Dr Benjamin Sachs-Cobbe
Senior Lecturer
Biography
Dr. Sachs-Cobbe was born and raised in San Diego, California. He received a bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois and a PhD at the University of Wisconsin. Prior to coming to St. Andrews he was an Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow in the Program in Environmental Studies and the Department of Bioethics at New York University, and prior to that a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health (U.S.).
Teaching
Dr. Sachs-Cobbe teaches classes on ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of law, animal ethics, philosophy of economics, and distributive justice.
Research areas
Dr. Sachs-Cobbe is working with Alex Douglas on an AHRC-funded project called The Future of Work and Income. The project takes as its jumping-off point the ever-increasing worries about the future of work (automation, zero-hours contracts, increased childcare costs, etc.) and concerns about widening economic inequality. It seeks to clarify central conceptual and ethics questions at the heart of these concerns, for the purpose of enabling more productive discussions of proposed solutions, including, e.g., a universal basic income, a jobs guarantee, and a shorter working week.
Dr. Sachs-Cobbe's new book, Contractarianism, Role Obligations, and Political Morality, has just been published by Routledge.
It’s natural to think that the state owes things to its people: physical security, public health and sanitation services, and a functioning judiciary, for example. But is there a theory—a political morality—that can explain why this is so, and also identify who the state's 'people' are? My book argues that contractarianism is well suited to ground political morality and goes on to explore the implications of deploying it in this way. The book offers a quite extreme rejection of the idea that the moral facts should be the basis on which we set our collective goals and make our laws; it also develops a novel, moderate position on the appropriate political and legal status of sentient animals.
Prior to the above-mentioned project and book, Dr. Sachs-Cobbe's research included work on ethical theory, coercion, and the ethics of reesearch on human subjects.
PhD supervision
- Colin McLean
- Shiwen Zhao
Selected publications
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Open access
Meritocracy in the political and economic spheres
Sachs-Cobbe, B. A. & X. Douglas, A., Jan 2024, In: Philosophy Compass. 19, 1, 15 p., e12955.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Problems with the Living Wage Movement
Sachs-Cobbe, B. A., 16 Jul 2023, (E-pub ahead of print) In: International Journal of Applied Philosophy. 36, 2, p. 123-143Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Recent work on meritocracy
Sachs-Cobbe, B., 11 Aug 2023, In: Analysis. 83, 1, p. 171-185 15 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
The conservatism objection to educating for the virtues of citizenship
Sachs-Cobbe, B. A., 1 Jul 2023, In: Theory and Research in Education. 21, 2, p. 135-154 20 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Factory farm abolition the moderate way
Sachs-Cobbe, B., 19 Sept 2022, Justice Everywhere.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
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Open access
Why We Can’t Have It All When It Comes to the Future of Work
Sachs-Cobbe, B. A., Thomas, D. M. & Xavier Douglas, A., 3 Mar 2022, Justice Everywhere.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
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Open access
Connecting moral status to proper legal status
Sachs, B., 5 Aug 2021, Rethinking moral status. Clarke, S., Zohny, H. & Savulescu, J. (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 215-230 16 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Contractarianism, role obligations, and political morality
Sachs, B. A., 18 Nov 2021, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 146 p. (Routledge studies in contemporary philosophy)Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Open access
Environment Bill: UK government offers five principles for protecting nature – here’s why they won’t work
Sachs, B. A., 22 Oct 2021, The Conversation.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
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Evidence submitted to a Scottish Governmental consultation on its progress toward becoming a Fair Work nation
Sachs, B. A., Xavier Douglas, A. & Thomas, D. M., 2021, (Accepted/In press) Scottish Government.Research output: Book/Report › Commissioned report