What if Theories of Justice Can’t Motivate Action?

What is the point of a theory of justice if it can’t motivate action? Does political philosophy need to inspire action in the real world?

Theories of justice are expected to provide guidance that can be followed by most people (ought implies can).

Global egalitarianism, which would require a large-scale redistribution of wealth between the Global North and Global South, has be criticised for failing to satisfy this condition. Most people are not sufficiently motivated sacrifice their lifestyles and relationships to assist distant strangers that they will never meet and have little in common. Mere humanity is not seen to be enough.

This ‘motivation critique’ is rooted in the notion that justice requires solidarity and usually has the premise that solidarity beyond borders is not sufficient to motivate action. People need national or state-based communities to sustain distributive social institutions.

This critique is compelling and certainly when levelled against philosophers like Peter Singer has some bite. However, where it is fatally flawed is that it only speaks to solidarity between wealthy people and poor distant strangers. It does not talk about the capacity of those living in the Global South to be motivated by principles of justice and shared oppression.

This is part of wider neglect of disadvantaged people as actual agents in global ethics and political philosophy.


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Reading List

Gwilym David Blunt, Global Poverty, Injustice, and Resistance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019)

Jodi Dean, Solidarity of Strangers: Feminism after Identity Politics (London: University of California Press, 1996)

Lior Erez, Cosmopolitanism, Motivation, and Normative Feasibility’, Ethics and Global Politics 8, no. 1 (2015)

Carol C. Gould, Interactive Democracy: The Social Roots of Global justice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014)

David Miller, Justice for Earthlings: Essays in Political Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2013)

Tommie Shelby, We Who Are Dark: The Philosophical Foundations of Black Solidarity (London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005)

Chapters
0:00-0:30: "If cosmopolitanism is so convincing, why am I a nationalist?"
0:30-1:22: Setting up the problem
1:22-5:46: The Motivation Critique
5:45-9:03: Cosmopolitanism and Solidarity
9:03-10:17: Solidarity and Shared Oppression
10:17-10:27: Credits
10:27-10:36: Dior Baby
Credits

Music:

Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

[drblunt]

If you are interested in learning more pick up the book!


Thanks for watching, you super cool human being (or AI)! If you have any questions leave a comment! I might even make a response video!

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[matthewalbonizio]

What are we really talking about here?

[matthewalbonizio]

Haven't watched a thing. I dislike the premise. Hypotheticals are infinite.