Distributive Justice

Getting What We Deserve from Our Country
Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-0-19-878298-8
Verlag: Oxford University Press(UK)

Buch, Englisch, 280 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 587 g

This book presents and defends a novel theory of distributive justice, according to which political economic distributive justice reigns in a state if the government of that state ensures that citizens receive the benefits and burdens they deserve from it. The book starts with a more precise characterization of the target of this inquiry - political economic distributive justice. It then proceeds to explicate the concept of desert, evaluate proposed ways of justifying desert claims, formulate a number of desertist theories of justice, and draw out the special features of the version defended here. Once the proposed form of desertism has been stated, its implications are compared to those of egalitarianism, luck egalitarianism, sufficientism, the difference principle, libertarianism, and prioritarianism, with the aim of showing that desertism yields more attractive results in cases that prove difficult for other theories currently being discussed in the literature. Arguments - especially arguments deriving from Rawls -- against desertism are explained and shown to be ineffective. There is discussion of the distinction between comparative and non-comparative justice. Emphasis is placed on the distinction between (a) theories about the moral rightness of distributions, (b) theories about the intrinsic value of distributions, and (c) theories specifically about the justice of distributions. There is discussion of the unfortunate results of confusion of these different sorts of theory. The views of Rawls, Nozick, Parfit, Frankfurt, Feinberg and others are discussed. A version of the method of reflective equilibrium is explained and defended. The book concludes with a series of admissions concerning puzzles that remain unsolved.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Feldman, Fred

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- 0: Introduction

- 1: Locating the Target

- 2: Desert Claims and Their Justification

- 3: Four Forms of Desertism

- 4: Political Economic Deserts and Desert Bases

- 5: Desertism and Some Competitors

- 6: The Priority View

- 7: Rawls Against Desertism

- 8: Feinberg on Comparative and Noncomparative Justice

- 9: Concluding Remarks

Über Autor(innen)

Fred Feldman is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he taught from 1969 until his retirement in 2013. His research primarily focuses on normative ethics, metaethics, the nature of happiness, and justice. He has long been fascinated by philosophical problems about the nature and value of death. He received a NEH research fellowship for the academic year of 2008/09; he received a Conti Faculty research fellowship for the academic year of 2013/14.