Rawlsian Affirmative Action

Ethics 119 (3):476-506 (2009)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

My paper addresses a topic--the implications of Rawls's justice as fairness for affirmative action--that has received remarkably little attention from Rawls's major interpreters. The only extended treatments of it that are in print are over a quarter-century old, and they bear scarcely any relationship to Rawls's own nonideal theorizing. Following Christine Korsgaard's lead, I work through the implications of Rawls's nonideal theory and show what it entails for affirmative action: viz. that under nonideal conditions, aggressive forms of formal equality of opportunity (e.g., sensitivity training, outreach efforts, external monitoring and enforcement) and compensating support (e.g., special fellowship programs, childcare facilities, mentoring, co-op opportunities, etc.) can be justified, but that "hard" and even "soft" quotas are difficult to defend under any conditions. I conclude the paper by exploring the implications of these surprising results for contemporary liberalism more broadly and for constitutional law and public policy.

Other Versions

No versions found

Similar books and articles

Rawlsian Affirmative Action.D. C. Matthew - 2015 - Critical Philosophy of Race 3 (2):324-343.
Rawlsian Affirmative Action.Robert Allen - 1998 - The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 42:1-8.
Procedural Justice and Affirmative Action.Kristina Meshelski - 2016 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 19 (2):425-443.
Nonideal Justice, Fairness, and Affirmative Action.Matthew Adams - 2021 - Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 20 (3).
Rawls’s Theory of Justice and Affirmative Action in Science.Seungbae Park - 2024 - Filosofija. Sociologija 35 (3):378–386.
Rawls on Ideal and Nonideal Theory.Zofia Stemplowska & Adam Swift - 2013 - In Jon Mandle & David A. Reidy (eds.), A Companion to Rawls. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 112–127.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-06-10

Downloads
2,708 (#3,986)

6 months
182 (#19,214)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Robert S. Taylor
University of California, Davis

Citations of this work

Against “Democratizing AI”.Johannes Himmelreich - 2023 - AI and Society 38 (4):1333-1346.
Educational Justice and School Boosting.Marcus Arvan - 2024 - Social Theory and Practice 50 (1):1-31.
Nonideal Justice, Fairness, and Affirmative Action.Matthew Adams - 2021 - Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 20 (3).
Rawls and racial justice.D. C. Matthew - 2017 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 16 (3):235-258.

View all 20 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition.John Rawls - 1999 - Harvard University Press.
Taking Rights Seriously.Ronald Dworkin - 1979 - Ethics 90 (1):121-130.
If you're an egalitarian, how come you're so rich.Gerald Cohen - 2000 - The Journal of Ethics 4 (1-2):1-26.
Principles of Social Justice.David Miller - 2002 - Philosophical Quarterly 52 (207):274-276.
Against Rawlsian equality of opportunity.Richard J. Arneson - 1999 - Philosophical Studies 93 (1):77-112.

View all 18 references / Add more references