Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T13:52:20.770Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A More Pluralistic Ethic: In Response to DeMarco and Richmond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2018

Get access

Extract

By contrasting alternative moral responses to inequality Joseph P. DeMarco and Samuel A. Richmond have identified a major area of contemporary moral uncertainty. Some readers will object to the fact that their argument is buttressed by reference to a “no growth” future that is said to make obsolete the ethical answers that have satisfied us in the past. And indeed a strong argument can be made that growth will be with us for a long while yet, and this is almost surely the case if growth is seen qualitatively rather than quantitatively. However, their emphasis on this contemporary question should not be allowed to lead us astray, for the dilemmas of inequality are always with us. Most ethical thought has occurred in societies with essentially no growth presuppositions, and whatever doctrines we favor must be able to deal with such conditions. It is on this more fundamental, timeless, level that the argument should move.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 1976

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.)