Meaningful Work, Worthwhile Life, and Self-Respect: Reexamination of the Rawlsian Perspective on Basic Income in a Property-Owning Democracy
Abstract
As is well known, John Rawls opposes the idea and policy of basic income. However, this paper posits that his view of self-respect and activity could accommodate its implementation. Rawls lists the social basis of self-respect in social primary goods as the most important good, but does not assume that it is derived from wage labor alone. It appears that his theory of justice aims to criticize the work-centered (wage-labor) society and to overcome it. Besides, as Rawls desires, for our work to be meaningful and our life worthwhile, we should institutionalize basic income because it can improve workers’ bargaining power and their attitude toward work, in addition to enhancing their leisure time. In this paper, by considering the normative relationship between meaningful work, worthwhile life, and self-respect from a Rawlsian perspective, I inquire into the potential of basic income in his well-ordered society.
Editor’s note
This article was awarded the 2016 BIS Essay Prize from papers submitted from the 2016 BIEN Congress, held in Seoul, South Korea, July 7—9, 2016. The BIS Essay Prize encourages promising research on basic income and related policies and is awarded to an essay that exemplifies a high standard of quality and original basic income research.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (Grant Number JP26370033).
References
Arneson, R. J (1987). Meaningful work and market socialism. Ethics, 97(3), 517–545.10.1086/292864Suche in Google Scholar
Bowie, N. E (1998). A Kantian theory of meaningful work. Journal of Business Ethics, 17, 1083–1092.10.1023/A:1006023500585Suche in Google Scholar
Cohen, J (1989). Democratic equality. Ethics, 99(4), 727–751.10.2307/j.ctv22jnt6h.6Suche in Google Scholar
Daniels, N., Kennedy, B. & Kawachi, I (2001). Is inequality bad for our health? Boston : Beacon Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Elster, J. (1988). Is there (or should there be) a right to work? In Gutmann, A. (1988).Suche in Google Scholar
Eyal, N (2005). ‘Perhaps the most important primary good’: Self-respect and Rawls’s principles of justice. Politics, Philosophy & Economics, 4(2), 195–219.10.1177/1470594X05052538Suche in Google Scholar
Ford, M (2015). The rise of the robots: Technology and the threat of mass unemployment. New York: Basic Books.Suche in Google Scholar
Freeman, S (2007). Rawls. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203086605Suche in Google Scholar
Freeman, S (2013). Property-owning democracy and the difference principle. Analyse & Kritik, 35(1), 9–36.10.1093/oso/9780190699260.003.0005Suche in Google Scholar
Frey, C. B. & Osborne, M. A. (2013). The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation? (May 23, 2016) http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf.10.1016/j.techfore.2016.08.019Suche in Google Scholar
Fukuma, S. (2014). A theory of work in the time of increasing social disparities: Rereading John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice. Tokyo: Gendaishokan. (In Japanese).Suche in Google Scholar
Gutmann, A. (Ed.). (1988). Democracy and the welfare state. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Hasan, R. (2015). Rawls on meaningful work and freedom. Social Theory and Practice, 41(3), 477–504.10.5840/soctheorpract201541325Suche in Google Scholar
Hatcher, T. (2007). Workplace democracy: A review of literature and implications for Human Resource Development. (May 23, 2016) http://www.american.coop/sites/default/files/ED504672.pdf.Suche in Google Scholar
Howard, M. W. (1984). Worker control, self-respect, and self-esteem. Philosophy Research Archives, X, 455–472.10.5840/pra19841014Suche in Google Scholar
Hsieh, N.-H. (2005). Rawlsian justice and workplace republicanism. Social Theory and Practice, 31(1), 115–142.10.5840/soctheorpract20053116Suche in Google Scholar
Hsieh, N.-H. (2008). Survey article: justice in production. The Journal of Political Philosophy, 16(1), 72–100.10.1111/j.1467-9760.2007.00290.xSuche in Google Scholar
Hsieh, N.-H. (2012). Work, ownership, and productive enfranchisement. In O'Neill and Williamson (2012).10.1002/9781444355192.ch7Suche in Google Scholar
McKinnon, C (2003). Basic income, self-respect and reciprocity. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 20(2), 143–158.10.1111/1468-5930.00243Suche in Google Scholar
McKinnon, C. (2006). A scandalous proposal: Ethical attractions of basic income. Basic Income Studies, 1(1), Article 10.10.2202/1932-0183.1006Suche in Google Scholar
Mandle, J. & Reidy, D. A. (Eds.). (2015). The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139026741Suche in Google Scholar
Marx, K. (1963) [1844]. Early writings. London: C. A. Watts. (Trans. and Ed.) Bottomore. T. B.Suche in Google Scholar
Meade, J. E. (1964). Efficiency, equality and the ownership of property. London: Allen & Unwin.Suche in Google Scholar
Mele, A. R. & Rawling, P. (Eds.). (2004). The Oxford handbook of rationality. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199752393.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Metz, T. (2012). The meaningful and the worthwhile: Clarifying the relationships. The Philosophical Forum, 43(4), 435–448.10.1111/j.1467-9191.2012.00436.xSuche in Google Scholar
Moriarty, J. (2009). Rawls, self-respect, and the opportunity for meaningful work. Social Theory and Practice, 35(3), 441–459.10.5840/soctheorpract200935325Suche in Google Scholar
O’Neill, M. & Williamson, T. (Eds.). (2012). Property-owning democracy: Rawls and beyond. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.10.1002/9781444355192Suche in Google Scholar
Pence, G. (2001). Towards a theory of work. In Schaff, K. (2001).Suche in Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.10.4159/9780674042605Suche in Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (1999a). A theory of justice (rev. ed.). Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (1999b). Collected papers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Ed.) Freeman, S.Suche in Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (1999c). The law of peoples : with "The idea of public reason revisited". Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.10.2307/j.ctv1pncngcSuche in Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (2001). Justice as fairness: A restatement. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. (Ed.) Kelly, E.10.2307/j.ctv31xf5v0Suche in Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (2005). Political liberalism (expanded ed.). New York: Columbia University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Rifkin, J. (2004). The end of work: The decline of the global labor force and the dawn of the post-market era (Updated ed.). New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc.Suche in Google Scholar
Rivera-Castro, F. (2015). Self-respect. In Mandle and Reidy (2015).10.1017/CBO9781139026741.199Suche in Google Scholar
Rovane, C. (2004). Rationality and persons. In Mele and Rawling (2004).10.1093/0195145399.003.0017Suche in Google Scholar
Sandel, M. J. (1996). Democracy’s discontent: America in search of a public philosophy. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Schaff, K. (Ed.). (2001). Philosophy and the problems of work. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Suche in Google Scholar
Schwarzenbach, S. A. (2015). Social union. In Mandle and Reidy (2015).Suche in Google Scholar
Smith, A. (1994) [1776]. An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. New York: The Modern Library.Suche in Google Scholar
Van Parijs, P. (1995). Real freedom for all: What (If Anything) can justify capitalism? Oxford : Clarendon Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Van Parijs, P. (2004). Basic income: A simple and powerful idea for the twenty-first century. Politics & Society, 32(1), 7–39.10.1177/0032329203261095Suche in Google Scholar
Wall, S. (2015). Aristotelian principle. In Mandle and Reidy (2015).Suche in Google Scholar
Yeoman, R. (2014). Meaningful work and workplace democracy: A philosophy of work and a politics of meaningfulness. London: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9781137370587Suche in Google Scholar
Zink, J. R. (2011). Reconsidering the role of self-respect in Rawls’s A Theory of Justice. The Journal of Politics, 73(2), 331–344.10.1017/S0022381611000302Suche in Google Scholar
Zaino, J. S. (1998). Self-respect and Rawlsian justice. The Journal of Politics, 60(3), 737–753.10.2307/2647646Suche in Google Scholar
© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Articles
- Meaningful Work, Worthwhile Life, and Self-Respect: Reexamination of the Rawlsian Perspective on Basic Income in a Property-Owning Democracy
- The Iniquity of Money-Metric Poverty in India
- Financial Model for Universal Minimum Benefit for Spain
- Real Freedom for All Revisited – Normative Justifications of Basic Income
- Book Reviews
- Widerquist, Karl, Noguera, José A., Vanderborght, Yannick, & de Wispelaere, Jurgen. Basic income. An anthology of contemporary research
- Srnicek, Nick; Williams, Alex: Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work
- Erratum
- Erratum to: A National Dividend vs. a Basic Income – Similarities and Differences
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Articles
- Meaningful Work, Worthwhile Life, and Self-Respect: Reexamination of the Rawlsian Perspective on Basic Income in a Property-Owning Democracy
- The Iniquity of Money-Metric Poverty in India
- Financial Model for Universal Minimum Benefit for Spain
- Real Freedom for All Revisited – Normative Justifications of Basic Income
- Book Reviews
- Widerquist, Karl, Noguera, José A., Vanderborght, Yannick, & de Wispelaere, Jurgen. Basic income. An anthology of contemporary research
- Srnicek, Nick; Williams, Alex: Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work
- Erratum
- Erratum to: A National Dividend vs. a Basic Income – Similarities and Differences