Team > Jonas Franzen (MA)

Faculty of Cultural Studies
Chair of Philosophy II

I am a PhD candidate at Bayreuth University’s Department of Philosophy. I hold a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Bayreuth in “Philosophy & Economics” and a Master’s degree from Utrecht University in “Applied Ethics”.

Research

My research interest is in ethics and political philosophy, with a special focus on theories of (distributive) justice. I consider justice a key value underlying the design of political institution – figuratively speaking the glue that keeps a society together. Philosophy, in turn, is a powerful instrument to carve out the demands of justice in greater detail. Starting in winter 2018, I will pursue a PhD under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Rudolf Schüßler. I will inquire whether justice entails limits to the amount of good(s) that people can rightly claim and hold. Thus, I will try to complement the traditional focus of philosophy on society’s worst-off with a fresh perspective on those that are best-off. More specifically, I explore philosophical justifications for upper limits on financial resources, e.g. limits on income. My PhD project can be subsumed under a provocative question: Is it immoral to be rich?

Faculty of Cultural Studies
Chair of Philosophy II

Jonas Franzen (MA)
PhD Student