BOOK LAUNCH EVENT: Nicole Hassoun - A Minimally Good Life, What We Owe to Others and What We Can Justifiably Demand

We warmly welcome you to participate in the book launch event celebrating the launch of A Minimally Good Life: What We Owe to Others and What We Can Justifiably Demand (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Nicole Hassoun, a professor of philosophy at Binghamton University, head of the Global Health Impact project, and a research director at Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies.

The event features

Author: 

• Nicole Hassoun, Professor of Philosophy at Binghamton University and head of the Global Health Impact project

Moderator: 

• Lilian O’Brien, University Researcher in Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies

Commentators:

• Antti Kauppinen, Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Helsinki
• Arto Laitinen, Professor of Social Philosophy at Tampere University
• Simo Kyllönen, Lecturer in Research Ethics and Open Science at the University of Helsinki

Book description

Hassoun’s new book is about what we owe to each other and what can we claim as a basic minimum. For, as the Coronavirus pandemic surged around the world and with the international conflict in its wake, many argue for buttressing social safety nets around the world. Some existing safety nets have obvious problems: most reasonable people agree that children should not go hungry and everyone should have access to emergency medical care. But how can we determine what kind of social safety net will suffice? A Minimally Good Life argues that respect for our common humanity at least requires helping others live minimally good lives when doing so does not require sacrificing our own ability to live well enough. More precisely, A Minimally Good Life argues that everyone must obtain what helps them secure the relationships, pleasures, knowledge, appreciation, worthwhile activities, and other life improving goods they need to live minimally good lives. As reasonable, caring, free people we can figure out what others need to live well enough by putting ourselves into each other’s shoes and think about what we would need to live well enough as each person.