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What Is the Point of the Harshness Objection?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2020

Andreas Albertsen Open the ORCID record for Andreas Albertsen [Opens in a new window]  and
Lasse Nielsen Open the ORCID record for Lasse Nielsen [Opens in a new window]
Andreas Albertsen*
Affiliation:
Aarhus University
Lasse Nielsen
Affiliation:
University of Southern Denmark, Odense
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail [email protected]
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Abstract

According to luck egalitarianism, it is unjust if some are worse off than others through no fault or choice of their own. The most common criticism of luck egalitarianism is the ‘harshness objection’, which states that luck egalitarianism allows for too harsh consequences, as it fails to provide justification for why those responsible for their bad fate can be entitled to society's assistance. It has largely gone unnoticed that the harshness objection is open to a number of very different interpretations. We present four different interpretations of the harshness objection in which the problem pertains to counterintuitive implications, badness of outcome, disproportionality, or inconsistency, respectively. We analyse and discuss appropriate luck egalitarian replies. Disentangling these different versions clarifies what is at the heart of this dispute and reveals the point of the harshness objection. We conclude that only the inconsistency version involves a durable problem for luck egalitarianism.

Type
Article
Information
Utilitas , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , December 2020 , pp. 427 - 443
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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