Equality and sufficiency in distributive justice

The School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester is offering a free workshop on 1 March 2013 looking at 'Equality and sufficiency in distributive justice'.

One of the key debates in contemporary political philosophy concerns the normative principles that guide and assess distribution of benefits and burdens between individuals. Central to this debate is the question How should benefits and burdens be shared between people? Political philosophers have advocated three main answers to this question. Some have advocated equality, others priority to the worse of and others still emphasise the importance of securing enough.

While the relationship between equality and priority is well understood, thanks mainly to the provocation of Derek Parfit in the form of the levelling down objection, little work has been done to clarify the relationship between equality and sufficiency.

In order to remedy this defect, and in search of a more satisfactory account of distributive justice, this workshop addresses the following questions and more.

* What is the nature of the ideal of equality as a demand of distributive justice?
* Does equality demand sufficiency or are they incompatible ideals?
* How does a concern for equality and sufficiency yield recommendations for public policy?

The event will be organised around the presentation of three papers given by Professor Paula Casal (Pompeu Fabra), Dr Paul Bou-Habib (Essex) and Dr Liam Shields (Manchester).

It will take place on 1 March from 10am - 5pm in The Boardroom, Arthur Lewis Building, Oxford Road, Manchester.

Prospective attendees need to register their interest in attending online here: http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/disciplines/politics/events/e...