Jakob Elster

Associate Professor - Norwegian Centre for Human Rights

Norwegian version of this page

Email jakob.elster@nchr.uio.no

Phone +47 22845530

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Visiting address Kristian August gate 17 Domus Juridica 7.etg 0164 Oslo

Postal address Postboks 6706 St Olavs plass 0130 Oslo

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Background

I obtained my PhD in philosophy from the University of Oslo in 2007. My PhD-thesis, entitled Transforming Moral Motivation, discussed the government’s right to influence people’s moral motivation in order to change their behavior in morally desirable ways, and the moral constraints which should be imposed on this right.

After my PhD, I have been research school coordinator at the Ethics Programme, University of Oslo (2007-2008), postdoctoral researcher at the Ethics Programme and at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of art and Ideas (IFIKK), University of Oslo (2008-2011) and senior adviser at the Regional Committees for Medical and Health Research Ethics (REC) South-East Norway (2011-2016).

Academic interests

I have a broad set of research interests within ethics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of human rights. Among the topics I am interested in, are:

Autonomy, paternalism and legitimate limits to the right to autonomy
Consequentialist moral theories and the relationship between consequentialism and rights
Methodological issues in ethics and political philosophy
Medical research ethics
Bioethics, and the relationship between bioethics and human rights

Teaching

I contribute/ have contributed to teaching the following courses:

Projects

In 2020/2021, I will be one of the group leaders of the project “What is a Good Policy? Political Morality, Feasibility and Democracy (GOODPOL)” at the Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Appointments

Member of the Regional committee for medical and health-research ethics South-East, committee A (2017-)
Member of the working group for life science at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo (2016-)

Awards

My article “How Outlandish Can Imaginary Cases Be?” (2011) won the Journal of Applied Philosophy’s annual prize for the best article published in the year’s volume.

Tags: human rights, ethics, political philosophy, bioethics, research ethics, autonomy

Zacka, Bernardo; Ackerly, Brooke; Elster, Jakob; Gutnick Allen, Signy; Iqtidar, Humeira & Longo, Matthew [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2020). Political Theory with an Ethnographic Sensibility. Contemporary Political Theory. ISSN 1470-8914. p. 1–34. doi: 10.1057/s41296-020-00433-1. Full text in Research Archive
Elster, Jakob & Feiring, Eli (2020). Når er registerbasert helse- og helsetjenesteforskning uten samtykke etisk forsvarlig? In Befring, Anne Kjersti Cecelia & Sand, Inger Johanne (Ed.), Kunstig intelligens og big data i helsesektoren Rettslige perspektiver. Gyldendal Juridisk. ISSN 9788205531963. p. 452–474.
Elster, Jakob (2020). Autonomy in Political Philosophy . In Thompson, William R. (Eds.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Oxford University Press. ISSN 9780190228637.
Elster, Jakob (2015). Er etisk skjønn jevnt fordelt? In Fossheim, Hallvard & Ingierd, Helene C. (Ed.), Etisk skjønn i forskning. Universitetsforlaget. ISSN 978-82-15-02655-8. p. 22–38. doi: 10.18261/9788215025162-2015-03.
Elster, Jakob (2012). Scanlon on Permissibility and Double Effect. Journal of Moral Philosophy. ISSN 1740-4681. 9(1), p. 75–102. doi: 10.1163/174552411X612074.
Elster, Jakob (2011). How Outlandish Can Imaginary Cases Be? Journal of Applied Philosophy. ISSN 0264-3758. 28(3), p. 241–258. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-5930.2011.00531.x.
Elster, Jakob (2011). PROCREATIVE BENEFICENCE - CUI BONO? Bioethics. ISSN 0269-9702. 25(9), p. 482–488. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2009.01794.x.
Elster, Jakob (2010). Hvor i all verden er alle normene? Nytt Norsk Tidsskrift. ISSN 0800-336X. p. 127–141.
Elster, Jakob (2007). Hva skal vi med etiske komiteer? Etikk i praksis. ISSN 1890-3991. 1(1), p. 11–31.
Elster, Jakob (2005). Å velge eller ikke velge (om Jürgen Habermas, Den menneskelige naturs fremtid). Agora. ISSN 0800-7136. p. 207–217.
Elster, Jakob (2004). How to best teach bioethics � an introduction /Innledning: Hvordan undervise i bioetikk? How to best teach bioethics. Report from a workshop March 2003 organised by The Nordic Committee on Bioethics and NorFA. Nordisk ministerråd. ISSN 92-893-1005-7. p. 11–20.

