Thomas Pogge and his Critics
1. Edition October 2010
224 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
The massive disparity between the relative wealth of most citizens
in affluent countries and the profound poverty of billions of
people struggling elsewhere for survival is morally jolting. But
why exactly is this disparity so outrageous and how should the
citizens of affluent countries respond? Political philosopher,
Thomas Pogge, has emerged as one of the world's most ardent
critics of global injustice which, he argues, is caused directly by
the operation of a global institutional order that not only
systematically disadvantages poor countries but is imposed on them
by precisely those wealthy, powerful countries that benefit the
most from the order's injustice. In allowing their
governments to perpetrate this injustice, Pogge contends that
citizens of the wealthy countries collude in a monumental crime
against humanity.
In this book Pogge's challenging and controversial ideas are
debated by leading political philosophers from a range of
philosophical viewpoints. With a clear and informative introduction
by Alison Jaggar, and original contributions from Neera Chandhoke,
Jiwei Ci, Joshua Cohen, Erin Kelly, Lionel McPherson, Charles W.
Mills, Kok-Chor Tan, and Leif Wenar, this volume deepens and
expands the debate over global justice and moral responsibility in
the world today.
Alison M. Jaggar
1.Philosophy, Social Science, Global Poverty
Joshua Cohen
2.Rights, Harm, and Institutions
Kok-Chor Tan
3.'How much is enough Mr Thomas? How much will ever be enough?'
Neera Chandhoke
4.What Negative Duties? Which Moral Universalism?
Jiwei Ci
5.Non-Egalitarian Global Fairness
Erin I. Kelly and Lionel K. McPherson
6.Realistic Reform of International Trade in Resources
Leif Wenar
7.Realizing (Through Racializing) Pogge
Charles W. Mills
8.Responses to the Critics
Thomas Pogge
the critics actually agree with Pogge's cosmopolitan premises and
concurrently seek to refine his theory. This is a very worthwhile
exercise, since both the originality of Pogge's views on world
poverty and the severity of poverty deserve elaboration and
refinement."
Ethical Perspectives
"Thomas Pogge is part angry prophet, denouncing severe
injustice, and part analytic philosopher, constructing original
arguments. Jaggar's imaginatively conceived collection of critics
combines some of the best leading scholars with diverse fresh
voices, yielding a variegated, vigorous and valuable debate about
responsibility for world poverty that carries the analysis
significantly forward."
Henry Shue, University of Oxford
"Thomas Pogge argues that extreme poverty is unjustly maintained
by institutional means, and could be ended at marginal cost. His
claims about the causes, remedies and injustice of the present
global order are powerfully criticized in this collection, and his
critics are powerfully taken to task: necessary reading for
thinking about global justice."
Onora O'Neill, University of Cambridge
"No philosopher has done more than Thomas Pogge to explain what
makes the persistence of global poverty so grave an injustice and
no other explanation has provoked such a diverse and interesting
array of responses. This very well-edited volume, containing
commissioned essays by a distinguished group of critics and a
powerful reply by Pogge, is an invaluable resource for anyone
attempting to assess his work and to understand how philosophy can
illuminate debates about global poverty."
Andrew Williams, ICREA and Pompeu Fabra University
"Is global poverty the result of a deeply unjust institutional
order we have helped to impose? Are there modest and feasible
institutional reforms that could eradicate extreme poverty? In
Allison Jaggar's fine volume Thomas Pogge's affirmative answers to
these questions receive sustained scrutiny from a distinguished
group of philosophers. The result is essential reading for those
working on justice across borders."
Paula Casal, University of Reading
and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Colorado at
Boulder
