Egalitarianism and personal desert
Article Abstract:
A position which accords a relatively insignificant role to personal desert in determining fair distribution of income is more just than those that give it no role at all or else a central role. Desert needs to be distinguished from entitlement claims based on contractual agreement, which are actually a greater source of inequality. Some factors that determine desert include effort, risk-taking and motivation. When agents can take credit for what they do, income differentials based on desert are justifiable.
Publication Name: Ethics
Subject: Philosophy and religion
ISSN: 0014-1704
Year: 1992
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Equality
Article Abstract:
The value of equality is best interpreted teleologically rather than deontologically. The deontological view regards inequality as a problem only when it is caused by an agent who violates a duty to treat people equally. The inability to show the wrongness of inequalities that arise apart from any individual or institutional agency is a serious limitation of the deontological view. According to the teleological view, equality is a value because individuals have moral claims to a fair distribution of goods.
Publication Name: Ethics
Subject: Philosophy and religion
ISSN: 0014-1704
Year: 1996
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
The Answer to Kekes's Question(*)
Article Abstract:
John Kekes's arguments are based on a misinterpretation of egalitarianism, which he claims would result in absurd policies. Kekes' arguments are not relevant to Rawlsian egalitarianism or to non-Rawlsian alternatives, however.
Publication Name: Ethics
Subject: Philosophy and religion
ISSN: 0014-1704
Year: 1999
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Imagination, literature, medical ethics and medical practice. Commerce and medical ethics
- Abstracts: Liberalism and campus hate speech: a philosophical examination. Revisionist liberalism and the decline of culture
- Abstracts: Dispositional ethical realism. Cultural context and moral responsibility. Strawson's way of naturalizing responsibility
- Abstracts: Contractualism and aggregation. Compatibilism and contractualism: The possibility of moral responsibility. The moral legislature: contractualism without an Archimedean point