Rethinking remedial responsibilities

Ethics and Global Politics 4 (3):195-202 (2011)
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Abstract

How should we determine which nations have a responsibility to remedy suffering elsewhere? The problem is pressing because, following David Miller, ‘[it] is morally intolerable if (remediable) suffering and deprivation are allowed to continue . . . where they exist we are morally bound to hold somebody (some person or collective agent) responsible for relieving them’. Miller offers a connection theory of remedial responsibilities in response to this problem, a theory he has been developing over the last decade. This theory is meant to serve as a guide on how we can best determine which nations are remedially responsible for alleviating suffering and deprivation elsewhere. Miller’s theory entails our following a procedure in order to determine remedial responsibility for nations. The problem is that there is an important flaw in this procedure, a flaw that previous critiques have overlooked. This essay will explain this flaw and how Miller’s theory might be reformulated into a two-tiered procedure that would take better account of this problem. Keywords: Global justice; nationalism; Miller; identity; distributive justice; severe poverty (Published: 16 September 2011) Citation: Ethics & Global Politics, Vol. 4 , No. 3, 2011, pp. 195-202. DOI: 10.3402/egp.v4i3.7140

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Thom Brooks
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Citations of this work

Taking responsibility responsibly: looking forward to remedying injustice.Susan Erck - forthcoming - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy.
Equality, Fairness, and Responsibility in an Unequal World.Thom Brooks - 2014 - Symposion: Theoretical and Applied Inquiries in Philosophy and Social Sciences 1 (2):147-153.
Remedial responsibilities beyond nations.Thom Brooks - 2014 - Journal of Global Ethics 10 (2):156-166.

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