Benjamin Sachs-Cobbe

Dr. Benjamin Sachs-Cobbe is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews, affiliated with the School of Philosophical & Anthropological Studies and the Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin and previously served as Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow at New York University and Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institutes of Health (U.S.).

Education:

• Bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois
• PhD from the University of Wisconsin (dissertation: Does Rationality Ever Require Immorality?)

Research Interests: Dr. Sachs-Cobbe focuses on work, welfare state policy, meritocracy, distributive justice, and animal ethics. He explores whether expanding welfare systems reduces societal ties to work-based wealth distribution. Current projects include analyzing job guarantees, state pensions, and the ethics of conditional welfare. Earlier work addressed contractarianism, animal rights, and research ethics.

Teaching: Courses on ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of law, animal ethics, and distributive justice.

Grants & Projects:

• Co-Investigator on STAIRS-funded project Early Diagnosis: Handling Knowing (2024–2025)
• Co-Investigator on ESRC-funded The Future of Work and Income (2021–2023)
• Contributor to Royal Society of Edinburgh project Exoplanet Ethics (2018–2019)

Labs & Affiliations: Member of the Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research. Actively contributes to interdisciplinary discussions on ethics, law, and public policy.