CRHI UPR 4318
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Graduate School of Arts and Humanities – CREATES Côte d’Azur University
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS 2021
PhD Position in Social and Political Philosophy
The Graduate School of Arts and Humanities CREATES and the Centre de Recherches en Histoire des Idées (CRHI) of Côte d'Azur University are offering a PhD position in social and political philosophy, for a period of 36 months beginning October 1st, 2021. The doctoral project must include the theme of inheritance and make some use of digital humanities techniques. It will be part of the Reconsidering Inheritance research programme of the CRHI.
C ONTEXT OF THE CALL Côte d’Azur University
Winner of the Initiative of Excellence since 2016 with "UCA Jedi" (49 million euros), and of the 3IA project (interdisciplinary institute for artificial intelligence) in 2019 (18 million euros), Côte d’Azur University is a large Public Scientific, Cultural and Professional Institution (EPSCP) whose fundamental missions are the training of students and professionals, and the achievement of excellent research and innovation for the benefit of all. Université Côte d'Azur directly employs around 3,000 staff and welcomes more than 30,000 students each year.
Website: https://univ-cotedazur.fr/
Graduate School of Arts and Humanities - CREATES
The multidisciplinary Graduate Research School "Arts and Humanities" CREATES (Creativity Transformation Emergences) provides training and research in humanities, social sciences and the arts.
Focusing on creativity, it brings together 9 training and research departments, 7 art schools, the SHAL doctoral school "Sociétés, Humanités, Arts et Lettres", 8 research laboratories, and is supported by the Maison des Sciences Humaines et Sociales (MSHS). The research themes and axes of the EUR CREATES are :
1. The epistemology of creativity and knowledge about art 2. Creation and societies
3. Creations, texts and other mediums Website: https://creates.univ-cotedazur.fr/
The Centre de Recherches en Histoires des Idées (CRHI laboratory)
The Centre de Recherches en Histoires des Idées is a multidisciplinary research laboratory linked to the Department of Philosophy at Côte d’Azur University. The research carried out by the CRHI is part of the history of ideas, a specific transversal discipline which, beyond the history of philosophy, aims to
2 study "ideas", realities which are not exhausted by philosophical analysis and whose study presupposes the exploration of several disciplinary, historical, scientific and technical fields.
Website: http://crhi-unice.fr/
The Reconsidering Inheritance research programme
Social context. As demonstrated by Anthony B. Atkinson for the United Kingdom (Atkinson 2013), Joseph Stiglitz for the United States (Stiglitz 2019), Thomas Piketty for France (Piketty 2011 and 2013) and for other European countries (Alvaredo, Garbini & Piketty 2017), inherited wealth has been making a comeback in developed countries since the 1970s. After decreasing in the first half of the twentieth century, the share of inherited wealth in the total resources of households has now reached a level comparable to the level it held in the nineteenth century. Far from benefiting everyone, this comeback is a strong factor of discrimination because it is highly concentrated. This "inheritance comeback" has been fueled by a reduction of inheritance tax in most countries, and even their elimination in others.
Aim of the project. Inheritance, the inheritance law that regulates it and the inheritance tax system that governs it are, for Western societies with a Welfare State, problematic institutions because of the normative dilemma they raise. Inheritance, its law and its taxation confront us with an apparently unsolvable conflict between fair equality of opportunity and the freedom of the owner (Rawls 1987), between equal opportunity for all and fraternity for one's own (Gotman 1988). Is it fair that individuals should be privileged or disadvantaged not because of their own merits, but because of the accident of their birth? But would it not be unfair if the individual lost his power to dispose of his property according to his will? Would it not be equally unfair for children to be dispossessed of property to which they are attached because it belongs to the 'family' and is the material embodiment of the family line? The Reconsidering Inheritance research program intends to explore the relationship between inheritance and justice and to philosophically analyze the normative dilemma posed by the institution of inheritance.
State of research. Even though, until the publication and very wide distribution of Capital in the Twenty- First Century, by Thomas Piketty (Piketty, 2013), the current resurgence of inherited wealth had remained relatively invisible and unchallenged, it is now raising questions and meeting criticism, mostly in the field of economics. A growing number of economists claim that inheritance is not only an unfair institution, but also ineffective from an economic perspective. They propose inheritance tax reforms that would strike a balance between equity and efficiency: by varying the tax rate according to the amount of wealth passed on, depending on whether it is an inheritance, an inter-vivo gift or a charitable donation (Kaplow 2001; Bernheim et al. 2004; Arrondel & Masson 2011; Masson 2015), whether the assets originate from a previous inheritance or result from labor (Halliday 2018), on the age of the deceased person (Pestieau & Ponthière 2018), on the age of the heir (Dherbécourt), or by broadening the tax base by taking into account non-visible income from the estate (Allègre, Plane & Timbeau 2012) or even the entire assets inherited during a person's lifetime (Frémeaux 2018). Others show the need to complete inheritance taxation with an increased taxation on wealth (Piketty 2019). While the question of inheritance is of increasing importance in economics, it remains surprisingly absent in philosophy, even though it covers the cardinal philosophical concepts of property, family, death, social justice, tax justice, and equal opportunity. More surprisingly still, with the notable exception of right libertarians (Nozick 2016, Rothbard 2002) and left libertarians (Steiner 1994; Vallentyne 2001; Van Parijs 1991 and 1995;
Otsuka 2000), the inheritance institution remains largely unchallenged, even among the proponents of theories of justice, that is the social and political philosophers who, in line with John Rawls, challenge the normative foundations of a just society. The Reconsidering Inheritance research program aims to contribute to filling this gap by philosophically analysing the institution of inheritance.
