The Puzzle of Plural Obligation

Utopophobia ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 207-230
Author(s):  
David Estlund
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Multiple Agents ◽  
Moral Requirement ◽  
Group Agent ◽  
Important Challenge

This chapter deals with plural obligation. Here, the idea of Prime Requirement, upon which the idea of Prime Justice depends, is committed to there being such a thing as a moral requirement of some kind over multiple agents even where they are not a group agent, and even apart from whether any of those agents is thereby under any moral obligation. For that reason, the puzzle of plural obligation is an important challenge. The chapter emphasizes that the problem does not arise particularly from the idea of Prime Justice, or from its being a high, or nonconcessive, or unrealistic standard, but is entirely independent of those features. The problem arises for the very idea of social justice: if requirements of justice—be they idealistic or concessive—require members of society to do or refrain from certain things, the puzzle of plural obligation raises its head, since their all acting that way is not something that any agent can perform.

Philosophical Anarchisms, Moral and Epistemological

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-111
Author(s):  
Mark C. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Moral Requirement ◽  
The Law ◽  
Political Communities ◽  
Philosophical Anarchism

The moral formulation of philosophical anarchism is that most persons, even in just political communities, do not have a moral obligation to obey the law. The epistemological formulation of philosophical anarchism is that most persons are unjustified in believing that they have a moral obligation to obey the law. But the philosophical anarchists’ argument strategies do not, and in fact cannot, show that belief in the moral obligation to obey the law is unjustified. And, further, given that most persons in just political communities do believe that they are under such an obligation, the moral requirement that one ought to act in accordance with one’s conscience implies that most persons have a moral obligation to obey the law. Thus the moral formulation of philosophical anarchism is false and the epistemological formulation unjustified.

scholarly journals Social justice and the formal principle of freedom

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-284
Author(s):  
Olga Nikolic ◽  
Igor Cvejic
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
The State ◽  
Legal Obligation ◽  
Free Society ◽  
Robert Nozick ◽  
Formal Principle ◽  
The Right ◽  
Friedrich Hayek

The aim of this paper is to show, contra the right-libertarian critique of social justice, that there are good reasons for defending policies of social justice within a free society. In the first part of the paper, we will present two influential right-libertarian critiques of social justice, found in Friedrich Hayek?s Law, Legislation and Liberty and Robert Nozick?s Anarchy, State and Utopia. Based on their approach, policies of social justice are seen as an unjustified infringement on freedoms of individual members of a society. In response to this critique, we will introduce the distincion between formal and factual freedom and argue that the formal principle of freedom defended by Hayek and Nozick does not suffice for the protection of factual freedom of members of a society, because it does not recognize (1) the moral obligation to help those who, without their fault, lack factual freedom to a significant degree, and (2) the legal obligation of the state to protect civic dignity of all members of a society. In the second part of the paper, we offer an interpretation of Kant?s argument on taxation, according to which civic dignity presupposes factual freedom, in order to argue that Kant?s justification of taxation offers good reasons for claiming that the state has the legal obligation to protect factual freedom via the policies of social justice.

scholarly journals Redesign of Constitutional Ethics For State Administrator Based on The Value of Pancasila

FIAT JUSTISIA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Muhtadi Muhtadi ◽  
Indra Perwira
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
The State ◽  
Collective Agreement ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Ethical Values ◽  
Original Intent ◽  
New Model ◽  
Constitutional Principle ◽  
Interpretation Method

A constitution is a collective agreement as the foundation and goal to be achieved in the state. Therefore, the constitution not only regulates the fundamental rules of the state but also contains the ethical values that serve as the guiding of the state administrator. However, the spreading of violations of law such as corruption, abuse of authority that ends in the imposition of sanctions justifies the occurrence of incompatibility between the values of the constitutional principle as a reflection of the soul of the nation with the moral obligation of state administrator to implement the values. Using a doctrinal approach, data will be analyzed through the original intent of interpretation, grammatical and systematic law is expected to formulate a new model of constitutional ethics for state administrator based on the value of “Pancasila.” Based on the study of moral and constitutional philosophy with the law interpretation method can be concluded that the ethical values in the 1945 Constitution requires that state administrator base their deeds on the moral deity who respects the values of human civilization as Indonesian citizens, and humans in general with the priority of Indonesian unity above all interests and classes in order to achieve the ideals of social justice based on a deliberate-oriented on the great goal of Indonesian independence. To achieve this intention, the formation of ethical standards of the administrator in the constitutional norms through the amendment of the 1945 Constitution which then set a further law which is general and contains normative sanctions. Keywords: Redesign, Constitutional Ethics, State Administrator

scholarly journals Achieving Income Justice in Professional Sports: Limitation, Taxation, or Donation

2012 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-22
Author(s):  
Gottfried Schweiger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Ethical Problem ◽  
Professional Sports ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Professional Athletes ◽  
Income Justice

Abstract This paper is based on the assumption that the high incomes of some professional sports athletes, such as players in professional leagues in the United States and Europe, pose an ethical problem of social justice. I deal with the questions of what should follow from this evaluation and in which ways those incomes should be regulated. I discuss three different options: a) the idea that the incomes of professional athletes should be limited, b) the idea that they should be vastly taxed by the state, and c) the idea that there is a moral obligation for the athletes to spend portions of their incomes on good causes. I will conclude that in today’s circumstances there are good reasons to advocate both option one (limitation) and option two (taxation), but that priority should be given to taxation.

