Towards a non-welfarist ethics of risk: a freedom-based framework

• Applicant: Maria Paola Ferretti, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Political Science ; Practical Philosophy
• Term: from 2016 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 312762378

The aim of this project is to develop a new and original approach to the ethics of risk that can offer criteria for devising public policies of risk management. The thesis is that the imposition of risk is a wrong because it interferes with overall people's freedom, defined as the ensemble of external options open to a subject. This approach - broadly in line with a neokantian interpretation of external freedom - is based on the assumption that treating people as moral agents requires respecting a certain measure of freedom. When a risk diminishes overall freedom below that measure, imposing it is morally wrong, irrespective of the consequences for people's wellbeing. This deontological approach has several advantages: it can explain why imposing risk is wrong even when damage does not materialize; it is independent from people's awareness of being subject to a risk and from their actual or rational preferences about risk. In this vein the project offers an alternative to welfare-based and autonomy-based approaches. Two case studies, one on precarious working contracts and social security and one on exposure to environmental pollutants, will explore the practical relevance of this approach in capturing aspects of risk management that are overlooked by rival theories, with particular reference to the assessment and measurement of risk, the identification of vulnerable groups, risk distribution and compensation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants