CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Oovel, Johanna Onnemaria |
|---|---|
| Title | Power in Powerlessness: Moral Responsibility for Justice, from the Individual to the Institution |
| Summary | The 2024 shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson exposes a provocative moral impasse. The alleged perpetrator, Luigi Mangione, and his supporters frame the act as a form of corrective justice – retaliation against systemic injustices committed by UnitedHealthcare. Others regard the act as unequivocally wrong, asserting that murder is never morally permissible. This tension spotlights deeper philosophical questions: To what extent can individuals be held responsible for structural injustice? Can institutions bear moral responsibility? If so, under what conditions? This thesis draws on a wide range of normative theories of politics, philosophy, and international relations, such as Iris Marion Young, Martha Fineman, Alasdair MacIntyre, Toni Erskine, Judith Butler, and Joseph Hoover to explore these questions. Consequently, it contends that conventional, individualist moral reasoning fails to account for the complexity of structural injustice. Further, it examines the conditions for institutional moral agency to argue for the need to reshape the fundamental ways we think of the ontology of both individuals and institutions. Finally, it consults emerging literature on how to reshape our ideas of responsibility and justice in the democratic framework, institutional care, and global justice. As global crises mount and liberal institutions remain paralyzed or complicit, this inquiry is not merely theoretical. It underscores the urgent need to develop ethical and institutional frameworks capable of meeting the challenges of justice in an interconnected and structurally unequal world. |
| Supervisor | Dougherty, Matt |
| Department | Undergraduate Studies BA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/oovel_johanna.pdf |
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