Advancing Democratic Leadership through Critical Theory

1995 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 220-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly A. Lees
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Democratic Leadership ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Interpretation

Critical interpretation of leadership and democracy in today's society and educational institutions has created conflict and division concerning empowerment, social justice and the credibility of a leader's moral practice. Democracy needs to be redefined, especially by those educational institutions that approach leadership through traditional models of hierarchical oppression. It is through critical theory that democratic leaders have begun the task of self-reflection in order to uncover immoral procedures in an effort to reconstruct the social drama of human decency. Democratic leaders, as public servants, have a moral obligation to the people they represent, and that only as a collective unit can they aspire to. We are challenged then, as transformative intellectuals, to continue the struggle for democracy in institutions of education for justice of all people, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or class.

Plural Requirement

Utopophobia ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 231-252
Author(s):  
David Estlund
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Moral Requirement ◽  
Great Cost ◽  
Ordinary Usage ◽  
Moral Requirements ◽  
The Way

This chapter proposes a theory of Plural Requirement which allows us to vindicate much of its ordinary usage, but which does not count it as an instance of agential moral requirement. It explains, however, that the links to the agential idea are significant nevertheless, in a way that allows us to understand the way in which Plural Requirement is, broadly, a moral idea. The remaining extent to which it is not a familiar agential form of moral requirement transfers to the idea of social justice as Prime Justice, which is a form of Plural Requirement. This implication is not a great cost of the approach, however, so long as it might have been plausible from the beginning that principles of social justice are not, or at least not obviously, action requirements on agents. What that leaves unclear is how social justice requirements are moral requirements at all. Seeing how Plural Requirement is a broadly moral requirement will allow us to see how social justice requirements are broadly moral requirements as well.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Henham
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Common Good ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Sentencing Policy ◽  
The Common ◽  
Normative Dimension

The Introduction outlines the work’s rationale and scope. Two main propositions are advanced. First, it is argued that the values underpinning sentencing policy should promote social cohesion rather than neo-liberal retributive values, which tend to reinforce social divisions through the disproportionate use of incarceration. Thus, sentencing policy should reflect shared values that justify punishment for the common good. Crucially, the identification of such values is regarded as a moral obligation that falls to the state. Secondly, and fundamental to social justice and credible governance, is the normative dimension. Hence, values must be realized through practice so that outcomes have moral credibility at the community level. It is suggested how value-related information could be accommodated in individual cases, whilst maintaining the system’s overall consistency. Numerous changes to practice and guidance are advocated, the most important being that sentencers should be given more discretion, not less, to facilitate the changes proposed.

International Labour Standards and Islamic Teachings: The Principles of the Basic Entitlement Package for Migrant Workers in Arab Countries

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-223
Author(s):  
Latife Reda
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
International Law ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
The Creation ◽  
International Labour Standards ◽  
International Conventions

This article discusses the means of protection for migrant workers entrenched in the notions of social justice of both international law and Islam, and how these tools may be implemented in the creation of a solid basic entitlement package for migrant workers in Arab states. The study also shows how international conventions and recommendations on labour and decent work are no different from the Islamic principles and how they constitute a moral obligation on part of the Arab countries to implement such measures.

Restructuring Educational Systems and Promoting Social Justice for Young People Involved in Drug Trafficking in Brazil

2019 ◽  
Vol 227 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Sandro Gomes Pessoa ◽  
Linda Liebenberg ◽  
Dorothy Bottrell ◽  
Silvia Helena Koller
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Young People ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
2030 Agenda ◽  
Development Goals

Abstract. Economic changes in the context of globalization have left adolescents from Latin American contexts with few opportunities to make satisfactory transitions into adulthood. Recent studies indicate that there is a protracted period between the end of schooling and entering into formal working activities. While in this “limbo,” illicit activities, such as drug trafficking may emerge as an alternative for young people to ensure their social participation. This article aims to deepen the understanding of Brazilian youth’s involvement in drug trafficking and its intersection with their schooling, work, and aspirations, connecting with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4 and 16 as proposed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations in 2015 .

Tests, Minorities, and Social Justice

1977 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 934-935
Author(s):  
JACK D. FORBES
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice
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