The Aptness of Envy

Bibliographic Data

ID6232568
AuthorsJordan David Thomas Walters (0000-0003-0609-5330, McGill University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume69
Issue1
Pages330-340
Publication date2025-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0092-5853 • E-ISSN: 1540-5907
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/ajps.12805
OpenAlexW4384438317
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited47

Are demands for equality motivated by envy? Nietzsche, Freud, Hayek, and Nozick all thought so. Call this the Envy Objection. For egalitarians, the Envy Objection is meant to sting. Many egalitarians have tried to evade the Envy Objection. But should egalitarians be worried about envy? In this article, I argue that egalitarians should stop worrying and learn to love envy. I argue that the persistent unwillingness to embrace the Envy Objection is rooted in a common misunderstanding of the nature of the charge, what it reveals, and what can be said in response to it. I develop what Bernard Williams might call a vindicatory genealogy of envy, thereby allowing us to see that envy, rather than undermining egalitarian intuitions, can in fact play a distinct justificatory role (when it is fitting), which undermines the Envy Objection

Economics · Epistemology · Law and economics · Positive economics · Sociology · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Psychology

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