James Sikkema
James Sikkema is an assistant professor in the department of philosophy at McMaster University and an accredited specialist youth philosophy teacher with The Philosophy Foundation in the United Kingdom.
Bio last updated February 22nd, 2021.

Articles by James Sikkema

The Unlawfulness of Lockdown
By James Sikkema
February 22, 2021
Contrary to theologian David Hionides, James Sikkema argues no one has a moral obligation to obey COVID-19 lockdown orders and that civilly disobeying them is justified.
Given that the purported benefits of lockdown are to safeguard public health at the expense of the rights and freedoms constituting the condition of the possibility of the true promotion of public health, lockdown measures are orders of magnitude less beneficial than their harms Rather than make provision for the State to safeguard its citizens against suffering harms whatsoever, security of the person actually safeguards the citizen against the state inflicting undue harms on them, while simultaneously safeguarding individuals against the harmful exercise of their protected liberties The State must only enlist those strategies that demonstrably and judiciously strike a balance between respecting civil liberties and protecting and promoting the public good