Thinker · TH-0333
Philip Pettit
Philip Pettit is an Irish-born political philosopher who has worked at the Australian National University and Princeton University. He is the leading contemporary theorist…
b. 1945 · Ireland; Canberra; Princeton
Traditions: Analytic
Philip Pettit is an Irish-born political philosopher who has worked at the Australian National University and Princeton University. He is the leading contemporary theorist of republicanism, which defines freedom not as the absence of interference but as the absence of domination: being free means not living under another's power of arbitrary interference, even if that power is never used. He has also written widely on mind, rational choice and group agency.
Key ideas
- Freedom is non-domination: no one should hold an uncontrolled power to interfere in one's choices.
- A kindly master still dominates, so non-interference is not enough for liberty.
- Legitimate government must be under the equal, effective control of the people it governs.
- Groups can be agents with attitudes not reducible to those of their members.
Major works
- Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government (1997)
- A Theory of Freedom (2001)
- Group Agency (2011, with Christian List)
- On the People's Terms (2012)