Jessica JT Fischer

I am a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bristol. Before that, I was a Leverhulme postdoctoral fellow at the LMU Munich, and a fellow at the Justitia Center for Advanced Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt.

I completed my PhD in Philosophy at University College London. I’ve also been a visiting student researcher at Princeton University and have spent time at UC Berkeley and Sorbonne IV. 

My research takes place in the fields of normative ethics and political philosophy. In my work, I challenge the commonly accepted belief that, when costs are equal, we ought to bring about more good rather than less good. The belief that we have such a pro tanto duty to maximize the good underwrites not only many consequentialist and non-consequentialist moral theories, but also a large range of popular approaches in public policy – for instance in health care. My work suggests that a pro tanto duty to maximize the good is less attractive and less obvious than generally assumed, as it may fail to accurately reflect a number of common-sense moral judgements.

Contact: jessica.fischer@bristol.ac.uk