Hillel Isaac Steiner (; born 1942) is a Canadian political philosopher and is Emeritus Professor of

Political Philosophy Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and Political legitimacy, legitimacy of political institutions, such as State (polity), states. This field investigates different ...

at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. He was elected to the Fellowship of the British Academy in 1999.

Work

Steiner's writings are focused on contemporary philosophical work on the conceptual analysis of freedom, rights and justice, and on the relation between moral and economic rationality. His most noted work is ''An Essay on Rights'' which won the

Political Studies Association The Political Studies Association (PSA) is a learned society in the United Kingdom which exists to develop and promote the study of politics. It is the leading association in its field in the United Kingdom, with an international membership includi ...

's best book prize for 1994. In it, he develops what has since come to be known as a left-libertarian theory of

distributive justice Distributive justice concerns the Social justice, socially just Resource allocation, allocation of resources, goods, opportunity in a society. It is concerned with how to allocate resources fairly among members of a society, taking into account fa ...

. This book brings together Steiner's work on the pure negative conception of liberty, his Will Theory of Rights, and a liberal model of exploitation. Embracing the libertarian right of self-ownership, he argues that its consistent universalization requires that individuals be vested with equal rights to negative freedom that are global in scope and that take account of interpersonal inequalities in natural resource values, including those of genetic endowments. He was also the first person to use the term " throffer", which is now used in and beyond political philosophy, in print. He is a member of the following organisations:

American Philosophical Association The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarl ...

Aristotelian Society The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy, more generally known as the Aristotelian Society, is a philosophical society in London. History Aristotelian Society was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Squar ...

, Association for Legal and Social Philosophy,

Basic Income Earth Network The Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN; until 2004 Basic Income European Network) is a network of academics and activists interested in the idea of basic income. It serves as a link between individuals and groups committed to or interested in ...

, British Philosophical Association, European Society for the History of Economic Thought,

, Society for Applied Philosophy, and the September Group.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steiner, Hillel 20th-century Canadian philosophers 21st-century Canadian philosophers British political philosophers Canadian political philosophers Living people Academics of the University of Manchester Left-libertarians 1942 births Libertarian theorists