NDLI: Thinking about the Needy: A Reprise

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Book Review The European Republic: Reflections on the Political Economy of a Future Constitution by Stefan Collignon. London: The Federal Trust, 2003, 212

Book review : The Journal of Ethics , Volume 8 , Issue 4

Books Received (September 2003–August 2004)

Manuscript Referees for The Journal of Ethics Volume 8: September 2003–August 2004

Key word Index Volume 8

Author Index Volume 8 ( The Journal of Ethics , Volume 8 , Issue 4 )

Contents of Volume 8 ( The Journal of Ethics , Volume 8 , Issue 4 )

The Journal of Ethics : Volume 8, Issue 3, September 2004

The Journal of Ethics : Volume 8, Issue 2, June 2004

The Journal of Ethics : Volume 8, Issue 1, March 2004

The Journal of Ethics : Volume 7

The Journal of Ethics : Volume 6

The Journal of Ethics : Volume 5

The Journal of Ethics : Volume 4

The Journal of Ethics : Volume 3

The Journal of Ethics : Volume 2

The Journal of Ethics : Volume 1

Thinking about the Needy: A Reprise

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Temkin, Larry S.
Copyright Year	2004
Abstract	This article discusses Jan Narveson’s “Welfare and Wealth, Poverty and Justice in Today’s World,” and “Is World Poverty a Moral Problem for the Wealthy?” and their relation to my “Thinking about the Needy, Justice, and International Organizations.” Section 2 points out that Narveson’s concerns differ from mine, so that often his claims and mine fail to engage each other. For example, his focus is on the poor, mine the needy, and while many poor are needy, and vice versa, our obligations may differ regarding the poor than regarding the needy. Also, Narveson invokes a narrow conception of morality as those rules that government or society may compel people to follow. Given a broader, more plausible, conception of morality, many of Narveson’s claims actually support my substantive views. Section 3 shows that many of Narveson’s claims are relevant to the best means of aiding the needy, but do not challenge the validity of that end. This is true, for example, of his claims about the role of poor governments, the importance of freedom, the undesirability of mere “handouts,” and the effects of bad economic policies. Section 4 defends the importance of my distinction between acting justly and acting for reasons of justice. It illustrates that on several widely shared conceptions of justice there might be agent-neutralreasons of justice to aid the needy, even if from an agent-relative perspective one would not be acting unjustly if one failed to do so. Section 5 contests Narveson’s portrayal of egalitarianism as concerned about inequality of wealth, per se, as insensitive to prior wrongs, and as holding that the worse-off have a right to be made better off at the expense of the well-off. In addition, it rejects Narveson’s contention that egalitarians violate impartiality, and aim to impose their personal tastes on others. Section 6 challenges a fundamental assumption underlying Narveson’s doctrine of mutual advantage. In addition, it denies that egalitarians are irrational merely because equality can conflict with the pareto principle. More generally, by appealing to impersonal ideals, it challenges the widely held view that the pareto principle is a condition of rationality. Section 7 argues that Narveson’s meta-ethical assumptions are controversial, internally inconsistent, in tension with his normative views, and ultimately a version of skepticism. In addition, it challenges Narveson’s view about the role intuitions play in moral theory. Section 8 clarifies points where Narveson’s discussion of my views may be misleading. Finally, the paper notes the role that moral reasons may play in deliberation and action, but emphasizes the philosophical and theoretical nature of my work. My aim is to determine the moral considerations that are relevant to how people should act regarding the needy. Whether people will actually be moved to so act, for those reasons or otherwise, is another matter.
Starting Page	409
Ending Page	458
Page Count	50
File Format	PDF
ISSN	13824554
Journal	The Journal of Ethics
Volume Number	8
Issue Number	4
e-ISSN	15728609
Language	English
Publisher	Kluwer Academic Publishers
Publisher Date	2004-01-01
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	agent-neutral reasons agent-relative reasons comparative justice egalitarianism equality foreign aid guilt ideals injustice internalism intuitions irrationality justice leveling down objection libertarianism meta-ethics moral motivation moral reasons Mutual Advantage Jan Narveson the Needy Pareto Principle personal ideals rationality reasons relativism skepticism Social Convention Theory Philosophy Ethics Political Philosophy
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Philosophy

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Thinking about the Needy, Justice, and International Organizations

A Puzzle About Reasons and Rationality

The disappearing agent objection to event-causal libertarianism

Internalism and Hyperexternalism About Reasons

Contractarian Libertarianism of Jan Narveson. Is It Still Libertarianism

A Response to Jan Narveson: Why Libertarians Are and Are Not Like Turnips

Are Moral Reasons Morally Overriding?

Practical Reasons, Practical Rationality, Practical Wisdom

Why reason internalism does not support moral internalism.

Thinking about the Needy: A Reprise

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