Neera Badhwar

Most of my work to date has been on topics in Ethical Theory and Moral Psychology: friendship, virtue ethics, self-interest and altruism, and well-being (Well-Being: Happiness in a Worthwhile Life (OUP 2014). Recently I’ve also been working on issues in Social-Political Philosophy, such as the ethics of kidney sales, virtue ethics and libertarianism, the moral foundations of market societies, and virtue and entrepreneurship.

Selected Awards

• Laurance S. Rockefeller Fellowship, University Center for Human Values, Princeton University, 1996-97. 
• NEH Distinguished Visiting Professor, SUNY Potsdam, Fall 1999. 
• Visiting Scholar, Social Philosophy and Policy Center, Spring 2008. 
• Earhart Foundation Fellowship, 2010.

Selected Publications

• ”There are Divinities in Liberal Market Societies Too,” forthcoming in Social Philosophy and Policy, 2025.
• “Virtue Ethics,” The Routledge Companion to Libertarianism, eds. Benjamin Ferguson and Matt Zwolinski (London: Routledge, E book: April 2022; print: 2022): 68-81. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367814243
• “Love and Friendship: Achieving Happiness in Jane Austen’s Emma”” (with Eva Dadlez), in ed. Eva Dadlez, Jane Austen’s Emma: Philosophical Perspectives (New York: Oxford University Press), May 2018.
• “Aristotle on the Love of Friends” (with Russell Jones) in Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Love, Oct 2017 (Online Publication: DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199395729.013.22). Print: 2024. 
• Well-Being: Happiness in a Worthwhile Life (Oxford University Press, June 2014).
• "Justice Within the Limits of Human Nature Alone," Social Philosophy and Policy, Vol. 33, 1-2, October 2016, 193-213; Online 7 December 2016. DOI: https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/10.1017/S0265052516000315
• “Reasoning about Wrong Reasons, No Reasons, and Reasons of Virtue,” The Philosophy and Psychology of Character and Happiness, ed. Nancy E. Snow and Franco V. Trivigno (Routledge, June 2014): 34-53.
• “Objectivity and Subjectivity in Theories of Well-being,” in Philosophy and Public Policy Quarterly, Vol 32, No. 1 (Spring 2014).
• “The Milgram Experiments, Learned Helplessness, and Character Traits,” Journal of Ethics (special issue on Situationism), June 2009, 1-33 (online at www.springerlink.com); 257-289 (printed). 
• “Is Realism Really Bad for You? A Realistic Response,” The Journal of Philosophy, V. CV, No. 2, February 2008, 85-107.
• “Friendship and Commercial Societies,” Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, August 2008, V. 7, No. 3, 301-326. 
• "Carnal Wisdom and Sexual Virtue,” in Raja Halwani ed., Sex and Ethics: Essays on Sexuality, Virtue, and the Good Life (Palgrave MacMillan, 2007), 134-46.
• “International Aid: When Giving Becomes a Vice,” Social Philosophy and Policy, issue on Justice and Global Politics, Vol. 23, Winter 2006, and in E. Paul, J. Paul, and F. Miller, eds. Justice and Global Politics (Cambridge University Press), 69-101.
• “Friendship and Sexuality,” in Alan Soble, ed. Sex from Plato to Paglia: A Philosophical Encyclopedia; 2005, 390-97.
• "Love," in Hugh LaFollete, ed. Oxford Handbook of Practical Ethics (OUP, 2003), pp. 42-69.
• Ed. Friendship: A Philosophical Reader (Cornell Univ. Press, 1993).
• "Moral Agency, Commitment, and Impartiality," Social Philosophy and Policy, Vol. 13, 1996, 1-26, and in Community, Individual, and the State, ed. E. Paul (Cambridge University Press).
• "Altruism vs Self-Interest: Sometimes a False Dichotomy," Social Philosophy and Policy, V. 10, Jan. 1993, pp. 90-117 and in Altruism, ed. E. F. Paul (Cambridge University Press, 1993).
• "The Circumstances of Justice: Liberalism, Community, and Friendship" (pp. 208-34), Journal of Political Philosophy, Vol. I, June 1993.
• "Why It's Wrong to be Always Guided by the Best: Friendship and Consequentialism," Ethics, April 1991, pp. 483-504.