Book: "From Global Poverty to Global Equality"

From Global Poverty to Global Equality
A Philosophical Exploration

by Pablo Gilabert

(Oxford University Press, 2012)

345 pages



Description

This book argues that there are basic positive duties of justice to help eradicate severe global poverty; that global egalitarian principles are also reasonable even if they cannot be fully realized in the short term; and that there are dynamic duties to enhance the feasibility of the transition from global poverty to global equality in the face of nonideal circumstances such as the absence of robust international institutions and the lack of a strong ethos of cosmopolitan solidarity. The very notion of feasibility is crucial for normative reasoning, but has received little explicit philosophical discussion. This book offers a systematic exploration of that concept as well as of its application to global justice. It also arbitrates the current debate between humanist and associativist accounts of the scope of distributive justice. Drawing on moral contractualism (the view that we ought to follow the principles that no one could reasonably reject), this book provides a novel defense of humanism, challenges several versions of associativism (which remains the most popular view among political philosophers), and seeks to integrate the insights underlying both views.

Contents [preview]

1: Introduction: The Complexity of the Debate on Global Justice

Part I: Beyond Global Poverty

2: Basic Positive Duties of Justice: A Contractualist Defense
3: Negative Duties and the Libertarian Challenge
4: The Feasibility of Global Poverty Eradication in Nonideal Circumstances

Part II: Toward Global Equality

5: Humanist versus Associativist Accounts of Global Equality
6: A Humanist Defense of Global Equality
7: The Feasibility of Global Equality
8: Conclusion: Exploring Responsibilities of Global Justice

Pablo Gilabert is Associate Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Concordia University, Montreal.