Publication details
"Fairness for Non-Participants: A Case for A Practice-Independent Egalitarian Baseline," Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy
ArticleAuthor(s): Reglitz, Merten
Year of publication: 2015
Abstract: Proponents of practice-dependent egalitarianism argue that egalitarian duties and entitlements only apply among participants in morally relevant practices. In this paper I argue that these views are implausible because they allow for objectionable treatment of nonparticipants. I show that it is impossible, on the basis of practice-internal considerations alone, to determine the extent to which the pursuit of practices can permissibly limit the opportunities of nonparticipants. There are opportunities beyond the current holdings of practices to which no one has a privileged claim (such as unowned natural resources), and the distribution of which is a matter of justice. A just distribution of such unowned distributive goods, though, requires a practice-independent distributive baseline. I further show that such a baseline can only be egalitarian, because all alternative baselines face serious objections. From this I conclude that any plausible theory of distributive justice must accept some form of equal practice-independent distributive entitlements.
Keywords: global egalitarianism; practice-dependence; distributive justice
Research area: Research Area 1: The Normativity of Normative Orders: Origins, Vanishing Points, PerformativitiyResearch project: Sustainable Development, Global Governance, and Justice
Subject(s): political science, philosophy
10.1080/13698230.2015.1037575
Full text: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2015.1037575
