Rawlsian Affirmative Action

Critical Philosophy of Race 3 (2):324-343 (2015)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In this paper I respond to Robert Taylor's argument that a Rawlsian framework does not support strong affirmative action programs. The paper makes three main arguments. The first disputes Taylor's claim that strong AA would not be needed in ideal conditions. Private racial discrimination, I suggest, might still exist in such conditions, so strong AA might be needed there. The second challenges Taylor's claims that pure procedural justice constrains Rawlsian nonideal theory. I argue that this rests on a fetishizing of pure procedural justice that is absent from Rawls's work. I also show that a revised formulation of Taylor's concern here also fails. My third argument makes a positive Rawlsian case for strong AA in nonideal conditions that builds on a Taylor concession. Taylor suggests that the goal of nonideal theory is to create a world in which ideal theory can be applied. My argument begins by showing that another permissible goal of Rawlsian nonideal theory is to ameliorate injustice. I then argue that Rawls's contractualist framework supports the strongest forms of AA when category 3 interventions are blocked.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 101,960

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Rawlsian Affirmative Action.Robert S. Taylor - 2009 - Ethics 119 (3):476-506.
Rawlsian Affirmative Action.Robert Allen - 1998 - The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 42:1-8.
Procedural Justice and Affirmative Action.Kristina Meshelski - 2016 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 19 (2):425-443.
Nonideal Justice, Fairness, and Affirmative Action.Matthew Adams - 2021 - Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 20 (3).
Can Rawls’s Nonideal Theory Save his Ideal Theory?Hye Ryoung Kang - 2016 - Social Theory and Practice 42 (1):32-56.
Racial Realities and Corrective Justice.Tommie Shelby - 2013 - Critical Philosophy of Race 1 (2):145-162.
First Steps Toward a Nonideal Theory of Justice.Marcus Arvan - 2014 - Ethics and Global Politics 7 (3):95-117.
Rawls and racial justice.D. C. Matthew - 2017 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 16 (3):235-258.

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-09-04

Downloads
77 (#275,642)

6 months
15 (#222,143)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

David Matthew
University College, Cork

Citations of this work

Nonideal Justice, Fairness, and Affirmative Action.Matthew Adams - 2021 - Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 20 (3).
Rawls and racial justice.D. C. Matthew - 2017 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 16 (3):235-258.
Nonideal Justice as Nonideal Fairness.Marcus Arvan - 2019 - Journal of the American Philosophical Association 5 (2):208-228.
Affirmative action.Robert Fullinwider - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Race.Michael James - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

View all 9 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references