Poverty: A Philosophical Approach

185 Pages·2010·0.74 MB·English

by  September 19, 2005-Poverty, Race & Katrina Lessons Of A National Shame. Why Bush Failed. Children Of The Storm. Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans-Newsweek

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For Emilio, Alejandro and Maurizio
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CONTENTS
Foreword 1
Introduction 5
I. Two Concepts of Poverty 11
II. Criteria of Distribution 45
III. The Rights of the Poor and Our Obligations Toward Them 79
IV. Utility and Norms in the Study of Poverty 109
V. Equality 135
Conclusions 163
References 167
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FOREWORD
The idea of writing a book about poverty arose after having studied
over a long period the main aspects of the theory of justice. Obvi-
ously, Rawls’s A Theory of Justice was a major influence. My inter-
est in concentrating on a particular aspect of justice arose from the
reading of Michael Walzer and Jon Elster. It was Amartya Sen who
led me directly to the subject of poverty.
I have discussed my work in many academic forums and been
greatly stimulated by the exchange of ideas with colleagues. Among
these I would like to mention Elisabetta Di Castro, to whom I am
particularly grateful; I must point out that in recent years all my texts
have passed before her acute and intelligent gaze. Discussions in the
Program for Advanced Studies in Sustainable Development and En-
vironment at El Colegio de México were for me extremely enriching,
and what I learned from Boris Graizbord, Rosa María Ruvalcaba,
Fernando Cortés and Enrique Hernández Laos was decisive. My
gratitude is due to Alicia Ziccardi for the invitation to take part in the
Forum on Poverty organized by the CLACSO working group. Julio
Boltvinik showed interest in my work and provided me with material
related to the so-called and much discussed “poverty lines”.
I had the opportunity to spend a sabbatical year in the Mexican
Government’s Education, Health and Food Program (PROGRESA),
thanks to the generosity and interest shown in the subject of my re-
search by the Program’s coordinator at the time, José Gómez de
León. To a large extent this book is due to him. In Mexico, any per-
son who takes seriously the study and application of policies to com-
bat poverty must inevitably have in mind a memory of “Pepe”. Many
people helped me at PROGRESA, among them Magdalena Torres,
Susan Parker, Patricia Muñoz and Daniel Hernández.
Several of the ideas expressed here can be found in articles and
1
chapters of books published beforehand; I should like to express my

1
“PROGRESA y la atención a las necesidades básicas”, in Alivio a la pobreza, análisis
de del Programa de Educación, Salud y Alimentación, CIESAS and PROGRESA, Mexi-
co City, 1998, pp. 130–143; with José Gómez de León, “Diversidad humana, liber-
tad y capacidades en la obra de Amartya Sen”, Metapolítica, no. 10, vol. 3, April-
June, 1999, pp. 339–351; “Dos conceptos de pobreza”, in Juliana González (ed.),
Moral y poder, Secretaría de Educación Pública/Academia Mexicana de Ciencias y
Tecnología/Consejo Consultivo de Ciencias de la Presidencia de la República,
FOREWORD 1