Prioritarianism and the Levelling Down Objection

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 14 (2):197-206 (2011)
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Abstract

I discuss Ingmar Persson’s recent argument that the Levelling Down Objection could be worse for prioritarians than for egalitarians. Persson’s argument depends upon the claim that indifference to changes in the average prioritarian value of benefits implies indifference to changes in the overall prioritarian value of a state of affairs. As I show, however, sensible conceptions of prioritarianism have no such implication. Therefore prioritarians have nothing to fear from the Levelling Down Objection

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Thomas Porter
University of Manchester

Citations of this work

Prioritarianism: A response to critics.Matthew D. Adler & Nils Holtug - 2019 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 18 (2):101-144.
Relative priority.Lara Buchak - 2023 - Economics and Philosophy 39 (2):199-229.
Priority and Desert.Matthew Rendall - 2013 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 16 (5):939-951.
Prioritarianism, Levelling Down and Welfare Diffusion.Ingmar Persson - 2011 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 14 (3):307-311.
The Persistence of the Leveling Down Objection.Michael Weber - 2019 - Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics 12 (1):1-25.

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References found in this work

Reasons and Persons.Derek Parfit - 1984 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
Equality or Priority?Derek Parfit - 2001 - In John Harris (ed.), Bioethics. Oxford University Press. pp. 81-125.
The value of equality.Bertil Tungodden - 2003 - Economics and Philosophy 19 (1):1-44.
Equality, priority and person-affecting value.Ingmar Persson - 2001 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 4 (1):23-39.

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