Justice for Hedgehogs: A Conference on Ronald Dworkin's Forthcoming Book held at Boston University School of Law on September 25-26, 2009. Keynote Address: Justice for Hedgehogs Keynote Address - Professor Ronald Dworkin
At 9:30 he talks about a hypothetical auction which would provide a more just or fair system of redistribution. Since I have not read the book yet, could someone tell me more about this auction? Wouldn't it lead to the wealthiest people again getting what they want at the expense of the poor? Or would the wealth be a resource up for auction? And if so, how would people bid? I will be getting the book soon, but am just trying to see if anyone can fill me in before then. Cheers hedgehogs..
Just as Rawls talks about the "original state" in his work, Dworkin envisaged a situation where a bunch of people stranded in an island are given equal number of shells, which he calls the "auction of resources". Now, people with equal number of shells exercise their rational will to determine the priority of the goods they want to purchase ( e.g. coconuts, fish, pearls etc.); and this is what Dworkin calls "insurance", so as to ensure that their choice or "ambitions" does not fall prey to "brute luck" or "endowments".
Prof. Dworkin makes a claim that skepticism about morality is itself a moral claim. But he doesn’t explicate the term morality anywhere and thus, at some places, it seems like he is moulding the nomenclature to suit the claim. Can somebody please guide as to what does he mean by morality?
He means what most people mean by the term: the answers to questions about what we have reason to do for and not do to other people (page 1 of his book Justice for Hedgehogs for reference). He then goes on to explicate the central idea of his book which is that the right answer to those questions requires an interpretative process of seeking to unify or find coherence among the values we hold.
