Are the rich not rich enough? Limitarianism, the riches line and the notion of a fully flourishing life
Ingrid Robeyns's Limitarianism. The Case Against Extreme Wealth is a welcome invitation to address an increasingly worrying feature of contemporary societies worldwide, and one that has been growing for too long under the radar of public scrutiny. My comment will highlight some of the many virt...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Journal of global ethics
Year: 2025, Volume: 21, Issue: 2, Pages: 220-227 |
| Further subjects: | B
fully flourishing life
B superrich B Good Life B riches line B Limitarianism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Ingrid Robeyns's Limitarianism. The Case Against Extreme Wealth is a welcome invitation to address an increasingly worrying feature of contemporary societies worldwide, and one that has been growing for too long under the radar of public scrutiny. My comment will highlight some of the many virtues of the book: the heuristic value of focusing on the rich when examining questions of distributive justice, of starting from a well-informed description of the phenomenon to be assessed and of presenting the big fortunes in terms a waged worker can understand, as well as the rhetorical value of presenting the voices of the rich on the dark side of wealth holding. I will then move to discussing the key notion of the riches line: its definition, its normative implications, and who ends up below and above it. My discussion will show an unacknowledged drift in Robeyns’ work in each of these points, and signal some of the consequences of such a drift that would need attention in order to make the case for limitarianism more coherent and convincing. |
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| ISSN: | 1744-9634 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of global ethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/17449626.2025.2525092 |
