Alejandra Mancilla, “The Right of Necessity: Moral Cosmopolitanism and Global Poverty” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016)
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What is the central thesis of The Right of Necessity and why does it matter?
Hello, thank you for joining me for this episode of New Books in Philosophy. I'm Robert Talise, I'm professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University, and I co host the program with Carrie Figter. Carrie is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Iowa. My guest today is Alejandra Mancia. Alejandra is Associate Professor of Practical Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, and the History of Art and Ideas at the University of Oslo. Alejandra's new book is titled The Right of Necessity. Moral Cosmopolitanism and Global Poverty It's published by Roman and Littlefield. Урал акстом тот дала circumstances. may rightfully take use of others' property in order to save their own lives.
For example, one thinks it's obvious. That in order to avoid freezing to death A lost mountain hiker may rightfully break into and make use of a heated cabin that's not his property. But what justifies that idea? And what are its implications for a world where millions are subjected to sustained and systematic deprivation? The thought. That under the current global order. Those who are subject to such deprivation might have a right to take and use and seize and occupy whatever is needed. In order to satisfy the requirements for their basic substance. May seem radical. But the idea of such a right enjoys a long history in moral and legal thinking. As usual, there's a lot to talk about. But why don't we begin by greeting our guest?
Hello
Alejandra. Hi Bob, and many thanks for this invitation. I really look forward to talking to you. Well,
thank you so much for joining us on New Books in Philosophy. We usually begin uh these interviews uh with uh by asking the author to talk a little bit Uh about herself. So We won't deviate from that.
How does Alejandra Mancilla’s personal and professional background shape her view on global poverty?
Uh why don't you start us off by Telling us a little bit about yourself.
Of course. Uh so as you said, I'm uh an associate professor in practical philosophy at the University of Oslo. Uh but I had quite a world tour before coming here. So originally I am from Punta Arenas, Chile, Patagonia, uh the southernmost city in the world. And as Charles Darwin aptly described, the place is one of the most inhospitable within the limits of the globe. Uh so it's windy, it's cold all year long and it's very desolate, but I I really love it and I go back whenever I have the opportunity to do it. And um I grew up in Punta Arenas. Um I was lucky enough that my mom was an English teacher at the British school there, so I learned English uh as a child and that came uh very handy later in life.
And my dad had a small bus company. Uh he had uh these buses uh that went to Argentina and so as a child I was always between Chile and Argentina and that was also important later in my life because it gave me a sense that borders don't really matter a lot, uh in places like Patagonia, for example. So um I as a kid I was really very studious. I liked everything. Uh I studied everything that came to my hands. I read a lot. I was a total nerd. Um And I was quite a good student and when the time came to decide what to study I think in an act of rebellion and immaturity I chose journalism. Uh because I didn't know any better. And I went to study uh journalism in Santiago. I enjoyed uh studying journalism and I also enjoyed working as a journalist.
I was a freelance writer for a few years, uh in some magazines and newspapers in Chile. I also worked as a T V reporter. Um and that gave me the opportunity to travel around the world and also uh within Chile. And uh but I should say there was one area that uh interested me quite a lot, which was um w it was environmental conflicts. So I had the opportunity to uh report on some environmental conflicts that were quite heated at the moment. So for example, there was this uh gold mine in the north of Chile where The company was claiming that they were going to relocate a mountain glacier in order to dig up the gold and everyone was outraged at the suggestion Uh there was also this a massive death of black necked swans in a natural sanctuary in the south of Chile because the
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central thesis of The Right of Necessity and why does it matter?
0:07–2:04
2
How does Alejandra Mancilla’s personal and professional background shape her view on global poverty?
2:04–9:49
3
What historical traditions (Aquinas, Grotius, Pufendorf) does the book draw on to justify a right of necessity?
9:49–20:07
4
How does the author define the basic‑need requirement and the three conditions for invoking the right of necessity?
20:07–27:08
5
What are the Overland and Underland thought‑experiments and what do they reveal about the right of necessity?
27:08–34:55
6
What are the main objections – the “why‑me?” and “remedy‑worse‑than‑disease” challenges – to the right of necessity?
34:55–42:45
7
How does the right of necessity underpin collective actions such as resistance, protest, and disobedience?
42:45–50:46
8
What future research directions (migration, Antarctica, territorial rights) does Mancilla propose for expanding the theory?
50:46–1:06:15
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