We warmly welcome you to participate in celebrating the launch of Nicole Hassoun's new book!
A Minimally Good Life: What We Owe to Others and What We Can Justifiably Demand (Oxford University Press, 2024) 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.
The book launch event
Moderator:
Lilian O’Brien, University Researcher in Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Author:
Nicole Hassoun, Professor of Philosophy at Binghamton University and head of the Global Health Impact project
Commentators:
Arto Laitinen, Professor of Social Philosophy at Tampere University
Simo Kyllönen, Lecturer in Research Ethics and Open Science at the University of Helsinki
Antti Kauppinen, Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Helsinki
Registration:
The event is free and open to everyone. Please, register at https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/129513/lomakkeet.html
The registration is open until June 10. This is a hybrid event and you will receive the zoom link for online participation via the email that you use in the registration.