Savriël is a political philosopher and lecturer at the Leiden Institute for Philosophy. He teaches courses on Ethics, History of Political Philosophy, Political Obligation, and Privatization. His research is in market philosophy and business ethics. He thinks and writes about markets, the firm, efficiency, transaction costs, corporate governance and competition, among other things. His dissertation, which he wrote as a PhD-candidate at the Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics (EIPE), was on the political economy of neoliberalism. He thinks public philosophy is very important. To that end, he has published pieces and given interviews on his research in media outlets such as Trouw, NRC, de Volkskrant, Nederlands Dagblad, Het Parool, De Groene Amsterdammer, Vrij Nederland, HP/DeTijd, Jacobin NL, HUMAN, and Radio 1 Nieuwsweekend.

More information about Savriël Dillingh

Fields of interest

• Political Philosophy of the market
• Business Ethics
• Economic Ethics
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Applied Ethics

Research

Who should own what and why?
My research is chiefly concerned with what economists mean when they call an arrangement "efficient", and what that concept secretly assumes about ownership. Mainstream economic thinking generally treats ownership as a morally neutral detail: competition will simply sort out who owns best. My research shows that this neutrality is only apparent. Applied consistently, on its own terms, liberal market societies that appeal to efficiency should look very different than they do today. Because who owns what is itself a shaping factor of economic arrangements.