December 4, 2020, 15:00–16:30
Toulouse
Room Zoom
Abstract
Prioritarianism is an ethical view that gives extra weight to the well-being of the worse-off. Like utilitarianism, prioritarianism is consequentialist (it evaluates choices in light of their possible outcomes) and welfarist (the goodness of outcomes is seen as reducible to facts about individuals’ well-being). Utilitarianism ranks outcomes according to the simple sum of well-being. Prioritarianism, by contrast, employs a concave transformation function for well-being—the effect of which is to accord priority to the worse-off. Prioritarianism is operationalized for governmental policy choice via a “social welfare function” (SWF). In this talk, I will discuss the SWF framework generally and prioritarianism specifically, and then discuss its application to risk regulation, Covid-19 policy, and climate change.
Reference
Matthew Adler (Duke University School of Law), “Prioritarianism and Policy: Environment Economics/IAST joint seminar”, Environment Economics Seminar, Toulouse: TSE, December 4, 2020, 15:00–16:30, room Zoom.