Egalitarianism : new essays on the nature and value of equality / edited by Nils Holtug and Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Holtug, Nils, 1964-

Lippert-Rasmussen, Kasper, 1964-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Equality--Philosophy--Congresses.

Equality.

Equality--Philosophy.

Genre:

Conference papers and proceedings.

Physical Description:

xi, 339 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Clarendon, 2007.

Summary:

Egalitarianism attracts a great deal of attention amongst contemporary political theorists. And yet it has turned out to be surprisingly difficult to provide a fully satisfactory egalitarian theory. The cutting-edge articles in Egalitarianism move the debate forward. They are written by some of the leading political philosophers in the field. Recent issues in the debate over equality are given careful consideration: the distinction between 'telic' and 'deontic' egalitarianism; prioritarianism and the so-called 'levelling down objection' to egalitarianism; whether egalitarian justice should have 'whole lives' or some subset thereof as its temporal focus; the implications of Scanlon's contractualist account of the value of choice for egalitarian justice; and the question of whether nonhuman animals fall within the scope of egalitarianism and if so, what the implications are. Numerous 'classic' issues receive a new treatment too: how egalitarianism can be justified and how, if at all, this value should be combined with other values such as desert, liberty, and sufficiency; how to define the 'worst off' for the purposes of Rawls' difference principle; Elizabeth Anderson's feminist account of 'equality of relations'; how equality applies to risky choices and, in particular, whether it is justifiable to restrict the freedom of suppliers who wish to release goods that confer different levels of risk on consumers, depending on their ability to pay. Finally, the implications of egalitarianism and prioritarianism for health care are scrutinized.

Contents:

An introduction to contemporary egalitarianism / Nils Holtug and Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen

A foundation for egalitarianism / Thomas Christiano

A defence of extreme egalitarianism / Ingmar Persson

The insignificance of the distinction between Telic and Deontic egalitarianism / Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen

Prioritarianism / Nils Holtug

Egalitarianism and the difference between interpersonal and intrapersonal judgments / Dennis McKerlie

Who are the least advantaged? / Bertil Tungodden and Peter Vallentyne

Feminist distributive justice and the relevance of equal relations / Linda Barclay

Of mice and men : equality and animals / Peter Vallentyne

Liberty, liability, and contractualism / Andrew Williams

Desert and equality / Richard J. Arneson

Market failure, common interests, and the titanic puzzle / Jonathan Wolff

The 'what' and the 'how' of distributive justice and health / Susan Hurley.

Notes:

"Most of the chapters in this book were presented at a conference on egalitarianism at the University of Copenhagen in 2004"--pref.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780199296439

019929643X

OCLC:

71807832