POLS 351 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Ronald Dworkin, Amartya Sen, Expensive Taste
11 Nov 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Ronald dworkin defines equality as an (cid:498)envy-free(cid:499) distribution of resources. This feeds the suspicion that the motive behind egalitarian policies is mere envy. With respect to both the targets of egalitarian concerns and their agendas, recent egalitarian writing seems strangely detached from existing egalitarian political movements. I shall argue that these problems stem from a flawed understanding of the point of equality. Recent egalitarian writing has come to be dominated by the view that the fundamental aim of equality is to compensate people for undeserved bad luck . I shall argue that in focusing on correcting a supposed cosmic injustice, recent egalitarian writing has lost sight of the distinctively political aims of egalitarianism. The proper negative aim of egalitarian justice is not to eliminate the impact of brute luck from human affairs, but to end oppression, which n definition is socially imposed.
