I’m a political philosopher, with a particular interest in rights, freedom, and equality.
I’m Philosophy Senior Research Fellow, and Director of Emerging Scholars, at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. I’m currently working on two books. In the first of these, Freedom in Utopia, I set out some arguments about how free we’d be in the best possible society. In the second, Speaking Freely, I aim to get to the heart of what it means to ‘do’ free speech, as an individual and as a member of a modern democratic society, and why this matters. I also write a Substack called the ends don’t justify the means, and host a podcast called Working Definition.
I’m the former director of FREER, a UK think tank advancing economically and socially liberal ideas. I’ve worked for various other research organisations, including Policy Exchange and the Institute of Economic Affairs. For four years, I was Research Director at an investment company. For two years, I was Consulting Space Philosopher at a strategic space advisory firm. I was also a Senior Reader at the Canterbury Institute in Oxford for a while.
I wrote my political philosophy PhD on moral property rights, at KCL. Long before that, I did my undergrad at Cambridge (in music; I focused on aesthetics) and an MA at Birkbeck (in modern and contemporary literature).
I’ve published on topics ranging from democracy to income distribution. My recent publications include an article on the value of space activity for Economic Affairs, a chapter on the democratic state’s obligation of transparency for an edited volume called ‘Political Philosophy in a Pandemic’, a paper on property rights in space for the Adam Smith Institute, a piece for the APA blog on private space companies, a piece on the ethics of lab-grown meat for Psyche/Aeon, and an entry on Locke’s conception of justice for the Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. I’ve recently given talks at the World Congress of Philosophy, the Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association, the 7th Economic Philosophy International Conference, and at Princeton, Georgetown, and Adam Smith’s house in Edinburgh.
Between 2014 and 2019, I wrote a regular column for ConHome, where I was an assistant editor. In the 2015 general election, I was a parliamentary candidate for my home seat of City of Durham, but I have no desire ever to repeat this experience, and am no longer a member of any political party. My analysis and commentary have often featured in the UK national print and broadcast media, and I’m in demand to speak at and chair discussion events.
You can contact me on Twitter at @RMLLowe, or by email at rebeccamarylouiselowe@gmail.com.