Richard J Arneson
Biographic Data
| ID | 244674 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Richard J Arneson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Richard J |
| FAMILY NAME | Arneson |
| SIGNATURE | ARNESON R J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California San Diego |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 74 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 109 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 74 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Margaret Gilbert on “Rights and Demands”
Prioritarianism
Prioritarianism holds that improvements in someone's life (gains in well-being) are morally more valuable, the worse off the person would otherwise be. The doctrine is impartial, holding that a gain in one person's life counts exactly the same as an identical gain in the life of anyone equally well off. If we have some duty of beneficence to make the world better, prioritarianism specifies the content of the duty. Unlike the utilitarian, the prio…
Responsibility and Distributive Justice
Distributive justice principles specify what is a fair distribution of benefits and burdens across individual persons (and other beings as well, but this complication is set aside). Some distributive justice principles require provision of assistance to those who suffer misfortune and are worse off than others or badly off in absolute terms. Does one’s eligibility for receipt of such assistance vary, to some degree, independently of instrumental …
Against Patriotism and National Partiality
Democracy Is Not Intrinsically Just
Dworkin and Luck Egalitarianism
Ronald Dworkin is a founding father of what has come to be called “luck egalitarianism,” a family of distributive justice doctrines that hold that the inequalities in people’s condition that are brought about by sheer brute luck falling on them in ways that are beyond their power to control should be reduced or eliminated, but that inequalities that arise through people’s own fault or choice, such that they can reasonably be deemed responsible fo…
Equality and Equal Opportunity for Welfare
This chapter argues that the idea of equal opportunity for welfare is the best interpretation of the ideal of distributive equality. The norm of equality of resources stipulates that to achieve equality the agency ought to give everybody a share of goods that is exactly identical to everyone else's and that exhausts all available resources to be distributed. According to equality of welfare, goods are distributed equally among a group of persons …
Four Conceptions of Equal Opportunity
Equality of opportunity is widely endorsed but subject to conflicting interpretations. This article identifies four non‐equivalent interpretations of the equality of opportunity ideal. Under scrutiny, all are contestable. The suggestion is broached that equality opportunity norms are best regarded as, in some circumstances, means to further justice goals, never rather as in themselves morally desirable
Extreme cosmopolitanisms defended
Some theorists hold that there is no serious, significant issue concerning cosmopolitanism. They hold that cosmopolitanism is either the anodyne doctrine that we have some duties to distant strangers merely on the ground of shared humanity or the absurd doctrine that we have no special moral duties based on special-ties such as those of friendship, family, and national community. This essay argues against this deflationary position by defending (…
Nudge and Shove
This essay reexamines the idea of paternalism and the basis for finding it objectionable in light of recent writings on “libertarian paternalism.” Suggestion: to qualify as paternalistic, an interference that restricts someone’s liberty or interferes with her choice-making with the aim of helping the individual must be contrary to that very individual’s will. A framework for determining the justifiability of paternalistic action is proposed, unde…
Distributive Justice and Access to Advantage: G. A. Cohen's Egalitarianism
G. A. Cohen was one of the world's leading political theorists. He was noted, in particular, for his contributions to the literature of egalitarian justice. Cohen's classic writings offer one of the most influential responses to the currency of the egalitarian justice question – the question, that is, of whether egalitarians should seek to equalize welfare, resources, opportunity, or some other indicator of well-being. Underlying Cohen's argument…
Neutrality and Political Liberalism
Is neutrality on the good in some sense an ideal that a just society must embrace? A flagrantly non-neutral policy such as a state establishment of religion would surely merit condemnation. Such a policy would be non-neutral on the good, but would also run afoul of other principles of right that might have independent appeal for many of us, whatever our views on state neutrality. On the other hand, we might imagine a society in which human friend…
Basic Equality: Neither Acceptable nor Rejectable
This chapter considers the proposal that in virtue of possessing rational agency capacities at a threshold level, beings qualify as persons. However, this proposal faces the problem of empirical variance: on any plausible understanding of the capacities that constitute rational agency capacity, these capacities vary by degree. Thus, if I am morally more significant than a lizard or even a gorilla because I possess more rational agency capacity, w…
Rejecting the order of public reason
Why not capitalism?
