2014/02/01 by David Wiens · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · Neuroscience · #Political Philosophy and Ethics #Philosophical Ethics and Theory #Free Will and Agency
paper · doi:10.1093/pq/pqt057
I discuss Gheaus’ argument against the claim that the requirements of justice are not constrained by feasibility concerns. I show that the general strategy exemplified by this argument is not only dialectically puzzling, but also imposes a heavy cost on theories of justice—puzzling because it simply sidesteps a presupposition of any plausible formulation of the so-called ‘feasibility requirement’ and costly because it deprives justice of its normative implications for action. I also show that Gheaus’ attempt to recover this normative force presupposes an epistemic dimension to the feasibility requirement that most proponents of that requirement would reject.