The Pecking Order: Social Hierarchy as a Philosophical Problem

495 Pages·2023·5.364 MB·English

by  Niko Kolodny

The Pecking Order

The Pecking Order
Social Hierarchy as a
Philosophical Problem
Niko Kolodny
Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England ■ 2023
Copyright © 2023 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing
Cover artwork: Studies of sixteen chickens by Jules Joseph Augustin Laurens after
a design by Juliette Bonheur, 1865-1878, courtesy of the Rijksmuseum
Cover design: Tim Jones
9780674292826 (EPUB)
9780674292819 (PDF)
thelibraryofcongresshascatalogedtheprintededitionasfollows:
Names: Kolodny, Niko, author.
Title: The pecking order : social hierarchy as a philosophical problem /
Niko Kolodny.
Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2023. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022032807 | ISBN 9780674248151 (cloth)
Subjects: LCSH: Social stratification—Philosophy. | Political
science—Philosophy. | Philosophy and social sciences.
Classification: LCC HM821 .K65 2023 | DDC 305.01—dc23/eng/20220804
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022032807
For Jessica,
In theory, with equal,
in practice, with none

Contents
Introduction: A Negative Observation and a
Positive Conjecture 1
I A First Instance of the Negative Observation:
Justifying the State 11
1 The Received Materials: Improvement and Invasion 13
1.1 Claims 13
1.2 Interests in Improvement 15
1.3 Fair Trade-Offs 17
1.4 Chances 19
1.5 Choice Situations 20
1.6 Rights against Invasion 28
1.7 Appendix: Natural Injustice, Structural Injustice,
and Claims against No One 29
2 Is the Claim against the State’s Force? 33
2.1 The Ubiquitous Presupposition: A Claim against the State 33
2.2 Enforcement 36
2.3 The Distributive Complaint 38
2.4 The Deontological Complaint 40
2.5 The Myth of the Omittites 41
2.6 The Natural Duty Argument 44
2.7 The Avoidance Principle 49
2.8 Avoiding State Imposition 55
2.9 Two Libertarian Principles 56
viii contents
3 Is the Claim against the State’s Threats? 62
3.1 The Myth of Our Trusting Future 62
3.2 Conditioning and Announcing 63
3.3 Two Contrasts between Force and Threat 64
3.4 From the Inheritance Principle to the Risk and
Fear Principles 65
3.5 The Choice Principle 68
3.6 Coercion, Strictly Speaking 72
3.7 Exploitative Offers 76
4 Last Attempts 78
4.1 Is the Claim against Being Obligated to Obey the State? 78
4.2 Is the Claim against the State’s Expropriation? 81
II The Positive Conjecture: Claims against Inferiority 85
5 Relations of Inferiority 87
5.1 Three Abstract Conditions, Two Paradigms 89
5.2 Power, Authority, and Regard 91
5.3 Is Objectionable Hierarchy Just Disparity of Regard? 95
5.4 The Primary Tempering Factors 97
5.5 The Structure of Claims against Inferiority 101
6 Disparities of Regard 103
6.1 Regard in General 103
6.2 Esteem for Particular Qualities and Achievements 106
6.3 Consideration for Persons 108
6.4 Purely Expressive Disparities 114
7 Reductive Gambits 117
7.1 Expression 117
7.2 Psychic Cost 118
7.3 Recognition 119
8 The State and the Secondary Tempering Factors 122
8.1 A Claim against the Hierarchy of the State 122
8.2 Secondary Tempering Factors 125
8.3 Inferiority or Heteronomy: Self-Sovereignty as
a Case Study 127
contents ix
8.4 Impersonal Justification and Least Discretion 131
8.5 Equal Application 134
8.6 Downward Accountability and Upward Unaccountability 135
8.7 Equal Influence 137
8.8 Ruling and Being Ruled in Turn 138
8.9 Equal Consideration and Equal Citizenship 140
9 The State and the Firm 145
9.1 Reviving the Parallel-Case Argument 145
9.2 The Firm and the Primary Tempering Factors 148
9.3 Impersonal Justification and Least Discretion in
the Firm 150
9.4 A Case for Workplace Democracy? 152
10 Collective Inferiority 155
III Further Instances 157
11 Claims against Corruption: The Negative Observation 159
11.1 The Duty to Execute 160
11.2 Must Corruption Disserve the Public Interest? 163
11.3 Unjust Enrichment 165
11.4 The Duty to Exclude 167
12 Claims against Corruption: The Positive Conjecture 171
12.1 Impersonal Justification Explains the Duty to Execute 171
12.2 Least Discretion Explains the Duty to Exclude 174
12.3 Exploitative Offers as Violations of the Duty to Exclude 178
12.4 Corruption without Inequality? 181
13 Claims against Discrimination 183
13.1 Claims against Discrimination: The Negative Observation 183
13.2 Claims against Discrimination: The Positive Conjecture 185
14 Claims to Equal Treatment 191
14.1 Claims to Equal Treatment: The Negative Observation 192
14.2 Claims to Equal Treatment by the State:
The Positive Conjecture 197
14.3 Claims to Equal Treatment by Officials:
The Positive Conjecture 199