David Bourget (Western Ontario)
David Chalmers (ANU, NYU)
Rafael De Clercq
Jack Alan Reynolds
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Politics, Philosophy and Economics 2 (3):283-304 (2003)
What morality requires of us in a world of poverty and inequality depends both on what our duties are in the abstract, and on what we can do to help. T.M. Scanlon's contractualism addresses the first question. I suggest that contractualism isolates the moral factors that frame our deliberations about the extent of our obligations in situations of need. To this extent, contractualism clarifies our common-sense understanding of our duties to distant others. The second, empirical question then becomes vital. What we as individuals need to know is how to fulfil our duties to the distant poor. Moral theorists tend to base their prescriptions on simple assumptions about how the rich can help the poor. Yet a survey of the empirical literature shows how urgently we need more information on this topic before we can know what contractualist morality — or any plausible morality — requires of us. Key Words: Scanlon • contractualism • global <span class='Hi'>justice</span> • global poverty • aid effectiveness.
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Citations of this work BETA
Christian Barry & Gerhard Øverland (2009). Responding to Global Poverty: Review Essay of Peter Singer, the Life You Can Save. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 6 (2):239-247.
David Wiens (2013). Demands of Justice, Feasible Alternatives, and the Need for Causal Analysis. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 16 (2):325-338.
Christian Barry & Gerhard Øverland (2013). How Much for the Child? Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 16 (1):189-204.
Joshua Kassner (2009). Completing the Incomplete: A Defense of Positive Obligations to Distant Others. Journal of Global Ethics 5 (3):181 – 193.
Varun Gauri & Jorn Sonderholm (2012). Global Poverty: Four Normative Positions. Journal of Global Ethics 8 (2-3):193-213.
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