Nils Holtug and Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen, Egalitarianism: New Essays on the Nature and Value of Equality

Abstract

Egalitarianism: New essays on the Nature and Value of Equality is a collection of papers presented at a conference on egalitarianism at the University of Copenhagen in 2004. Edited by Nils Holtug and Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen and first published by Oxford University press in 2007, Egalitarianism brings together a comprehensive and cohesive body of work from some of today’s leading thinkers in the field of egalitarian theory. The contributors to the volume are: Richard J Arneson, Linda Barclay, Thomas Christiano, Nils Holtug, Susan Hurley, Kasper Lippert Rasmussen, Dennis McKerlie, Ingmar Persson, Bertil Tungodden, Peter Vallentyne, Andrew Williams and Jonathan Wolff. The aim of the volume is “...to bring greater clarity to the issue and (the chapters) can be seen as contributions to the ongoing project of developing an adequate egalitarian theory”. The book is divided in to a general introduction followed by four parts each exploring different aspects of equality theory and with each part providing the backdrop for the subsequent sections. The general introduction provided by the editors gives an overview of the main topics to be explored and provides a comprehensive and manageable introduction to the subject for lay readers. The subsequent chapters, while of a more technical nature, are not beyond the grasp of students or interested parties. Part one—Foundations for Equality, provides a defence of egalitarianism with Thomas Christiano providing a compelling argument for egalitarianism as the fundamental principle of distributive justice and Ingmar Persson providing a defence of extreme egalitarianism. In Chapter Two, Christiano presents an argument for the main claim that egalitarianism is the fundamental principle of distributive justice. The purpose of this claim is twofold: in order to show why we have “good reason to give our allegiance to the principle of equality” (p41) and to provide the basis of his rejection of the levelling down objection. By focusing on the pre-adult phase of life and the principle of well-being, Christiano attempts to show how ideas of sufficiency, historical entitlement and self-ownership are inferior (second order) to the principle of equality and why egalitarianism is the fundamental principle of distributive Ethic Theory Moral Prac (2011) 14:361–362 DOI 10.1007/s10677-011-9270-2