Category: Philosophy

By now, regular readers — and believe it or not there are some — have been treated to my occasional swipes at theories of procedural justice. Roughly speaking, proponents of procedural justice locate justice in the processes that an economy follows. As I have never seen a theory of procedural justice that was not impossible… Continue reading A basic primer on Rawlsian and egalitarian distributive justice

Anarchists and other leftists in the United States have seized upon an unfortunate procedural justice crutch: community consensus. That is, they have decided to locate justice in decision-making processes, and have lifted up community consensus as the only just way to go. The community consensus approach puts forward the following principle: everyone that is affected… Continue reading The problem with the community consensus approach

I recently explained how the just desert framework does not actually lead to the conclusion conservatives claim it does. The just desert framework emphasizes compensating people according to how much they produce. Conservatives think that this framework leads to the conclusion that laissez-faire capitalism is the most just economic form. I raise the objection that… Continue reading Further rebuttal of just desert theory

Recently, President Obama dismissed the new Paul Ryan budget as social Darwinism. Paul Ryan’s budget slashes spending on social programs for the poor while simultaneously massively cutting taxes on the very wealthy. That is, relative to the present, it redistributes money from the poor to the rich. Paul Ryan has never specifically spelled out which… Continue reading Desert theory and social Darwinism

Identitarianism (aka identity politics) is a descriptive and prescriptive political framework that emphasizes the interests and perspectives of discrete identity groups. Gay rights, women’s rights, black rights, trans rights, and other similar movements push the interests of those identity groups. Some who operate within the identitarian framework often try to lump class issues into that… Continue reading Identitarianism’s class problem