Chapter 9 : Social Philosophy
The
principle question for social philosophy is:
Who gets what????
This matter is known as DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE.
Just how are the goods and services within any society to be
distributed? In any
society no matter how small (an island society) or how large (the
People’s Republic of China) there will arise the question of how goods
and services are to be distributed. Whether
people will be free to work and keep what they earn or whether all must
contribute in some way to the welfare of others, particularly those not
capable of working and caring for themselves.
Below there are a number of principles which have been developed in
response to this problem of deciding how social life is to be regulated
and people are to be cared for. Read these and note the differences.
On Distributive Justice:
READ: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-distributive/
There
are different theories of how to make the basic distribution.
Among them are:
 | Strict Egalitarianism |
| The Difference Principle |
| Resource-Based Principles |
| Welfare-Based Principles |
| Desert-Based Principles |
| Libertarian Principles |
Consider some matter of importance to us today that relates to the question of the distribution of goods and services. Apply any of the social theories you have read about and take a position on it. For example,
The distribution of the funds of the charities to the victims of the 9-11 Disaster, how should the federal money be distributed? What principle of distributive justice do you favor using.
Read how the money was distributed.
There are a variety of social situations that result
from the application of these principles or from a combination of the
principles. The range of
variations is quite broad and includes communist states and democratic
states. It includes societies
that have great concern for individual welfare and those that have great
concern for the common welfare. It
includes those that have liberal as well as conservative orientations.
What does this mean?
We shall contrast two rather different approaches to
the matter of distribution in the next section:
Proceed to the next section by clicking here> next section.
© Copyright Philip A. Pecorino 2000. All Rights reserved.
Web Surfer's Caveat: These are class notes, intended to comment on readings and amplify class discussion. They should be read as such. They are not intended for publication or general distribution.