TY - JOUR
AU - Anderson, Elizabeth S.
AB - What Is the Point of Equality?* Elizabeth S. Anderson If much recent academic work defending equality had been secretly penned by conservatives, could the results be any more embarrassing for egalitarians? Consider how much of this work leaves itself open to classic and devastating conservative criticisms. Ronald Dworkin defines equality as an "envy-free" distribution of resources.' This feeds the suspicion that the motive behind egalitarian policies is mere envy. Philippe Van Parijs argues that equality in conjunction with liberal neutrality among concep- tions of the good requires the state to support lazy, able-bodied surfers who are unwilling to work.2 This invites the charge that egalitarians sup- port irresponsibility and encourage the slothful to be parasitic on the productive. Richard Arneson claims that equality requires that, under certain conditions, the state subsidize extremely costly religious cere- monies that its citizens feel bound to perform.3 G. A. Cohen tells us that equality requires that we compensate people for being temperamentally gloomy, or for being so incurably bored by inexpensive hobbies that they can only get fulfilling recreation from expensive diversions.4 These pro- posals bolster the objection that egalitarians are oblivious to the proper limits of state power and permit coercion of 
TI - What Is the Point of Equality?
JF - Ethics
DO - 10.1086/233897
DA - 1999-01-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/university-of-chicago-press/what-is-the-point-of-equality-hGhThkCUnN
SP - 287
EP - 337
VL - 109
IS - 2
DP - DeepDyve
ER -