David Alm

In recent years the main focus of my research has been in the areas of normative ethics, not least problems pertaining to the concepts of desert, rights and equality. They were the main targets for the project "On Moral Desert", funded by the Swedish Research Council and concluded in 2009. Since then I have worked on questions about rights in connection with punishment: what happens to our rights when we commit crimes? And which rights do we have as victims of crimes? In particular, do we have a right that those who wronged us be punished? This work has led to a more extensive project about the nature of rights, also funded by the Research Council, expected to run through 2015. The aim is to realize the project in the form of a book, provisionally entitled "Rights and Their Grounds," to be completed in 2018. In 2017 I received another grant from the Research Council for a project entitled "The Moral Significance of Numbers." The aim of the project is to develop a new deontological approach (that is, in terms of rights) to the problem of why we are morally required to save a greater number of people from harm rather than a smaller number.