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EQUALITY VERSUS PRIORITY: A MISLEADING DISTINCTION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2015

Daniel M. Hausman
Daniel M. Hausman*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 600 North Park Street, Madison, WI 53711. Email: [email protected]. URL: http://philosophy.wisc.edu/hausman.
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Abstract:

The question for those who are concerned with inequalities is not whether to be an egalitarian or a prioritarian. That choice is mislabelled and misconceived. The relevant question is why distributive inequalities are of more than merely instrumental importance with respect to unrelated goals, such as maximizing well-being. The answer is that lessening inequalities in well-being serves a fundamental commitment to equality of moral status. Depending on the circumstances and what is to be distributed, the underlying concern with equality of moral status (coupled with non-distributional concerns about deprivation) might make one resemble a prioritarian, a non-prioritarian egalitarian, or neither.

Keywords

EgalitarianismPrioritarianismMoral StatusWell-being
Type
Symposium on Equality versus Priority
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , July 2015 , pp. 229 - 238
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

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