Résumé

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.

Référence

Matthew Adler (Duke University School of Law), « Prioritarianism and Policy: Environment Economics/IAST joint seminar », Environment Economics Seminar, Toulouse : TSE, 4 décembre 2020, 15h00–16h30, salle Zoom.