Why Does Inequality Matter? (Uehiro Series in Practical Ethics) by T. M. Scanlon (PDF)

Description

Inequality is widely regarded as morally objectionable: T. M. Scanlon investigates why it matters to us. Demands for greater equality can seem puzzling, because it can be unclear what reason people have for objecting to the difference between what they have and what others have, as opposed simply to wanting to be better off. This book examines six such reasons. Inequality can be objectionable because it arises from a failure of some agent to give equal concern to the interests of different parties to whom it is obligated to provide some good. It can be objectionable because it involves or gives rise to objectionable inequalities in status. It can be objectionable because it gives the rich unacceptable forms of control over the lives of those who have less. It can be objectionable because it interferes with the procedural fairness of economic institutions, or because it deprives some people of substantive opportunity to take part in those institutions. Inequality can beobjectionable because it interferes with the fairness of political institutions. Finally, inequality in wealth and income can be objectionable because it is unfair: the institutional mechanisms that produce it cannot be justified in the relevant way. Scanlon’s aims is to provide a moral anatomy of these six reasons, and the ideas of equality that they involve. He also examines objections to the pursuit of equality on the ground that it involves objectionable interference with individual liberty, and argues that ideas of desert do not provide a basis either for justifying significant economic inequality or for objecting to it.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “This book’s lengthy discussion of when and why inequality is morally objectionable expertly combines accessibility, subtlety, and sophistication … the book is clearly written, discusses many arguments in both public debate and academic literature, and develops and assesses various ways in which such arguments can be developed. The main strength of this book is not its novelty, since many arguments can be found in Scanlon’s earlier work as well, but the way it summarizes and collects arguments against inequality and presents them in an accessible style. This book is a must read for anyone interested in inequality and social justice.” — Dick Timmer, Journal of Moral Philosophy”Scanlon’s Why DoesInequality Matter? is a significant contribution to assessing what is wrong with economic inequality from a relational egalitarian perspective.” — Carina Fourie, Mind About the Author T. M. Scanlon, Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity, Emeritus, Harvard UniversityT. M. Scanlon attended Princeton University (BA in Philosophy, 1962), studied at Oxford, Brasenose College, 1962-63, and then at Harvard University (PhD in Philosophy, 1968). Scanlon taught philosophy at Princeton 1966-1984, then at Harvard from 1984 until his retirement in 2016. He was one of the founding editors of Philosophy & Public Affairs and has published mainly in moral and political philosophy.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Equality, or rather, the negative aspect of it – inequality – is one of the dominant issues of this age. It has both economic and political repercussions everywhere. This small, thin book of 158 pages is an important contribution to our understanding of why inequality disturbs us. Scanlon delves deep into the subject and provides a philosophical examination of a complex subject so clearly that this book should be a textbook for students of economics, sociology, politics, and philosophy. Scanlon lays out what he regards as the six different reasons for objecting to inequality. 1. It creates humiliating differences in status. 2. Gives the rich unacceptable forms of power over those with less. 3. Undermines equality of economic opportunity. 4. Undermines fairness of political institutions. 5. It results from violation of a requirement of equal concern for the interests of those who the government is obliged to benefit.6. It arises from economic institutions that are unfair. Scanlon examines each of those reasons in detail and sums up his own view which he describes as, ‘egalitarian at two levels’ – it is ‘egalitarian at the most abstract level in holding that institutions must be justified to those who are asked to accept them in a way that takes all their interests seriously and gives them equal weight’. The second level is more specific and recognises ‘the various reasons that individuals have to object to being treated unequally in certain specific ways’. Those, he says, ‘are the reasons why the various forms of inequality matter.

⭐Equality, or rather, the negative aspect of it – inequality – is one of the dominant issues of this age. It has both economic and political repercussions everywhere. This small, thin book of 158 pages is an important contribution to our understanding of why inequality disturbs us. Scanlon delves deep into the subject and provides a philosophical examination of a complex subject so clearly that this book should be a textbook for students of economics, sociology, politics, and philosophy. Scanlon lays out what he regards as the six different reasons for objecting to inequality. 1. It creates humiliating differences in status. 2. Gives the rich unacceptable forms of power over those with less. 3. Undermines equality of economic opportunity. 4. Undermines fairness of political institutions. 5. It results from violation of a requirement of equal concern for the interests of those who the government is obliged to benefit.6. It arises from economic institutions that are unfair. Scanlon examines each of those reasons in detail and sums up his own view which he describes as, ‘egalitarian at two levels’ – it is ‘egalitarian at the most abstract level in holding that institutions must be justified to those who are asked to accept them in a way that takes all their interests seriously and gives them equal weight’. The second level is more specific and recognises ‘the various reasons that individuals have to object to being treated unequally in certain specific ways’. Those, he says, ‘are the reasons why the various forms of inequality matter.

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