About

Jaime Ahlberg, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Florida. His areas of specialization include Social and Political Philosophy and Ethical Theory. He currently teaches courses such as Moral Philosophy and has contributed extensively to philosophical discussions on educational justice, disability, and the ethics of procreation and parenthood. Ahlberg has co-edited an edited volume titled 'Procreation, Parenthood, and Educational Rights: Ethical and Philosophical Perspectives' and has published numerous articles and reviews on topics related to justice, education, and disability in philosophical and educational journals. His work often explores the ethical and political dimensions of education, including inclusive education, the rights of cognitively disabled students, and the implications of societal and political structures for individual well-being and justice.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Social Science
• Political Science
• Epistemology
• Philosophy
• Law
• Economics
• Law and economics
• Pedagogy
• Engineering ethics
• Social psychology
• Psychology
• Engineering
• Positive economics

Selected publications

• Two conceptions of talent

  2022-06-27

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  In the liberal egalitarian literature, the concept of talent is inflected according to its use in broader arguments surrounding the nature of justice. In particular, sometimes talent is understood as a desirable inborn property, while at other times it is understood as a matter of inhabiting a favorable social position. Rawls’s arguments in A Theory of Justice provide useful expressions of these two very different conceptions of talent and their relationship to justice, and much of this paper involves an exploration of those arguments. The former sense of talent informs Rawls’s fair equality of opportunity principle: those with equivalent levels of talent and effort are to face similar prospects. According to the latter, what is significant about talent is not its innate origins, but rather its enabling the possession of desirable goods. This second sense of talent is implicit in Rawls’s difference principle: though it is arbitrary that the talented have the ability to command high wages, it is nonetheless fair to keep those wages because the worst off benefit most from that arrangement. In this paper I explore how the two conceptions of talent operate in these influential arguments, with the broader aims of clarifying the nature of talent and its relevance to social justice.

  PublisherDOI

• Reconceiving Epistemic Agency for Educational Inclusion

  Deleted Journal · 2021

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Epistemology
  • Sociology

  Intellectually disabled students are subject to diminished expectations and bias as a result of cognitive ableism, both historically and in today's schools, educational policies, and in philosophical discourses. Understanding the epistemic dimensions of inclusion, and in general the connection between epistemic respect and educational justice, is thus an important endeavor. In "Safeguarding the Epistemic Agency of Intellectually Disabled Learners," Ashley Taylor and Kevin McDonough explore how intellectually disabled learners are subjected to educational injustice and harms in virtue of being positioned as diminished knowers. Their essay presents important and thought-provoking work, and here I hope to continue that work by encouraging further thinking about two conceptual tools used in their main argument: the presumption of epistemic competence, and the conception of epistemic agency.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The theory and politics of school choice

  Theory and Research in Education · 2020

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  PublisherDOI

• Hoarding during the coronavirus isn’t just unnecessary, it’s ethically wrong

  2020-04-07

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Two conceptions of talent

  Educational Philosophy and Theory · 2020 · 3 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Social Science
  • Sociology

  In the liberal egalitarian literature, the concept of talent is inflected according to its use in broader arguments surrounding the nature of justice. In particular, sometimes talent is understood as a desirable inborn property, while at other times it is understood as a matter of inhabiting a favorable social position. Rawls’s arguments in A Theory of Justice provide useful expressions of these two very different conceptions of talent and their relationship to justice, and much of this paper involves an exploration of those arguments. The former sense of talent informs Rawls’s fair equality of opportunity principle: those with equivalent levels of talent and effort are to face similar prospects. According to the latter, what is significant about talent is not its innate origins, but rather its enabling the possession of desirable goods. This second sense of talent is implicit in Rawls’s difference principle: though it is arbitrary that the talented have the ability to command high wages, it is nonetheless fair to keep those wages because the worst off benefit most from that arrangement. In this paper I explore how the two conceptions of talent operate in these influential arguments, with the broader aims of clarifying the nature of talent and its relevance to social justice.

  PublisherDOI

• Living well in an unjust world?

  Theory and Research in Education · 2018-03-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Children of Choice and Educational Responsibility *

  2017-01-20

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Prospective parents might choose to engage in genetic selection for a variety of reasons. Even without the availability of genetic selection, some parents consciously prepare their children for school as part of their efforts to ensure that their children will have the social and academic advantages required to succeed in today's society. Children have independent moral standing, and thus have rights and interests that inform the moral responsibilities of parents and of society at large. Parents indeed worry about bonding with their children, and often want to increase the chances of bonding by ensuring shared experiences. Many agree that one of the aims of schooling in a liberal society is to secure for all children access to the tools they need to live a flourishing life. A more diverse classroom could foster in children a more accurate appreciation for the variety of human experience, and a better sense of democratic community.

  PublisherDOI

• Introduction

  2017-01-20

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Historically, the vast majority of human societies have been strongly 'pro-natalist'. These societies socially validate and materially incentivize biological reproduction, while their legal systems accord procreation the status of a basic right, a liberty that authorities could only infringe or deny under very limited circumstances. Simultaneous to the emergence of procreative ethics has been a growth in interest in the ethics of parenthood, and in particular, in the nature and extent of parental rights. In "The Compensatory Basis of Procreative Parental Rights", Michael Cholbi proposes that the bridge between procreation on the one hand and parental rights and obligations on the other is compensatory. In "Parental Licensing and Pregnancy as a Form of Education", Christine Overall explores the general position that all prospective parents should be licensed. Liberals of all stripes are united in their commitment to the view that personal freedom is normatively basic; any interference in an individual's liberty stands in need of justification.

  PublisherDOI

• Nonideal Politicians or Nonideal Circumstances? Rethinking Dirty Hands

  2016-12-08 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Eric Shyman, Beyond Equality in the American Classroom: The Case for Inclusive Education

  Educational Theory · 2015-05-25

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Harry Brighouse

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  2 shared

• Michael Cholbi

  1 shared