Martin O'Neill

Professor Martin O'Neill

Early Career Fellow 2014-15, Mid-Career Fellow 2017-18

Social Justice, Predistribution and the Democratization of Capital: Political Theory and the Future of Social Democracy

This is a major research project in normative political philosophy, addressing the justice and justification of a number of specific real-world economic institutions. Its aim is to make fuller sense of emerging ideas of “predistribution”, questioning whether predistributive strategies can generate a positive direction for future progress towards more just and democratic societies. In particular, the primary area of examination will be designing and realizing a more democratic financial system, with a particular focus on the justifiability and plausibility of ideas relating to the democratization of capital investment.

More information

Democracy at Work: Power, Voice and Employment in the 21st Century

Work is a central domain of human activity. Our working lives help to mould our character, and play an often-decisive role in whether our not we are able to succeed in the development and pursuit of our life-plans. Work can be a site of human liberation, and can provide opportunities for cooperative self-development. Alternatively, it can be a domain of oppression and domination, and can stultify rather than facilitate human flourishing.

More information

Research outcomes

Hebenton, A., & O’Neill, M. (2024).

Freedom, State, and Market: The Real Worlds of Economic Planning. Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, 17(2). https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v17i2.892

Areas of interest

Political Philosophy Political Economy Philosophy

Cohort

ECF2 MCF3

Biography

Martin O’Neill moved across to the Department of Philosophy in 2018, having taught in the Department of Politics at York since 2010. Before that, he was Hallsworth Research Fellow in Political Economy at the University of Manchester (2007-2009), and, before that, Research Fellow in Philosophy and Politics at St John’s College, University of Cambridge (2004-2007). He did his PhD in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University, supervised by T. M. Scanlon and Derek Parfit. During his time at Harvard he also spent time as a Graduate Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra University Center for Ethics, and as a Graduate Fellow in the interdisciplinary Project on Justice, Welfare and Economics. Before that he did a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), and later the B.Phil in Philosophy, both at Balliol College, University of Oxford.

Originally from London, Martin has been living in the north of England for more than a dozen years, and now thinks of himself as an adopted Northerner. One of his proudest achievements is to be raising four Arsenal fans in Yorkshire.

Biographical details correct as of 09.12.24