Alex Sager is a Professor of Philosophy and University Studies at Portland State University.

Research

Much of his research focuses on the ethics of migration. His  monograph Against Borders (Rowman and Littlefield International, Off the Fence: Morality Politics and Society, 2020) defends open borders.

Toward a Cosmopolitan Ethics of Mobility (Palgrave Pivot, 2018) brings political philosophy together with research on mobility and borders from the social sciences. A major goal of this monograph is to expose the cognitive bias of methodological nationalism and to propose alternative categories and sites for thinking about migration and justice.

Other work on immigration includes an edited book The Ethics and Politics of Migration: Core Issues and Emerging Trends (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2016) and papers in Political Research Quarterly, Political Studies, and Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy.

He also edited the comprehensive overview of David Hume’s philosophy The Humean Mind (Routledge, 2018) (with Angela Coventry).

Public Philosophy

He has a short piece of fiction Open Borders, 2050 (New Internationalist, January 29, 2020. He has written for a general audience for the State of Nature blog (One Question: What is the Left Case for Open Borders?) and the Radical Philosophy Magazine (The Only Reasonable Philosophy of Immigration is a Radical Philosophy of Migration). He recently participated in Portland State University’s “Tag, You’re It: Voices on Immigration Event”, presenting “The Case for Making Immigration Boring Again.”

Another area of interest is the philosophy of leisure. You can hear him interviewed for CBC’s Ideas in the episode Long Live Leisure! It’s Time to Make Space for What We Value in Life.

He is the founder of the Oregon High School Ethics Bowl which he organizes with his colleagues in the Philosophy Department that brings together dozens of teachers, PSU students, and community members. His senior capstone in Philosophy for Children (P4C) brings philosophy to children from first grade through to middle school.