The importance of what we care about: Equality as a moral ideal
The importance of what we care about: Equality as a moral ideal
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我们关心的事情的重要性：平等作为道德理想
DOI：
10.1017/cbo9780511818172.012
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发表时间：
1987
影响因子：
15.9
通讯作者：
H. Frankfurt
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
H. Frankfurt
第一个男人：“你的孩子们怎么样？”第二个人：“和什么相比？”经济平等主义，正如我将解释的那样，是一种主张每个人都应该拥有相同数量的收入和财富（简称“金钱”）的学说。几乎没有人会否认，在某些情况下，容忍偏离这一标准是有意义的。不用说，防止或纠正这种偏差可能涉及的费用，无论是从经济角度还是从非经济因素来衡量，都是任何合理措施都无法接受的。尽管如此，许多人认为经济平等本身具有相当大的道德价值。因此，他们经常敦促，应当把实现平等主义理想的努力放在重要的优先地位，同时充分考虑到这种努力在阻碍或有助于实现其他利益方面可能产生的影响。在我看来，这是一个错误。经济平等本身并不具有特别的道德重要性。关于经济资产的分配，从道德的观点来看，重要的不是每个人都应该拥有同样的东西，而是每个人都应该拥有足够的东西。如果每个人都有足够的东西，那么一些人是否比另一些人拥有更多就没有道德后果了。我将把这种对平均主义的替代--也就是说，在道德上重要的是每个人都有足够的钱--称为“充足的学说”。
First Man: “How are your children?” Second Man: “Compared to what?” Economic egalitarianism is, as I shall construe it, the doctrine that it is desirable for everyone to have the same amounts of income and of wealth (for short, “money”). Hardly anyone would deny that there are situations in which it makes sense to tolerate deviations from this standard. It goes without saying, after all, that preventing or correcting such deviations may involve costs which – whether measured in economic terms or in terms of non-economic considerations – are by any reasonable measure unacceptable. Nonetheless, many people believe that economic equality has considerable moral value in itself. For this reason they often urge that efforts to approach the egalitarian ideal should be accorded – with all due consideration for the possible effects of such efforts in obstructing or in conducing to the achievement of other goods – a significant priority. In my opinion, this is a mistake. Economic equality is not as such of particular moral importance. With respect to the distribution of economic assets, what is important from the point of view of morality is not that everyone should have the same but that each should have enough . If everyone had enough, it would be of no moral consequence whether some had more than others. I shall refer to this alternative to egalitarianism – namely, that what is morally important with respect to money is for everyone to have enough – as “the doctrine of sufficiency.”