Department of Philosophy

Dr. Powers is Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Senior Research Scholar in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University. From 2000 to 2009, he served as Director of the Kennedy Institute. His research program focuses on questions of political philosophy and practical ethics with a dominant focus on issues of global justice associated with the production and distribution of food, energy, and water.

Dr. Powers has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on a variety of topics in normative and practical philosophy, including a long-standing interest in questions of justice in public health and social policy. Drs. Powers and Ruth Faden are co-authors of a recent book, Social Justice: The Moral Foundations of Public Health and Health Care Policy (NY: Oxford University Press, 2006; revised edition, 2008).

Dr. Powers was a recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Investigator Award, and for many years he also served as a member and as chair of the National Advisory Committee for the Program. In addition, he has participated in many other private and governmental advisory bodies including the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) for the National Institutes of Health.

Current research interests center on environmental challenges arising from the global system of production and distribution of food, energy, and water – a triad of interrelated practical problems of justice that he has dubbed the "FEW Problem." The focus is upon public regulatory policies and private resource decisions that have the potential to systematically disadvantage many of the planet’s most vulnerable and least powerful people. His research project related to the FEW Problem proceeds on three fronts.

The first aspect of the project is his website http://www.FEWResources.org/ which contains over 400 entries organized within 30 categories, covering a variety of issues arising out of the global economic and political arrangements pertaining to food, energy, and water issues. The site is an ongoing project with regular updates, and although only a few months old it has had over 3000 unique visitors from 39 countries per month.

The second aspect of the project involves a series of academic papers and professional presentations, along with a short book intended for a general audience. The aim is to show how the production, distribution, and regulation of these vital resources affect paths to global development, poverty alleviation, and the capacity of individuals and nations to secure the basic requirements for decent human lives and to preserve sustainable human habitats.

The third aspect of the project involves a series of new academic papers and a new book on global justice addressing foundational philosophical issues, in particular ones arising out of the theory of well-being and systematic disadvantage developed in Social Justice.