POL 4275 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Individualism
12 Apr 2018
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Iris young - theories of justice & critique. Oppression is structural (41) - claim one. Common claim: justice entails distribution of power and wealth according to merit. Deserving, relationship between effort (morally praiseworthy) and reward = merit. Problem: non-morally-defensible distinctions are already built into society. Luck is morally arbitrary; distribution of resources taints ability to determine merit. Structural problem: this takes place many times over history. Born into circumstance that they have done nothing to deserve. Structure: why we"re concerned with groups/categories, not individuals. 2) individualism structural & social groups. Social groups do not equal aggregations or associations. Social groups are ascriptive, become basis of shared identity, born into them. Class, socioeconomic also count - you can change your social group, but they qualitatively change your self-identity. Fundamental claim (47) - social group determines structural location (which is unrelated to merit); proper theory must account for social groups and the positive affirmation and fostering of difference without oppression.
