Why Not Be a Desertist?: Three Arguments for Desert and Against Luck Egalitarianism
Brouwer,Huub Mulligan,Thomas
Brouwer,Huub
Mulligan,Thomas
Abstract
Many philosophers believe that luck egalitarianism captures “desert-like” intuitions about justice. Some even think that luck egalitarianism distributes goods in accordance with desert. In this paper, we argue that this is wrong. Desertism conflicts with luck egalitarianism in three important contexts, and, in these contexts, desertism renders the proper moral judgment. First, compared to desertism, luck egalitarianism is sometimes too stingy: It fails to justly compensate people for their socially valuable contributions—when those contributions arose from “option luck”. Second, luck egalitarianism is sometimes too restrictive: It fails to justly compensate people who make a social contribution when that contribution arose from “brute luck”. Third, luck egalitarianism is too limited in scope: It cannot diagnose economic injustice arising independently of comparative levels of justice. The lesson of this paper is that luck egalitarians should consider supplementing their theory with desert considerations. Or, even better, consider desertism as a superior alternative to their theory.
Description
Date
2019-09
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
desert, luck egalitarianism, comparative fairness, social contribution, principles of stakes, pluralism, SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
Citation
Brouwer, H & Mulligan, T 2019, 'Why Not Be a Desertist? Three Arguments for Desert and Against Luck Egalitarianism', PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES, vol. 176, no. 9, pp. 2271-2288. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-018-1125-4
License
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess