'Respect and Discrimination' - Prof. Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen, Aarhus University
Forthcoming in Routledge Handbook of Ethics and Public Policy, edited by Annabelle Lever and Andrei Poama
Abstract: This chapter starts with a definition of anti-discrimination policies. It then introduces a number of dimensions along which these differ, before it zooms in on a particular form of anti-discrimination policy, affirmative action. The motivation for this is that many other forms of anti-discrimination policies are comparatively uncontroversial and raise less interesting moral questions, whereas affirmative action seems vulnerable to the apparently decisive reverse discrimination objection. Hence, I consider and rebut this objection before moving on to review some to the most important justifications for and (some other) objections to affirmative action. This review is somewhat open-ended, since the question “Is affirmative action justified?” is posed at a too general level to have any plausible “Yes” or “No” answer. The chapter ends with the tentative suggestion that the site of anti-discrimination policies includes more than the labor market and higher education.
Date: 26 January 2017, 15:00 (Thursday, 2nd week, Hilary 2017)
Venue: Blavatnik School of Government, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter OX2 6GG
Venue Details: Seminar Room 3
Speaker: Prof. Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen (Aarhus University)
Organising department: Blavatnik School of Government
Organiser: Amy-Kate Robinson (Blavatnik School of Government)
Organiser contact email address: amy-kate.robinson@bsg.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Blavatnik School of Government Research Seminars Hilary Term 2017
Topics:
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: DPhil Students and Faculty of University of Oxford
Editor: Amy-Kate Robinson