Staff profile

Brian completed his PhD in Political Theory at the University of Manchester in 2015, having previously completed a MSc in Human Rights at University College Dublin, and a BA and MA in Philosophy at University College Cork. Before joining the School of Government and International Affairs in 2021, he was a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin, a Postdoctoral Researcher in Political Theory at the University of Limerick, and a temporary lecturer in the Philosophy Department at University College Cork.

He is interested in a wide range of issues in contemporary political theory and moral philosophy, with a particular focus on questions involving political feasibility, and public deliberation under non-ideal circumstances. His published work includes articles relating to methodology in contemporary political theory, political liberalism, paternalism and children's rights, public deliberation, citizenship, employment, intergenerational justice, sufficientarianism, and luck egalitarianism.  He has secondary research interests in linguistic justice and social epistemology. Recent work in these areas includes articles on language rights and language policy in the European Union, hypocrisy, and the social epistemology of "echo chambers".

Brian is currently working on a number of projects relating to these interests, including a book-length project on the topic of political feasibility in non-ideal circumstances, and a project on the relationship between theories of linguistic justice and sign language communities. Smaller works in progress include articles on the concept of offensive speech, intergenerational linguistic justice, the concept of linguistic neutrality, and the role of political precedents in public deliberation.

• Distributive Justice
• Ideal and Non-Ideal Theory
• Linguistic Justice & Language Policy
• Methodology in Contemporary Political Theory
• Paternalism & Autonomy
• Political Feasibility
• Public Deliberation
• Public Reason Liberalism
• Social Epistemology

Chapter in book

• Carey, B., & Shorten, A. (2022). Justifying language policies in mobile societies. In F. Grin, L. Marácz, & N. K. Pokorn (Eds.), Advances in Interdisciplinary Language Policy (361-380). John Benjamins Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1075/wlp.9.18car

Journal Article

• Carey, B., & Ventham, E. (in press). There is no fresh air: A problem with the concept of echo chambers. Episteme,
• Carey, B. (2024). Justice in Hiring: Why the Most Qualified Should Not (Necessarily) Get the Job. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 41(4), 731-744. https://doi.org/10.1111/japp.12727
• Carey, B. (2024). Hypocrisy and Epistemic Injustice. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 27(3), 353-370. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-024-10442-3
• Carey, B. (2023). Circumventing the Non-identity Problem. Philosophia, 51, 1143–1158. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-022-00589-7
• Carey, B. (2022). The Language of Public Reason. Journal of Social Philosophy, 53(1), 93-112. https://doi.org/10.1111/josp.12365
• Carey, B. (2020). Provisional Sufficientarianism: Distributive Feasibility in Non-ideal Theory. Journal of Value Inquiry, 54(4), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-020-09732-7
• Carey, B. (2018). Justice for Jerks: Human Nature, Selfishness, and Noncompliance. Social Theory and Practice, 42(4), 748-766. https://doi.org/10.5840/soctheorpract201642426
• Carey, B. (2018). Public Reason-Honesty, Not Sincerity. Journal of Political Philosophy, 26(1), https://doi.org/10.1111/jopp.12119
• Carey, B. (2018). Against the right to revoke citizenship. Citizenship Studies, 22(8), https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2018.1538319
• Carey, B. (2017). Children and the Limits of Paternalism. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 20(3), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-017-9804-3
• Carey, B. (2016). The preference satisfaction model of linguistic advantage. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 22(2), 134-154. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2016.1270905
• Carey, B. (2014). Towards a ‘Non-Ideal’ Non-Ideal Theory. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 32(2), https://doi.org/10.1111/japp.12083