New Book: "Egalitarianism" by Iwao Hirose

Egalitarianism

by Iwao Hirose

(Routledge, 2014)

208 pages





Description

Some people are worse off than others. Does this fact give rise to moral concern? Egalitarianism claims that it does, for a wide array of reasons. It is one of the most important and hotly debated problems in moral and political philosophy, occupying a central place in the work of John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, G. A. Cohen and Derek Parfit. It also plays an important role in practical contexts such as the allocation of health care resources, the design of education and tax systems, and the pursuit of global justice.

"Egalitarianism" explains how rival theories of egalitarianism evaluate distributions of people’s well-being, and carefully assesses the theoretical structure of each theory. It also examines how egalitarian theories are applied to the distribution of health and health care, thus bringing a deceptively complex philosophical debate into clear focus.

Contents [pre-view]

Introduction

1. Rawlsian egalitarianism 
2. Luck egalitarianism 
3. Telic egalitarianism 
4. Prioritarianism 
5. Sufficientarianism 
6. Equality and time 
7. Equality in health and health care 

Conclusion

Iwao Hirose is Associate Professor at the Philosophy Department, McGill University, Canada. He is co-author (with Greg Bognar) of "The Ethics of Health Care Rationing" (Routledge, 2014). A book on "Moral Aggregation" is coming out in November 2014 on Oxford University Press.

Hirose's PhD Theses on "Equality, Priority, and Aggregation" (2004) is available here [pdf].

See also two papers by Hirose:
* "Reconsidering the Value of Equality" (pdf, 2009)
* "Aggregation and the Allocation of Health Care Resources" (pdf, 2009)