Global poverty and individual responsibility
By: Abigail Gosselin.
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Lanham, MD
Language: eng
Number of pages: 243
ISBN-13: 9780739122907; 9780739122914; 9780739133507
Subjects: Wealth -- Moral and ethical aspects; Humanitarianism; Poverty; Social ethics
Description: "Although governments and corporations are most directly responsible for addressing global poverty, individuals have duties as well. Starting from this moral insight, Global Poverty and Individual Responsibility considers what responsibilities affluent individuals have toward global poverty, given that global poverty is a problem with structural causes whose solution generally requires collective action. In this probing discussion, Abigail Gosselin examines three kinds of duties at length, each with its own chapter: beneficence, redress, and institutional justice. Situating each duty in the relevant literature (moral, legal, and political philosophy), Gosselin explains how the duty is justified, who are its appropriate duty-bearers, and what actions it requires of individuals. Real-life examples show the applicability of each duty to particular situations of poverty." "Rather than providing an exclusively moral, political, or legal assessment of responsibility for global poverty, Gosselin examines the intersection of these three approaches, giving a comprehensive look at affluent individuals' relationships to poverty. This volume thus provides a survey of existing literature on responsibility for global poverty, as well as a positive proposal for a pluralistic and differentiated account of individual duties based on a person's moral, role, and institutional identities. The final chapter summarizes the actions that an individual should take in response to global poverty."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Global poverty and responsibility; title: Duties of beneficence; title: Duties of redress; title: Duties of institutional justice; title: Responsibilities of affluent individuals.