POL 520: Seminar in Political Theory: Contemporary Egalitarianism

Alan Patten
Spring 2009

The course explores different theories of equality that have been proposed by
political philosophers since the 1960s.

Questions to be considered include the following:

- Is equality a value? Or are the main reasons for caring about inequality
non-egalitarian in character?
- Is equality really what we care about, or is it sufficient that people simply
have enough?
- To the extent that equality is a value, along what dimension should people
enjoy equality? Equality of what?
- What is the relationship between equality of opportunity and equality more
generally? Does equality of opportunity have value in its own right that is
independent of the contribution it makes to equality in general?
- What is the relationship between equality and luck? Should the egalitarian
aim be to nullify the effects of luck on peoples life prospects?
- Should institutions be the main object of egalitarian concern or should
egalitarians also be concerned about the presence or absence of an
appropriate egalitarian ethos?
- To what extent, if at all, does legitimate partiality to ones own projects and
relationships place a limit on the redistributive requirements associated with
equality?

Major authors to be read include: John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, Amartya Sen,
G.A. Cohen, Thomas Scanlon, Derek Parfit, Thomas Nagel, Samuel Scheffler,
Richard Arneson, Elizabeth Anderson.


Wk 1: Introduction The Problem of Equality

Students planning to take the seminar will be asked to read the following
paper in advance of the first meeting:

Bernard Williams, The Idea of Equality, in Problems of the Self (and
originally in P. Laslett and W.G. Runciman (eds.) Philosophy, Politics, and
Society: Second Series (1962).

Note: If there are any students who have never carefully read Rawlss A
Theory of Justice (see wk 2 below) they should also review Chapter 1 as
background to wk 2.



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Wk 2: Rawls

Main Readings:
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Revised Edition, Chapters 2-3 (omit secs.
18-19, 30), and Secs. 41-3, 47-9, 77, 80-81.

Recommended Readings:
John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Brief Restatement, Parts II-III.
Philippe Van Parijs, in Cambridge Companion to Rawls (recommended)
Josh Cohen, Democratic Equality, Ethics 1986 (recommended)


Wk 3: Equality of Opportunity

Main Readings:
George Sher, Qualifications, Fairness and Desert, in Equal Opportunity, ed.
N. Bowie (Boulder, Colo: Westview, 1988), pp. 11327
Richard Arneson, Against Rawlsian Equality of Opportunity, Philosophical
Studies 1999
David Miller, Deserving Jobs, Philosophical Quarterly 1992 (2).
Brian Barry, Why Social Justice Matters, pp. 37-45.


Recommended Readings:
Andrew Mason, Leveling the Playing Field, chs. 1-3
Andrew Mason, Equality of Opportunity: Old and New, Ethics, 2001
John Roemer, Equality of Opportunity, in Meritocracy and Economic
Inequality, ed. Ken Arrow, Samuel Bowles, and Steven Durlauf (Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000)
Brian Barry, Equal Opportunity and Moral Arbitrariness, in N. Bowie (ed.)
Equal Opportunity
Stuart White, Equality, ch. 3


Wk 4: Rawls and Equality Early Criticism

Main Readings:
Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia, ch. 7.
John C. Harsanyi, Can the Maximin Principle Serve as the Basis for
Morality?, APSR (1975)
Thomas Nagel, Equality, in Mortal Questions. (reprinted in Clayton, M. and
Williams, A., ed, The Ideal of Equality, New York: St. Martins Press).

Recommended Readings:
Brian Barry, The Liberal Theory of Justice
Norman Daniels, Reading Rawls
Jeffrey Paul, Reading Nozick
G.A. Cohen, Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality
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Wk 5: Equality of Resources

Main Readings:
Ronald Dworkin, Sovereign Virtue, Chapters 1-2 (these chapters are reprints
of Equality of Welfare and Equality of Resources, Philosophy & Public
Affairs (1981)).

Recommended Readings:
Ronald Dworkin, Sovereign Virtue, Ch. 3.
Symposium in Ethics (October 2002): Symposium on Ronald Dworkins
Sovereign Virtue, papers by Otsuka and Fleuerbay, with replies by Dworkin.
Philippe Van Parijs, Why Surfers Should be Fed: The Liberal Case for an
Unconditional Basic Income, Philosophy & Public Affairs (1991).
Justine Burley (ed.) Dworkin and His Critics
Colin Macleod, Liberalism, Justice, and Markets


Wk 6: Equality of Welfare

Main Readings:
G.A. Cohen, On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice, Ethics (1989)
Ronald Dworkin, Sovereign Virtue, ch 8 (pp. 285-99).
Arneson, Richard J. 1989. Equality and equality of opportunity for welfare
Philosophical Studies, 56, 77-93.

