Bio
Debra Satz's research has focused on the ethical limits of markets, the place of equality in political philosophy, theories of rational choice, democratic theory, feminist philosophy, and issues of international justice. Her work has appeared in Philosophy & Public Affairs, Ethics, Journal of Philosophy, and World Bank Economic Review.
Satz is a professor of philosophy and, by courtesy, of political science. She has directed Stanford's Ethics in Society Program for a decade and will become director of the Stanford Center on Ethics in Fall 2008. She is affiliated with several other interdisciplinary programs, including Public Policy, the Center for Social Innovation at the Graduate School of Business, the Haas Center for Public Service, the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, the Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality and the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources. She teaches courses in ethics, social and political philosophy, and philosophy of the social sciences.
Satz is known for her inspiring teaching and her leadership of the Program in Ethics and Society, and received the Walter J. Gore Award for Excellence in Teaching, Stanford’s highest teaching award, in 2004. She also co-founded and teaches in the Hope House Scholars Program, through which incarcerated women and volunteer faculty examine personal experience in the context of ethics, moral philosophy and social justice.
Satz is now the Senior Associate Dean for the Humanities and the Arts.
Key works
Occupy the Future, ed with David Grusky, Doug McAdam, and Rob Reich. MIT Press, 2013
"The Challenges of Incorporating Cultural Ecosystem Services into Environmental Assessment," Ambio: A Journal of the Human Environment, Vol. 42, Issue 6, 2013
"Gender" for the Oxford Handbook on Political Philosophy, ed. David Estlund, Oxford University Press, 2012
"Unequal Chances: Race, Class and Schooling," Theory and Resarch in Education, Vol. 10, Issue 2, July 2012
Why Some Things Should Not Be for Sale: The Limits of Markets. Oxford University Press, 2010
“Equality in Education and Weighted Student Funding,” Education, Finance and Policy, 2008 (forthcoming)
“Equality, Adequacy and Education for Citizenship,” Ethics, July 2007
“Countering the Wrongs of the Past: the Role of Compensation,” ed. Jon Miller and Rahul Kumar, Reparations: Interdisciplinary Inquiries. Oxford University Press, 2007
“Liberalism, Economic Freedom and the Limits of Markets,” Social Philosophy and Policy, 2006
“World Poverty and Human Wrongs,” Ethics and International Affairs, vol. 19, no. 1, spring 2005
“Feminist Perspectives on Reproduction and the Family,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2004
“Child Labor: A Normative Perspective,” World Bank Economic Review, 17 (2), 2003
Prof. Satz in the News
Audio and Video
November 19, 2013
On January 24, 2011, award-winning author Tim O'Brien, Raymond F. West Memorial Lecturer, discussed his experiences in Vietnam with fellow veteran and author Tobias Wolff.
August 30, 2007
May 17, 2005
February 10, 2004
Expertise
- Philosophy of Social Science
- Philosophy of Economics
- Philosophy and Education
- Ethics
- Feminist Philosophy
- Freedom of Speech
- Democracy
- Justice
- Ethics and International Relations
- Ethical Limits of Markets