Mathias Risse

Associate Professor of Public Policy and Philosophy
Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
Office Address
Rubenstein-209
Mailing Address
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Mailbox 14
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Contact
Phone: 617-495-9811
Email: Mathias_Risse@ksg.harvard.edu
Assistant
M. Derya Honca (617-495-1923)
Mathias Risse

Profile

Mathias Risse is Associate Professor of Public Policy and Philosophy. He works mostly in social and political philosophy and in ethics. His primary research areas are contemporary political philosophy (in particular questions of international justice, distributive justice, and property) and decision theory (in particular, rationality and fairness in group decision making, an area sometimes called analytical social philosophy.) His articles have appeared in journals such as Ethics; Philosophy and Public Affairs; Nous; the Journal of Political Philosophy; and Social Choice and Welfare. Risse studied philosophy, mathematics, and mathematical economics at the University of Bielefeld, the University of Pittsburgh, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Princeton University. He received his BA, BS and MS in mathematics from Bielefeld, and his MA and PhD in philosophy from Princeton. Before coming to Harvard he taught in the Department of Philosophy and the Program in Ethics, Politics and Economics at Yale.

Courses

Fall

  • IGA-304 Human Rights and International Politics: The Basic Policy Dilemmas
  • API-601 The Responsibilities of Public Action

Not Offered

Research

Research for a complete list of faculty citations from 2001 - present, please visit the Harvard Kennedy School Research Report Online.

Selected Publication Citations:

  • Academic Journals
    • Risse, Mathias. "On the Morality of Immigration." Ethics & International Affairs 22.1 (March 2008): 25-33.
    • Risse, Mathias. "Fairness in Trade I: Obligations from Trading and the Pauper-Labor Argument." Politics, Philosophy & Economics 6.3 (October 2007): 355-377.
    • Risse, Mathias. "Racial Profiling: A Reply to Two Cities." Criminal Justice Ethics 26.1 (Winter/Spring 2007): 438-448.
  • Book Chapters
    • Risse, Mathias. "Nietzsche on Selfishness, Justice, and the Duties of Higher Men." Morality and Self-Interest. Ed. Paul Bloomfield. Oxford University Press, 2007.
    • Risse, Mathias. "Nietzschean 'Animal Psychology' versus Kantian Ethics." Nietzsche and Morality. Ed. Brian Leiter and Neil Sinhababu. Oxford University Press, 2007.
    • Risse, Mathias, and Michael Blake. "Migration, Territoriality, and Culture." New Waves in Applied Ethics. Ed. Jesper Ryberg , Thomas S. Petersen, and Clark Wolf. Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, 153-182.
  • Research Papers/Reports
    • Risse, Mathias. "'Imagine There's No Countries:' A Reply to John Lennon." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP08-020, April 2008.
    • Risse, Mathias. "On the Morality of Immigration." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP08-007, February 2008.
    • Risse, Mathias. "What are Human Rights? Human Rights as Membership Rights in the Global Order." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP08-006, February 2008.
    • Risse, Mathias. "A Right to Work? A Right to Holidays with Pay? Labor Rights as Human Rights." KSG Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP07-058, December 2007.
    • Risse, Mathias. "The Grounds of Justice." KSG Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP07-048, October 2007.
  • Reviews
    • Risse, Mathias. Review of The Political Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism, Ed. Gillian Brock and Harry Brighouse. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, January 2007.
    • Risse, Mathias. Review of Economic Justice in an Unfair World: Towards a Level Playing Field, by Ethan B. Kapstein. World Trade Review, 6.1 2007: 123-133.