Overview
Richard Miller's research and teaching were in political philosophy and ethics.
Professor Miller passed away in June 2023. Dick's colleague and friend, Harold Hodes, wrote a memorial.
A memorial conference will be held at Cornell in Professor Miller's honor on April 27, 2024. See this link for more information.
Research Focus
- Social and political philosophy
- Ethics
Publications
Books
平等，民主，与国家主权：东西方的和解 [Equality, Democracy and National Sovereignty: Reconciling East and West] (Beijing: People's Publishing House, 2016).
Globalizing Justice: The Ethics of Poverty and Power (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
Moral Differences: Truth, Justice and Conscience in a World of Conflict (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.)
Fact and Method: Explanation, Confirmation and Reality in the Natural and the Social Sciences (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.)
Analyzing Marx: Morality, Power and History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.)
Select Articles
"Social Democracy and Free Enterprise," Journal of Social Philosophy 50 (2019): 597-619.
“Is Capitalism Corrupt?”, Social Philosophy and Policy 35 (2018): 31-53.
“Why Sovereignty Matters Despite Injustice: The Ethics of Intervention” in C.A.J. Coady, Ned Dobos and Sagar Sanyal, eds., Challenges for Humanitarian Intervention: Ethical Demand and Political Reality (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. 38-58.
“‘Rogue State’ Is Not ‘OK’: A Critique of an American Usage,” Strife and King’s Student Law Review, joint issue I (2018): 31-47. pdf
“Learning from Libertarianism: Thanks from an Unrepentant Social Democrat” in Jason Brennan, Bas van der Vossen and David Schmidtz, The Routledge Handbook of Libertarianism (New York: Routledge: 2018), pp. 3-21. pdf
"Unequal Bargaining Power and Economic Justice: How Workers Are Exploited and Why It Matters" in Monique Deveaux and Vida Panitch, Exploitation: From Practice to Theory (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), pp. 15-34.
"Michael Blake's Border Controls," Ethics & International Affairs 29 (2015): 289-99.
"Civilian Deaths and American Power" in Matthew Evangelista and Henry Shue, eds., The American Way of Bombing: Changing Ethical and Legal Norms, from Flying Fortresses to Drones (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2014), pp.158-71.
“The Cosmopolitanism Controversy Needs a Mid-Life Crisis,” in Gillian Brock, ed., Cosmopolitanism versus Non-Cosmopolitanism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 272-93.
"Global Poverty and Global Inequality" in Jon Mandle and David Reidy, eds., A Companion to Rawls (Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), pp. 361-77.
“Global Needs and Special Relationships” in David Grusky and Tamar Kricheli-Katz, eds., The New Gilded Age (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2012), pp. 39-60. pdf
“The Ethics of America’s Afghan War,” Ethics & International Affairs 25 (2011): 103-131.
“Rawls and Global Justice: A Dispute over a Legacy,” The Monist 94 (2011): 466-88.
“How Global Inequality Matters,” Journal of Social Philosophy 52 (2011): 88-98.
“Might Still Distorts Right: Perils of the Rule of Law Project” in James Fleming, ed., Getting to the Rule of Law, Nomos L (New York: New York University Press, 2011), pp. 265-92.
“Relationships of Equality: A Camping Trip Revisited,” Journal of Ethics 14 (2010): 231-53.
"Global Power and Economic Justice" in Charles Beitz and Robert Goodin, eds. Global Basic Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 156-80.
"Unlearning American Patriotism," Theory and Research in Education 5 (2007): 7-21.
"Global Institutional Reform and Global Social Movements: From False Promise to Realistic Hope," Cornell International Law Journal 39 (2006): 501-14.
"Terrorism and Legitimacy," Journal of Social Philosophy 36 (2005): 194-201.
"Beneficence, Duty and Distance," Philosophy & Public Affairs 32 (2004): 357-83.
"Moral Closeness and World Community" in Deen Chatterjee, ed., The Ethics of Assistance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 101-22. Subsequently anthologized in Thomas Pogge and Keith Horton, eds., Global Ethics: Seminal Essays (New York: Paragon, 2008).
"Terrorism, War and Empire" in James Sterba, ed., Terrorism and International Justice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 186-205.
"Respectable Oppressors, Hypocritical Liberators," in Deen Chatterjee and Donald Scheid, eds., Ethics and Foreign Intervention, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 215-50.
"Marxism and Capitalism" in R.G. Frey and Christopher Wellman, eds., Blackwell Companion to Applied Ethics (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003), pp. 62-74.
"Too Much Inequality," Social Philosophy and Policy, 19 (2002): 275-313.
"Marx's Legacy" in Robert Simon, ed., Blackwell Companion to Political Philosophy (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001), pp. 131-53.
"Moral Contractualism and Moral Sensitivity," Social Theory and Practice, 28 (2002): 193-220.
"Nationalist Morality and Crimes Against Humanity" in Aleksandar Jokic, ed., War Crimes and Collective Wrongdoing (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001), pp. 143-62.
"Cosmopolitan Respect and Patriotic Concern," Philosophy & Public Affairs 27 (1998): 202-24. Subsequently anthologized.
"The Norms of Reason," Philosophical Review 104 (1995): 205-245.
"Ways of Moral Learning," Philosophical Review 94 (1985): 507-556.
"Producing Change" in T. Ball and J. Farr (eds.), After Marx, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 59-87.
"Marx and Morality" in Nomos, Volume XXVI: Marxism Today, (1983): 3-32.
"Reason and Commitment in the Social Sciences," Philosophy and Public Affairs 8 (1979): 241-266.
"Truth in Beauty," American Philosophical Quarterly 16 (1979): 317-325.
"Methodological Individualism and Social Explanation,'' Philosophy of Science 45 (1978): 387-414. Subsequently anthologized.
"Absolute Certainty,'' Mind 87 (1978): 46-65.
"Rawls and Marxism," revised version of 1974 paper, in N. Daniels, ed. Reading Rawls, (New York: Basic Books, 1975), pp. 206-230.
"Rawls and Marxism," Philosophy and Public Affairs 3 (1974): 167-191. Subsequently anthologized.
In the news
- Lectures explore politics and justice in the Trump era
- Lecture to explore American anger at government
- Lecture series examines “The Difficulty of Democracy”
- Learning from libertarianism: Thanks from an unrepentant social democrat
- A political philosopher speaks
- Lectures to examine economics in the era of Donald Trump