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Against Relationalism in Global Justice Theory
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Justice After Rawls
This article examines the changes in the conception of justice after John Rawls. It explains that Rawls single-handedly revived Anglo-American political philosophy and his theory consists in an egalitarian vision of justice. It discusses criticisms on Rawls' theory of justice and identifies some alternative paths. It suggests that while Rawls' book The Law of Peoples adopted a conservative and somewhat anti-cosmopolitan stance, the doctrine of eg…
Paternalism and the principle of fairness
This chapter has defended the Hart-Rawls principles of fairness as justifying the duty to obey the law, in a broad range of cases. It contributes towards the development of the most promising non-consequentialist moral theory. Robert Nozick's examples include some in which a non-excludable good is provided to a group of people. He imagines a neighborhood public address system, with individuals taking turns entertaining their neighbors through lou…
Discrimination, Disparate Impact, and Theories of Justice
This chapter defends an act consequentialist approach to the law and morality of non-discrimination. It emphasizes R. M. Hare's idea that moral thinking should be conceived as functioning on different ?levels?. Beyond some broad defence of the general family of act consequentialist principles, it singles out a narrower family of views ? prioritarian welfarist with welfare or individual well-being understood according to an Objective List construa…
Paternalism: Theory and Practice
Is it allowable for your government, or anyone else, to influence or coerce you 'for your own sake'? This is a question about paternalism, or interference with a person's liberty or autonomy with the intention of promoting their good or averting harm, which has created considerable controversy at least since John Stuart Mill's On Liberty. Mill famously decried paternalism of any kind, whether carried out by private individuals or the state. In th…
Equality of Opportunity: Derivative Not Fundamental
From primary goods to capabilities to well-being
Amartya Sen’s The Idea of Justice (2009 Sen, A. 2009. The idea of justice, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) mistakenly characterizes transcendental accounts of justice as being unable to compare non-ideal alternatives, and thus misfires as a criticism of Robert Nozick and John Rawls. In fact, Nozick’s disinterest in when rights may be overridden does not bespeak indifference to specific questions of comparat…
Exploitation and outcome
Exploitation is interacting with another in a way that takes unfair advantage of that person. Exploitation is thought to be morally wrong even when it would bring about the best attainable outcome, hence conflicts with the consequentialist morality that holds one ought always to do whatever would bring about the best outcome. This essay aims to reconcile norms against exploitation and act consequentialism. A puzzle about exploitation is raised an…
Liberalism, Capitalism, and “Socialist” Principles
One way to think about capitalism-versus-socialism is to examine the extent to which capitalist economic institutions are compatible with the fulfillment of socialist ideals. The late G. A. Cohen has urged that the two are strongly incompatible. He imagines how it would make sense for friends to organize a camping trip, distills the socialist moral principles that he sees fulfilled in the camping trip model, and observes that these principles con…
Side constraints, Lockean individual rights, and the moral basis of libertarianism
The brilliant discussion in Chapter 3 of Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia (ASU) is vitiated by an illicit slide between "some" and "all" or, better, between "to some extent" and "entirely." In this chapter Nozick discusses the moral theory background to his Locke an libertarian doctrine of individual moral rights. He seeks to show that structural features of the account of moral requirements and permissions that most of us accept turn o…
Defending the Purely Instrumental Account of Democratic Legitimacy
Equality of Opportunity for Welfare Defended and Recanted
Egalitarianism and the Undeserving Poor
Is Work Special? Justice and the Distribution of Employment
I investigate from an egalitarian welfarist standpoint the issue of whether state-guaranteed employment should be offered as a matter of right to able-bodied poor citizens who suffer chronic or persistent unemployment. An affirmative answer is defended. One consideration supporting this right to work is that provision of transfer aid in the form of jobs rather than cash screens "nonneedy bohemians" from the class of beneficiaries. The main conclu…
Exploitation and outcome