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P H D CONTRACT Description
Submitted PhD proposals must be research projects in philosophy, in the social, political, moral philosophy or philosophy of law fields. They must intersect with the theme of inheritance or one of its related themes (property, family, social justice, tax justice, equal opportunities, intergenerational justice, etc.), and be part of the Reconsidering Inheritance research program in one way or another.
PhD projects can be in the fields of history of ideas or contemporary normative philosophy.
Whatever the subject chosen and the research focus adopted, the projects will fall within the scope of axis III "Creations, texts and media", sub-axis III.1 "Sciences of texts and media", of the EUR CREATES (https://creates.univ-cotedazur.fr/recherche/axes-de-recherche) and will endeavour to mobilise digital humanities tools.
Qualities
Candidates must have a master's degree in philosophy and be competent in social, political, legal or moral philosophy. Candidates will be expected, if necessary, to become proficient in digital humanities during their PhD.
Position
The PhD will be supervised by Grégori Jean (Professor in philosophy) and Mélanie Plouviez (Senior lecturer in philosophy).
The doctoral position is open to EU and non-EU candidates for a fully funded three-year period (36 months). The doctoral student will receive a monthly salary of approximately 2000 euros net per month.
The doctoral contract will start on October 1st, 2021.
APPLICATIONS
D EADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS : T UESDAY 31 A UGUST 2021, MIDNIGHT
Applications should be submitted in electronic format to the following two email addresses:
Grégori Jean <Gregori.JEAN@univ-cotedazur.fr>
Mélanie Plouviez <Melanie.PLOUVIEZ@univ-cotedazur.fr>
The application file will include the following elements:
1. a curriculum vitae ;
2. a 5-page (max) research project (not including bibliographical references);
3. a certificate of successful completion of the Master's degree issued by the school or by letter from the head of the degree program indicating the grade obtained in the Master's degree;
4. the Bachelor's and Master's transcripts.
Interviews will be organised in early September.
Potential candidates can contact Mélanie Plouviez to discuss their research project: Mélanie Plouviez Melanie.PLOUVIEZ@univ-cotedazur.fr
4 References
ALLÈGRE G.,PLANE M.&TIMBEAU X. (2012), « Réformer la fiscalité du patrimoine ? », Revue de l’OFCE, 122, p. 231-261.
ATKINSON A. (2018), "Wealth and inheritance in Britain from 1896 to the present", The Journal of Economic Inequality, 16/2, p. 137-169.
ALVAREDO F., GARBINTI B. & PIKETTY Th. (2017), “On the Share of Inheritance in Aggregate Wealth: Europe and the USA, 1900-2010”, Economica, vol. 84, p. 239-260.
ARRONDEL L. & MASSON A. (2011), « Taxer les héritages pour accroître la mobilité du patrimoine entre générations », Revue française d'économie, Volume XXVI, 2011/2, p. 23-72.
BERNHEIM B.D.,LEMKE R.J.&SCHOLZ J.K.(2004),"Do Estate and Gift Taxes Affect The Timing of Private Transferts?", Journal of Public Economics, 88/12, p. 2617-2634.
DHERBÉCOURT C. (2017), « Peut-on éviter une société d’héritiers ? », Note d’analyse, n°51, France Stratégie.
FRÉMEAUX N. (2018), Les Nouveaux Héritiers, Paris, Seuil.
GOTMAN A. (1988), Hériter, Paris, PUF.
HALLIDAY D. (2018), The Inheritance of Wealth: Justice, Equality and The Right to Bequeath, Oxford University Press.
KAPLOW L. (2001), “A Framework for Assessing Estate and Gift Taxation”, in Gale W., Hines J., and Slemrod J. (ed.), Rethinking Estate and Gift Taxation, Washington, Brookings Institution Press.
MASSON A. (2015), « Comment justifier une augmentation impopulaire des droits de succession », Revue de l’OFCE, 139, p. 267-326.
NOZICK R. (2016), Anarchie, État et utopie, Paris, PUF.
OTSUKA M. (2003), Libertarianism without Inequality, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
PESTIEAU P. &PONTHIÈRE G. (2018), "An age-differentiated tax on bequests", Centre for operations Research and Econometrics, 2018/06, p. 1-11.
PIKETTY Th. (2011), « On the Long-Run Evolution of Inheritance: France 1820–2050 », The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126/3, p. 1071–1131; (2013), Le Capital au XXIe siècle, Paris, Seuil ; (2019), Capital et Idéologie, Paris, Le Seuil.
RAWLS J. (1987), Théorie de la justice, Paris, Seuil.
ROTHBARD M. N. (2002), For a New Liberty - The Libertarian Manifesto, New York, Collier Books, 2002.
STEINER H. (1994), An Essay on Rights, Cambridge MA, Balsckwell.
STIGLITZ J. (2019), People, Power and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent, New-York, Norton &
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VALLENTYNE P. (2001), “Left-Libertarianism: A Primer”, in Vallentyne P. & Steiner H. (dir.), Left-Libertarianism and Its Critics. The Contemporary Debate, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001, p. 1-21.
VAN PARIJS PH. (1991), Qu’est-ce qu’une société juste ?, Paris, Seuil ; (1995), Real Freedom for All. What (If Anything) Can Justify Capitalism?, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
