Wolff - Scanlon On Social and Material Inequality英文资料.docVIP

Scanlon On Social and Material Inequality Jonathan Wolff Dept of Philosophy UCL 1. Background and influence There is no doubt that Tim Scanlon has been an extremely influential figure in the recent development of egalitarian theory. His work has been cited in many of the leading contributions, and it is also clear that he has had an influence through discussions and communication with many of the most influential egalitarian theorists. Yet I think it is fair to say that when surveying the current debate, Scanlon’s position is not easy to identify. Whereas others have a view with a distinctive descriptive name Scanlon’s contribution has not (yet) been of this type. This, I’m sure, reflects an admirable preference for truth over brand recognition, but it will be worthwhile to see what can be constructed from some of his writings. 2. Equality and ‘Preference and Urgency’ Scanlon’s first major contribution to the debate was his 1975 paper ‘Preference and Urgency’, published in the Journal of Philosophy as a paper presented in an APA symposium on equality, with replies at the conference, but as far as I know unpublished, from Milton Fisk and Gerarld McCullum (Scanlon, 1975). Scanlon’s seminal contribution was to point out the distinction between subjective theories of well-being, such as hedonistic or preference satisfaction theories, that assess an individual’s well-being from the point of view of the person under consideration, and objective theories which provide accounts of well-being that are independent (to some degree) of the person’s tastes and preferences. Furthermore Scanlon suggests that in recognizing claims and making decisions about the use of social resources we tend to use objective accounts. The main argument for this is based on the famous example of a religious person who would prefer to build a monument to his god rather than eat, yet Scanlon plausibly claims that as a society we are much more likely to feel the weight of the urgent need for food, rat