Rawls, responsibility, and distributive justice
| Abstract | The theory of justice pioneered by John Rawls explores a simple idea--that the concern of distributive justice is to compensate individuals for misfortune. Some people are blessed with good luck, some are cursed with bad luck, and it is the responsibility of society--all of us regarded collectively--to alter the distribution of goods and evils that arises from the jumble of lotteries that constitutes human life as we know it. Some are lucky to be born wealthy, or into a favorable socializing environment, or with a tendency to be charming and intelligent and persevering and the like. These people are likely to be successful in the economic marketplace and to achieve success in other important ways over the course of their lives. On the other hand some people are, as we say, born to lose. Distributive justice stipulates that the lucky should transfer some or all of their gains due to luck to the unlucky. | |||||||||
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Similar books and articlesCarl Knight & Zofia Stemplowska (eds.) (2011). Responsibility and Distributive Justice. Oxford University Press.
Carl Knight (2009). Luck Egalitarianism: Equality, Responsibility, and Justice. Edinburgh University Press.
Michael Otsuka (2010). Justice as Fairness: Luck Egalitarian, Not Rawlsian. Journal of Ethics 14 (3-4):217-230.
Jeffrey Moriarty (2002). Desert and Distributive Justice in a Theory of Justice. Journal of Social Philosophy 33 (1):131–143.
Carl Knight (2011). Responsibility, Desert, and Justice. In Carl Knight & Zofia Stemplowska (eds.), Responsibility and Distributive Justice. Oxford University Press.
Susan Hurley (2001). Luck and Equality: Susan Hurley. Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 75 (1):51–72.
Richard Arneson (2001). Luck and Equality. Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 75:51 - 90.
Carl Knight & Zofia Stemplowska Carl (2011). Responsibility and Distributive Justice: An Introduction. In Carl Knight & Zofia Stemplowska (eds.), Responsibility and Distributive Justice. Oxford University Press.
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