Abstract
In this chapter I set out to do two things. One is to discuss certain concepts and claims that are foundational to the arguments in the subsequent chapters. Another is to set some expectations about arguments that will come later in the book. The chapter serves as an introduction in both respects but I do not summarize all the major claims or systematically list the most important arguments that I promise to make later in the book. That, I think, would make for pretty dreary fare. Instead, I hope to tantalize by simply starting with a discussion of the basic features of my approach to global inequality and the reasons that I have for thinking that it is unjust, and from time to time noting where certain ideas will be developed later.
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Notes
Branko Milanovic, ‘True World Income Distribution, 1998 and 1993: First Calculataions Based on Household Surveys Alone,’ Economic Journal 112 (2002): 51–92.
Thomas Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights (London: Polity Press, 2002), 7–9
Jagdish Bhagwati, In Defense of Globalization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 67.
Charles Beitz, ‘Does Inequality Matter?’ Thomas Pogge, ed., Global Justice (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001), 106–122.
See also Larry S. Temkin, Inequality (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 157–163.
There are various formulations of this idea. See for example, John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (chp. v) in John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham, Utilitarianism and Other Essays (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1987), p. 327
H. L. A Hart, ‘Are There any Natural Rights?’ The Philosophical Review 64 (1955): 175–191.
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, rev. ed. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 508.
Stephen Darwall, The Second Person Standpoint (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), 123.
Cf. John Rawls, Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 11–13.
John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, Erin Kelly ed. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), 23.
Thomas W. Pogge, ‘“Assisting” the Global Poor,’ in Deen K. Chaterjee (ed.) The Ethics of Assistance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 263.
Joseph E. Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton, Fair Trade For All: How Trade can Promote Development (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 32.
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© 2009 Darrel Moellendorf
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Moellendorf, D. (2009). Inequality and the Inherent Dignity of Persons. In: Global Inequality Matters. Global Ethics Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230246904_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230246904_1
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