within political philosophy. Different scholars have given their views on how, for example, income, wealth, opportunities, jobs and welfare should be allocated. The field of study that examines this is called distributive Read more…
Introduction On March 18, 2016, the European Union (EU) and Turkey agreed on a deal in order to control the growing migration flows from the Middle-East and North Africa towards Europe. The agreement consisted of various measures to reduce the number of refugees arriving in Europe and also contained several Read more…
Introduction With currently an estimated 375 million of people in the world who do not eat meat (4.9% of the world population), vegetarianism has come a remarkably long way. Where in ancient times religion often was a motivation to avoid the consumption of meat, the roots of vegetarianism are in Read more…
Contemporary human rights policies are closely tied to claims of the universality of these rights, which is salient in the ‘Universal Declaration of Human rights’ (1948). This document consists of thirty articles which cover the rights of all individuals in the world, acknowledging the inclusive aspect of the rights (Nickel, Read more…