Exploitation is interacting with another in a way that takes unfair advantage of that person. Exploitation is thought to be morally wrong even when it would bring about the best attainable outcome, hence conflicts with the consequentialist morality that holds one ought always to do whatever would bring about the best outcome. This essay aims to reconcile norms against exploitation and act consequentialism. A puzzle about exploitation is raised an…
Lockean Self-Ownership: Towards a Demolition
Self-ownership is the moral principle that one ought to be left free to do whatever one chooses so long as non-consenting other persons are not thereby harmed, in specified ways. The principle is foundational for one tradition of political liberalism running from Locke to Nozick. This paper aims first to clarify this principle, in part by contrasting it with a kindred principle of ‘self-benefit’, and secondly to develop its implications for justi…
Meaningful Work and Market Socialism Revisited
If the economy consisted of labor-managed firms, so the workplace is democratic, and in addition the benefits and burdens of economic cooperation were shared equitably and the economy operated efficiently, might there still be a morally compelling case for further intervention into economic arrangements so as to increase the degree to which people gain meaningful or satisfying work? ‘No!’, answers a 1987 essay by the author. This comment argues a…
Extreme cosmopolitanisms defended
Some theorists hold that there is no serious, significant issue concerning cosmopolitanism. They hold that cosmopolitanism is either the anodyne doctrine that we have some duties to distant strangers merely on the ground of shared humanity or the absurd doctrine that we have no special moral duties based on special-ties such as those of friendship, family, and national community. This essay argues against this deflationary position by defending (…
Equality, Coercion, Culture and Social Norms
Against the libertarian view, this essay argues that coercion aimed at bringing about a more equal distribution across persons can be morally acceptable. Informal social norms might lead toward equality (or another social justice goal) without coercion. If coercion were unnecessary, it would be morally undesirable. A consequentialist integration of social norms and principles of social justice is proposed. The proposal is provided with a prelimin…
Marxism and Secular Faith
It has been argued by Mancur Olson and others that Karl Marx's theory of revolution is logically defective in that front its premises one cannot draw Marx's conclusion that workers will unite to revolt against capitalism. Workers who might wish for large social changes are confronted with a collective action problem that Marx fails to appreciate-so runs the criticism. The critics are assuming that Marx is reasoning from a Hobbesian premise to the…
Benthamite Utilitarianism and Hard Times
Richard J. Arneson BENTHAMITE UTILITARIANISM AND HARD TIMES IT is commonly understood that Dickens's vaguely specified criticisms of the "Hard Facts" philosophy in Hard Times are intended as criticisms of Benthamite Utilitarianism. It is also commonly held that, on the level of theory at any rate, Dickens's criticisms are in the form of caricature so crudely painted as almost entirely to misrepresent its object. ' It would be foolish to deny the …
II. Shakespeare and the Jewish Question
Four Conceptions of Equal Opportunity
Equality of opportunity is widely endorsed but subject to conflicting interpretations. This article identifies four non‐equivalent interpretations of the equality of opportunity ideal. Under scrutiny, all are contestable. The suggestion is broached that equality opportunity norms are best regarded as, in some circumstances, means to further justice goals, never rather as in themselves morally desirable
From primary goods to capabilities to well-being
Amartya Sen’s The Idea of Justice (2009 Sen, A. 2009. The idea of justice, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) mistakenly characterizes transcendental accounts of justice as being unable to compare non-ideal alternatives, and thus misfires as a criticism of Robert Nozick and John Rawls. In fact, Nozick’s disinterest in when rights may be overridden does not bespeak indifference to specific questions of comparat…
What do Socialists Want
Benthamite Utilitarianism and Hard Times
Richard J. Arneson BENTHAMITE UTILITARIANISM AND HARD TIMES IT is commonly understood that Dickens's vaguely specified criticisms of the "Hard Facts" philosophy in Hard Times are intended as criticisms of Benthamite Utilitarianism. It is also commonly held that, on the level of theory at any rate, Dickens's criticisms are in the form of caricature so crudely painted as almost entirely to misrepresent its object. ' It would be foolish to deny the …
I. Prospects for Community in a Market Economy
‘Freedom and Desire’
Muddles can be instructive. The clarifying confusion to be examined in this paper is Isaiah Berlin's intelligent vacillation on the issue of whether or not the extent of a person's freedom depends on his desires. Is the amount of freedom an agent possesses determined solely by his objective circumstances or is it also partly a function of his subjective tastes and preferences? In clarifying this question I shall suggest that Berlin has trouble an…
