Why Poverty Matters Most

Towards a Humanitarian Theory of Social Justice

Bibliographic Data

ID12228804
AuthorsChristopher Freiman (0000-0001-5726-6772, William & Mary, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume24
Issue1
Pages26-40
Publication date2012-02-17
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueUtilitas (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0953-8208 • E-ISSN: 1741-6183
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0953820811000409
OpenAlexW2170679459
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited45

Sufficientarians claim that what matters most is that people have enough. I develop and defend a revised sufficientarian conception of justice. I claim that it furnishes the best specification of a general humanitarian ideal of social justice: our main moral concern should be helping those who are badly off in absolute terms. Rival humanitarian views such as egalitarianism, prioritarianism and the difference principle face serious objections from which sufficientarianism is exempt. Moreover, a revised conception of sufficientarianism can meet the most prominent undefeated challenges to the view. I contend that prevailing versions of sufficientarianism have not satisfactorily defined the sufficiency threshold, and so I offer an original specification of the threshold. I also address perhaps the most common objection to sufficientarianism, namely that sufficientarian regimes will channel all of society's resources towards elevating people to the sufficiency threshold regardless of the gains foregone by those above the threshold

Economic Justice · Economics · Egalitarianism · Face (sociological concept · Ideal (ethics · Inequality · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Poverty · Social justice · Social science · Sociology · Free Will and Agency · Law · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Political Philosophy and Ethics

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