View all works in Cristin

Elster, Jakob (2020). Bør vi ha mindre strenge samtykkekrav i helseforskningen? Khrono.no. ISSN 1894-8995.
Elster, Jakob (2020). Ville utsatt skoleåpning ha vært etisk forsvarlig? Khrono.no. ISSN 1894-8995.
Elster, Jakob (2020). Hvilken etiker skulle man stole på? Salongen – nettidsskrift for filosofi og idéhistorie. ISSN 2703-7053.
Elster, Jakob (2015). Review of Fiona Woollard, Doing and Allowing Harm. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. ISSN 1538-1617.
Elster, Jakob (2010). The Brain and its Law.
Elster, Jakob (2010). ”You don’t know what it’s like!” –personal experience in morality and public reason.
Elster, Jakob (2009). Democratic authority in non-ideal theory: some thoughts on David Estlund’s defence of hopeless political theories.
Elster, Jakob (2009). "You Don't Know What It's Like!" - The Role of Personal Experience in Moral Argumentation.
Elster, Jakob (2008). Bioethics committees between moral epistemology and political legitimacy.
Elster, Jakob (2008). Ought implies can.
Elster, Jakob (2008). What do we explain when we explain morality?
Elster, Jakob (2008). Bioetiske komiteer – mellom etikk og politikk.
Elster, Jakob; Roll-Hansen, Nils & Storm, Johan Frederik (2008). Upop-aften: Nevroetikk.
Elster, Jakob (2008). Hvilken rolle skal moralsk motivasjon ha i velferdspolitikken?
Elster, Jakob & Bomann-Larsen, Lene (2007). Deltagelse i radioprogram om moralske intuisjoner og drap i krig, mm. [Radio]. Verdibørsen.
Block, Ned; Galaaen, Øistein Schmidt & Elster, Jakob (2007). Empiricism in the Philosophy of Mind? An Interview with Ned Block. [Newspaper]. Filosofisk Supplement 1, 2007, pp. 30-34. Show summary
Metaphilosophical interview with Prof. Ned Block (NYU), 28th November 2006.
Elster, Jakob (2007). Hjerneskadete utilitarister - Hvordan fungerer vår moralske dømmekraft?
Elster, Jakob (2007). How does the mind matter for the law?
Elster, Jakob (2007). (How) Can We Draw Normative Conclusions From Empirical Work In Moral Psychology?
Elster, Jakob (2006). Legitimate Motivational Transformation.
Elster, Jakob (2006). Om å undervise i bioetikk i skolen: Hva underviser man i og hvorfor?
Bomann-Larsen, Lene & Elster, Jakob (2005). Deltagelse i radioprogram: Debatt om moralske dilemmaer og de hvite bussene. [Radio]. Verdibørsen, NRK P2.
Elster, Jakob (2005). Umotiverte for det gode. [Newspaper]. Klassekampen.
Elster, Jakob (2005). Gud, gener og moral. [Internet]. forskning.no.
Elster, Jakob (2005). Intervju i Østlandssendingen. [Radio]. NRK Østlandssendingen.
Elster, Jakob (2005). Intervju på P4s Helgefrokost. [Radio]. P4s Helgefrokost.
Elster, Jakob (2005). - Mangler moralsk motivasjon. [Internet]. Apollon.
Elster, Jakob (2005). Teaching bioethics in the secondary education – the Norwegian experience.
Elster, Jakob (2005). Simone Weil on the Purificational Role of Atheism and Amoralism.
Elster, Jakob (2005). Can the Level of Our Moral Motivation Influence the Content of Our Moral Duties?
Elster, Jakob (2004). Wrongful life problems and euthanasia.
Elster, Jakob (2003). Moral Motivation and Political and Social Institutions.
Elster, Jakob (2007). Transforming Moral Motivation. Unipub forlag. ISSN 0806-3222. Show summary
The dissertation takes as its point of departure the supposition that when people fail to perform morally good actions, this is not only due to a lack of moral knowledge, but often to a lack of moral motivation. It follows that one way of making society better is by influencing the moral motivation of its members. If self-interest were sufficient to motivate all actions required by morality, transforming moral motivation would not be necessary, although it might still be a useful supplementary means. However, although theoretically possible, the assumption that self-interest is sufficient to motivate moral action is empirically implausible given any reasonably demanding conception of morality. Another way of arguing that the demands of morality do not require motivational transformation consists in saying that since ought implies can, I have no duty to perform an action I cannot be motivated to perform. However, although it is true that if a person at present cannot possibly be motivated to perform a given action she has no duty to perform the action, this does not mean that she does not have a duty to become motivated to perform the same action sometime in the future. Nevertheless, there are moral limits to what we may do to transform people’s motivation. A major constraint on motivational transformation is respect for the agent’s right to autonomy. In particular, we must respect the right to an autonomous process of motivational formation: an agent should be able to choose for herself what motives she wants to develop, based on her present motivational state. The right to an autonomous process weighs even heavier than the right to autonomous action, which might sometimes be legitimately infringed, as when a criminal is imprisoned. But this right does not impose a limit on motivational transformation when we shape the moral motives of children, because they have no capacity for, hence no right to, an autonomous process.
Elster, Jakob & Von Troil, Helena (2004). How to best teach bioethics. Report from a workshop March 2003 organised by The Nordic Committee on Bioethics and NorFA. Nordisk ministerråd. ISSN 92-893-1005-7.