Parr Center Talk: Matt Adler

Matthew Adler will present, “Fairness, Claims and Prioritarianism: Accounting for Responsibility and Desert”
Abstract:
The literature on “luck egalitarianism” seeks to refine criteria of distributive justice so as to take account of differential individual responsibility and/or desert.   Intuitively, as between two individuals, one badly off as a result of reckless choices, the second at an equally low welfare level through brute bad luck, the second has a stronger call upon our aid as a matter of justice.  Scholarship on “luck egalitarianism” begins with work by philosophers such as Richard Arneson, Gerald Cohen, and Ronald Dworkin, and more recently has been enriched by formal and empirical work by economists such as John Roemer.

In this paper, I address “luck egalitarianism” through the concept of individual “claims.” Each individual has a standing claim to be made better off; the strength of her claim depends upon what she stands to gain, her welfare level, and her desert.  The upshot is a desert-adjusted prioritarian account of distributive justice.  Simple prioritarianism gives greater ethical weight to welfare changes affecting those who are worse off; desert-adjusted prioritarianism, to those who are worse off or more deserving.

*This event is free and open to all.

Co-sponsored by the Parr Center & the Philosophy, Politics & Economics (PPE) program.