Larry Temkin on Egalitarianism (video)

Larry Temkin gave a lecture on "Equality as Comparative Fairness" at the Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm, on May 20, 2015.

You can view a video of his lecture here:


Abstract:
"The goal of this talk is modest. It is simply to help illuminate the nature of egalitarianism. More particularly, I aim to show what certain egalitarians are committed to, and to suggest, though certainly not prove, that equality, as these egalitarians understand it, is an important normative ideal that cannot simply be ignored in moral deliberations.
In doing this, I will distinguish between different kinds of egalitarian positions, and indicate the type of egalitarianism with which I am concerned, which I call equality as comparative fairness. I will discuss the relations between equality, fairness, luck, and responsibility, and defend egalitarianism against rival views that focus on subsistence, sufficiency, or compassion. I will also defend egalitarianism against the leveling down objection, and illustrate egalitarianism’s distinct appeal, in contrast to prioritarianism’s."

See also his paper, forthcoming in "Journal of Applied Ethics".

Larry Temkin is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He is the author of "Inequality" (Oxford University Press, 1993), and "Rethinking the Good: Moral Ideals and the Nature of Practical Reasoning" (Oxford University Press, 2012).