Recommended Readings:
G.A. Cohen, Expensive Taste Rides Again, in J. Burley (ed.) Dworkin and
His Critics (recommended)
Ronald Dworkin, Reply to Cohen, in Burley (ed.) (recommended)
Richard Arneson, Liberalism, Distributive Subjectivism, and Equal
Opportunity for Welfare, excerpt in M. Clayton and A. Williams (eds.) The
Ideal of Equality (or full article in Philosophy & Public Affairs, 1990).
Kasper Lipert-Rasmussen, Arneson on Equality of Opportunity for Welfare,
Journal of Political Philosophy, 1999 (recommended)



Wk 7: The Capability Approach

Main Readings:
Sen, A. (1982) Equality of What?, in Choice, Welfare and Measurement,
Cambridge: MIT Press.
G.A. Cohen, Equality of What?, in A. Sen and M. Nussbaum (eds.) The
Quality of Life.
Philip Pettit, Capability and Freedom: A Defense of Sen, Economics and
Philosophy, 17, pp. 1-20 (2001)
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Ronald Dworkin, Sovereign Virtue, ch 7 (pp. 299-303)

Recommended Readings:
Andrew Williams, Dworkin on Capability, Ethics (2002)
Ronald Dworkin, Sovereign Virtue Revisited, Ethics (2002), pp. 136-40.
Nussbaum, M. (2000) Women and Human Development: The Capabilities
Approach, Cambridge, Ch. 1.
Eric Nelson, From Primary Goods to Capabilities, Political Theory 36:1
(2008)


Wk 8: Equality or Priority?

Main Readings:
Parfit, Derek (2000) Equality or Priority?, in Clayton, M. and Williams, A.,
ed, The Ideal of Equality, New York: St. Martins Press.
Frankfurt, Harry, Equality as a Moral Idea, Ethics 1987 (reprinted in his
The Importance of What We Care About)
T.M. Scanlon, The Diversity of Objections to Inequality, in The Difficulty of
Tolerance (reprinted in Clayton, M. and Williams, A., ed, The Ideal of
Equality, New York: St. Martins Press).

Recommended Readings:
Larry Temkin, Equality, Priority, and the Levelling Down Objection, in
Clayon and Williams (eds.) The Ideal of Equality (with portions reprinted from
Temkin, Inequality, ch. 9).
Joseph Raz, The Morality of Freedom, ch. 9


Wk 9: Equality and Partiality

Main Readings:
Thomas Nagel, Equality and Partiality (excerpt)
Samuel Scheffler, Relationships and Responsibilities, Philosophy & Public
Affairs (1997)

Recommended Readings:
Samuel Scheffler, Boundaries and Allegiances


Wk 10: Incentives and Inequality

Main Readings:
G.A. Cohen, Incentives, Inequality and Community, The Tanner Lectures on
Human Value (reprinted in revised form as Chapter 1 of Cohen, Rescuing
Justice & Equality)
G.A. Cohen, Where the action is, Philosophy & Public Affairs, 1997
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Josh Cohen, Taking People as they are, Philosophy & Public Affairs, 2001

Recommended Readings:
G.A. Cohen, Rescuing Justice & Equality
Andrew Williams, Incentives, Inequality, and Publicity, Philosophy & Public
Affairs 1998
A.J. Julius, Basic Structure and the Value of Equality, Philosophy & Public
Affairs 2003
Liam Murphy, Institutions and the Demands of Justice, Philosophy & Public
Affairs 1998
Thomas Pogge, On the Site of Distributive Justice, Philosophy & Public
Affairs 2000


Wk 11: Luck Egalitarianism vs. Democratic Equality

Main Readings
Elizabeth Anderson, What is the Point of Equality? Ethics 1999
Samuel Scheffler, What is Egalitarianism? Philosophy & Public Affairs 2003
Ronald Dworkin, Symposium in Ethics (2002): Symposium on Ronald
Dworkins Sovereign Virtue, reply by Dworkin (especially 113-18)
Richard Arneson, Luck Egalitarianism Interpreted and Defended,
Philosophical Topics 2006.

Recommended Readings:
David Miller, Principles of Social Justice, ch. 11.



Wk 12: Recent Work on Equality

Martin ONeill, What Should Egalitarians Believe? Philosophy & Public Affairs
2008.
Michael Titelbaum, What Would a Rawlsian Ethos of Justice Look Like?
Philosophy & Public Affairs 2008
Roger Crisp, Equality, Priority, and Compassion, Ethics July 2003
Paula Casal, Why Sufficiency is Not Enough, Ethics 2007