II. Shakespeare and the Jewish Question
Marxism and Secular Faith
It has been argued by Mancur Olson and others that Karl Marx's theory of revolution is logically defective in that front its premises one cannot draw Marx's conclusion that workers will unite to revolt against capitalism. Workers who might wish for large social changes are confronted with a collective action problem that Marx fails to appreciate-so runs the criticism. The critics are assuming that Marx is reasoning from a Hobbesian premise to the…
Meaningful Work and Market Socialism
Equality and equal opportunity for welfare
Liberal egalitarianism and world resource distribution: Two views
Primary Goods Reconsidered
Among the more noteworthy initial lines of criticism provoked by John Rawls's theory of justice is a challenge to his claim that the advantages and disadvantages of social cooperation should be reckoned in terms of shares of primary goods. The challengers assert that using primary goods shares to compare individual situations is unfair to those individuals for whom primary goods will not be particularly useful for the successful pursuit of their …
Is Work Special? Justice and the Distribution of Employment
I investigate from an egalitarian welfarist standpoint the issue of whether state-guaranteed employment should be offered as a matter of right to able-bodied poor citizens who suffer chronic or persistent unemployment. An affirmative answer is defended. One consideration supporting this right to work is that provision of transfer aid in the form of jobs rather than cash screens "nonneedy bohemians" from the class of beneficiaries. The main conclu…
A defense of equal opportunity for welfare
Lockean Self-Ownership: Towards a Demolition
Self-ownership is the moral principle that one ought to be left free to do whatever one chooses so long as non-consenting other persons are not thereby harmed, in specified ways. The principle is foundational for one tradition of political liberalism running from Locke to Nozick. This paper aims first to clarify this principle, in part by contrasting it with a kindred principle of ‘self-benefit’, and secondly to develop its implications for justi…
Is Socialism Dead? A Comment on Market Socialism and Basic Income Capitalism
Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity
What do Socialists Want
Against ‘Complex’ Equality
Richard Arneson argues that Michael Walzer's theory of complex equality is not sufficiently egalitarian, as it permits any degree of inequality. Arneson claims that David Miller's reinterpretation of the notion of complex equality as social equality does not succeed in replacing the ideal of distributive equality.
The Priority of the Right Over the Good Rides Again A Treatise on Social Justice, Vol. 2, Justice as Impartiality. Brian Barry
Egalitarianism and the Undeserving Poor
Human Flourishing Versus Desire Satisfaction
What is the good for human persons? If I am trying to lead the best possible life I could lead, not the morally best life, but the life that is best for me, what exactly am I seeking? This phrasing of the question I will be pursuing may sound tendentious, so some explanation is needed. What is good for one person, we ordinarily suppose, can conflict with what is good for other persons and with what is required by morality. A prudent person seeks …
Against Rawlsian Equality of Opportunity
Egalitarianism and Responsibility
Equality of Opportunity for Welfare Defended and Recanted
Welfare Should Be the Currency of Justice
Some theories of justice hold that individuals placed in fortunate circumstances through no merit or choice of their own are morally obligated to aid individuals placed in unfortunate circumstances through no fault or choice of their own. In these theories what are usually regarded as obligations of benevolence are reinterpreted as strict obligations of justice. A closely related view is that the institutions of a society should be arranged in a …
Perfectionism and Politics
Egalitarian Justice versus the Right to Privacy?
In their celebrated essay “The Right to Privacy,” legal scholars Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis identified as the generic privacy value “the right to be let alone.” This same phrase occurs in Justice Brandeis's dissent in Olmstead v. U.S. (1927). This characterization of privacy has been found objectionable by philosophers acting as conceptual police. For example, moral philosopher William Parent asserts that one can wrongfully fail to let anot…
Political science (61 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (60 works) · Law (55 works) · Sociology (55 works) · Philosophy (44 works) · Law and economics (43 works) · Epistemology (36 works) · Economics (32 works) · Politics (28 works) · Philosophical Ethics and Theory (27 works)