Justice is not egalitarian

Egalitarian Justice and Expected Value

1 Justice Is Not Equality

This essay disputes G. A. Cohen’s claim that John Rawls’s argument for the difference principle involves an argument from moral arbitrariness to equality and then an illicit move away from equality. Moreover, the claim that an argument from moral arbitrariness establishes equality as the essential distributive justice ideal is found wanting. Rescuing Justice and Equality is an original, subtle,...

Social inequality in health, responsibility and egalitarian justice.

Are social inequalities in health unjust when brought about by differences in lifestyle? A widespread idea, luck egalitarianism, is that inequality stemming from individuals' free choices is not to be considered unjust, since individuals, presumably, are themselves responsible for such choices. Thus, to the extent that lifestyles are in fact results of free choices, social inequality in health ...

Justice is not a psychiatric term.

The centipede had a terrible problem: he was developing a case of extremely painful arthritis. For expert help on the matter, he sought out a wise old owl. The owl pondered the problem and told the centipede that he should turn himself into a frog, since frogs do not get arthritis. The centipede was very happy until he realized that he knew no way he could turn himself into a frog. He returned ...

A justice system that denies free will is not based on justice.

A recent article by Cashmore (1) addressed the ways in which the criminal justice system might be affected by not recognizing free will. The Oxford philosopher Bradley (2) examined this issue from a Darwinian perspective over 100 years ago. Like Cashmore (1), he found that the nonexistence of free will undermined the retributive principle of justice (2). Bradley (2) went on to note, however, th...