Inequalities and Catastrophe

Name: Inequalities and Catastrophe
Brand: Vita e Pensiero
Price: 6.00 EUR
Availability: OnlineOnly

digital

Articolo

Rivista

STUDI DI SOCIOLOGIA

Fascicolo

STUDI DI SOCIOLOGIA - 2021 - 4

Titolo

Inequalities and Catastrophe

Autore

Paul Dumouchel

Editore

Vita e Pensiero

Formato

Articolo |

Pdf

Pagine

Online da

11-2021

Doi

10.26350/000309_000126

Issn

0039-291X (stampa) | 1827-7896 (digitale)

€ 6,00

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Descrizione

Using empirical evidence concerning catastrophes I show that the conception of inequalities dominant in social ethics is inadequate, that it misrepresent the reality it pretends to analyze and evaluate. Disaster studies make clear that catastrophes regularly entrench existing inequalities, making the poor and vulnerable poorer and more vulnerable, and the rich richer. In consequence, I argue, the distinction between legitimate and unjustified inequalities disappears. This well established empirical result undermines a central presupposition of major theories of social justice: that in themselves inequalities are morally neutral. Whether “justice as fairness”, “brute luck” or “desert” theories all these approaches to social justice are challenged by the effect of catastrophes on pre-existing inequalities. In a second part, I argue that this properly catastrophic result for theories of social justice is related to the fact that they tend to identify, if not sometimes to conceived inequalities as properties of agents, while they are relational properties rather than properties of isolated individuals.