The inegalitarian ethos: Incentives, respect, and self-respect
Politics, Philosophy and Economics 12 (1):93-111 (2013)
Abstract
In Cohen’s vision of the just society, there would be no need for unequalizing incentives so as to benefit the least well-off; instead, people would be motivated by an egalitarian ethos to work hard and in the most socially productive jobs. As such, Cohen appears to offer a way to mitigate the trade-off of equality for efficiency that often characterizes theorizing about distributive justice. This article presents an egalitarian challenge to Cohen’s vision of the just society. I argue that a society where all internalized the egalitarian ethos would be one lacking equal respect among its members, in which certain groups lacked the grounds of self-respect. Section 1 defends equal respect and a form of equality of self-respect as values with broad-based appeal to egalitarians, and argues that a particular form of hierarchy would undermine both equal respect and the grounds of self-respect. Sections 2 and 3 reveal that just such a hierarchy would emerge in a society in which all had internalized the egalitarian ethos, in the case of both carers and the untalented. Thus, Cohen’s proposed society is shown to fail to unite equality and efficiency. Instead, Cohen’s society would be characterized by a lack of equalityAuthor's Profile
DOI
10.1177/1470594x12447777
My notes
Similar books and articles
Fairness, Respect and the Egalitarian Ethos Revisited.Jonathan Wolff - 2010 - The Journal of Ethics 14 (3-4):335-350.
Political Liberalism, Ethos Justice, and Gender Equality.Blain Neufeld & Chad Van Schoelandt - 2014 - Law and Philosophy 33 (1):75-104.
The division of moral labour and the basic structure restriction.Thomas Porter - 2009 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 8 (2):173-199.
The Place of Self‐Respect in a Theory of Justice.Gerald Doppelt - 2009 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 52 (2):127 – 154.
What would a Rawlsian ethos of justice look like?Michael G. Titelbaum - 2008 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 36 (3):289-322.
Kant, Respect and Injustice (Routledge Revivals): The Limits of Liberal Moral Theory.Victor J. Seidler - 1986 - Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Why Relational Egalitarians Should Care About Distributions.Christian Schemmel - 2011 - Social Theory and Practice 37 (3):365-390.
Equality, Self‐Respect and Voluntary Separation.Michael S. Merry - 2012 - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 15 (1):79-100.
Analytics
Added to PP
2012-06-15
Downloads
74 (#164,815)
6 months
1 (#447,139)
2012-06-15
Downloads
74 (#164,815)
6 months
1 (#447,139)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
Citations of this work
Shameless luck egalitarians.Adina Preda & Kristin Voigt - forthcoming - Journal of Social Philosophy.
Why Not Community? An Exploration of the Value of Community in Cohen's Socialism.Lasse Nielsen & Andreas Albertsen - 2022 - Res Publica 28 (2):303-322.
Defining the duty to contribute: Against the market solution.Markus Furendal - 2017 - European Journal of Political Theory 18 (4):469-488.
Bureaucratic respectful equality.Christopher Nathan - 2016 - European Journal of Political Theory 18 (4):147488511666002.