Egalitarianism: New Essays on the Nature and Value of Equality

by Nils Holtug (Editor), Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen (Editor)

Overview

Egalitarianism, the view that equality matters, 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 non-human 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. The contributors to the volume are: Richard Arneson, Linda Barclay, Thomas Christiano, Nils Holtug, Susan Hurley, Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen, Dennis McKerlie, Ingmar Persson, Bertil Tungodden, Peter Vallentyne, Andrew Williams, and Jonathan Wolff.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191608841
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/30/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

University of Copenhagen

University of Copenhagen

Table of Contents

Notes on the Contributors     ix
An Introduction to Contemporary Egalitarianism   Nils Holtug   Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen     1
Foundations for Equality     39
A Foundation for Egalitarianism   Thomas Christiano     41
A Defence of Extreme Egalitarianism   Ingmar Persson     83
The Nature of Equality     99
The Insignificance of the Distinction Between Telic and Deontic Egalitarianism   Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen     101
Prioritarianism   Nils Holtug     125
Egalitarianism and the Difference Between Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Judgments   Dennis McKerlie     157
Who Are the Least Advantaged?   Bertil Tungodden   Peter Vallentyne     174
Feminist Distributive Justice and the Relevance of Equal Relations   Linda Barclay     196
Of Mice and Men: Equality and Animals   Peter Vallentyne     211
Equality and Other Values     239
Liberty, Liability, and Contractualism   Andrew Williams     241
Desert and EquaLity   Richard J. Arneson     262
Applications     295
Market Failure, Common Interests, and the Titanic Puzzle   Jonathan Wolff     297
The 'What' and the 'How' of Distributive Justice and Health   Susan Hurley     308
Index     335