Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T20:05:24.465Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

HOW GIFTS AND GAMBLES PRESERVE JUSTICE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2013

Andrew Williams*
Affiliation:
ICREA–Universitat Pompeu Fabra, [email protected]

Abstract

This paper examines G. A. Cohen's final criticism of Ronald Dworkin's theory of equality of resources, which targets its treatment of inequalities that arise when some individuals make luckier choices than others make. Rebutting Cohen's argument that such option luck inequalities fail to be just in an unqualified sense, the paper argues that choice does not merely render inequality legitimate but instead can sometimes make inequality just. It also examines the relationship between Cohen's criticism and the conception of equality developed in his earlier influential paper, ‘On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice’.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, E. 1999. What is the point of equality? Ethics 109: 287337.Google Scholar
Bou-Habib, P. 2006. Compulsory insurance without paternalism. Utilitas 18: 243263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clayton, M. 2000. The resources of liberal equality. Imprints 5: 6384.Google Scholar
Casal, P. 2007. Why sufficiency is not enough. Ethics 117: 296326.Google Scholar
Clayton, M. 2006. Justice and Legitimacy in Upbringing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, G. A. 1978. Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Expanded edition, 2000.)Google Scholar
Cohen, G. A. 1988. History, Labour, and Freedom: Themes from Marx. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, G. A. 1989. On the currency of egalitarian justice. Ethics 99: 906944; reprinted in Cohen 2011.Google Scholar
Cohen, G. A. 1995. Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, G. A. 2006. Luck and equality: a reply to Hurley. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 72: 439446; reprinted in Cohen 2011.Google Scholar
Cohen, G. A. 2008. Rescuing Justice and Equality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, G. A. 2009. Fairness and legitimacy in justice, and: Does option luck ever preserve justice? In Hillel Steiner and the Anatomy of Justice, ed. de Wijze, S., Kramer, M. H. and Carter, I., 321. New York: Routledge; reprinted in Cohen 2011.Google Scholar
Cohen, G. A. 2011. On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice, and Other Essays in Political Philosophy, ed. Otsuka, Michael. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dworkin, R. 1981. What is equality? Part 2: Equality of resources. Philosophy and Public Affairs 10: 185243.Google Scholar
Dworkin, R. 2000. Sovereign Virtue. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Dworkin, R. 2002. Sovereign Virtue revisited. Ethics 113: 106143.Google Scholar
Dworkin, R. 2004. Ronald Dworkin replies. In Dworkin and His Critics, ed. Burley, Justine, 339395. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Dworkin, R. 2011. Justice for Hedgehogs. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fleurbaey, M. 2008. Fairness, Responsibility, and Welfare. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gosseries, A. 2001. What do we owe the next generation(s)? Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 35: 293355.Google Scholar
Lippert‐Rasmussen, K. 2001. Egalitarianism, option luck, and responsibility. Ethics 111: 548579.Google Scholar
Nozick, R. 1974. Anarchy, State and Utopia. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Olsaretti, S. 2009. Responsibility and the consequences of choice. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 109: 165188.Google Scholar
Otsuka, M. 2002. Luck, insurance, and equality. Ethics 113: 4054.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Otsuka, M. 2004. Equality, ambition, and insurance. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume, 78: 151166.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1996. Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Raz, J. 1990. Practical Reason and Norms. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Scanlon, T. M. 1998. What We Owe to Each Other. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Steiner, H. 2009. Responses. In Hillel Steiner and the Anatomy of Justice, ed. de Wijze, S., Kramer, M. H. and Carter, I., 235258. New York: Routledge; reprinted in Cohen 2011.Google Scholar
Temkin, L. 1986. Inequality. Philosophy and Public Affairs 15: 99121.Google Scholar
Temkin, L. 1993. Inequality. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Temkin, L. 2011. Justice, equality, fairness, desert, rights, free will, responsibility and luck. In Distributive Justice and Responsibility, ed. Knight, C. and Stemplowska, Z., 5176. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Williams, A. 2002. Equality for the ambitious. Philosophical Quarterly 52: 377389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, A. 2006. Liberty, equality, and property. In Oxford Handbook of Political Theory, ed. Philips, A., Honig, B. and Dryzek, J., 488506. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Williams, A. 2009. Justice, incentives and constructivism. Ratio 21: 476493.Google Scholar