A useful meta-theory needs to make room for people to encounter new circumstances that cause them to change their ideas about justice. A theory that assumes anyone never makes a mistake is bound to go wrong.
OTOH, J.C. Lester uses a variant of ideal theory (perfect compliance), not to draw conclusions about what people should do, but as a a way to decide what the concept of “liberty” actually means. He imagines a world where everyone happens to have liberty; could this thing happen there? I think this approach might still have problems, but he is right to want to reason about liberty before jumping into a discussion of property rights. Do you think ideal theory can help us clarify concepts in this way?
Typo in Carens section: “Everyone gets taxed such that their pre-tax incomes are equal”. Shouldn’t that be “after-tax incomes”?
Related: "Effective Justice" Roger Crisp & Theron Pummer
https://philpapers.org/archive/CRIEJ-2.pdf
A useful meta-theory needs to make room for people to encounter new circumstances that cause them to change their ideas about justice. A theory that assumes anyone never makes a mistake is bound to go wrong.
OTOH, J.C. Lester uses a variant of ideal theory (perfect compliance), not to draw conclusions about what people should do, but as a a way to decide what the concept of “liberty” actually means. He imagines a world where everyone happens to have liberty; could this thing happen there? I think this approach might still have problems, but he is right to want to reason about liberty before jumping into a discussion of property rights. Do you think ideal theory can help us clarify concepts in this way?