Rebecca Lowe

Dr Rebecca Lowe is Philosophy Senior Research Fellow and Director of Emerging Scholars at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. A political philosopher, her primary research interests include rights, freedom, and equality. She is currently working on two books, Freedom in Utopia and Speaking Freely. She publishes a Substack newsletter, the ends don’t justify the means, and hosts a podcast, Working Definition. She also writes regularly about space. 

Lowe is the former director of FREER, a UK think tank advancing economically and socially liberal ideas, and has also held positions at other UK research organizations, including the Institute of Economic Affairs and Policy Exchange. Until recently, she was Consulting Space Philosopher at a strategic space advisory firm, and a Senior Reader at the Canterbury Institute in Oxford. She served as Research Director at an investment company for four years.

Lowe wrote her political philosophy PhD on moral property rights at King’s College London, and also holds degrees from the University of Cambridge and Birkbeck. Her recent academic publications include an article on the value of space activity in Economic Affairs, a chapter on the democratic state’s obligation of transparency in the edited collection Political Philosophy in a Pandemic, and an encyclopedia entry on John Locke’s conception of justice for the Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. She has recently given talks at institutions including Princeton, Georgetown, the University of Pittsburgh, and Adam Smith’s house in Edinburgh. Her commentary and analysis have been featured widely in the UK print and broadcast media.