Born Free and Equal?

A Philosophical Inquiry into the Nature of Discrimination

Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen

Argues that there are different concepts of discrimination and that different purposes pertaining to different contexts determine which one is the most useful.
Gives special attention to a concept of discrimination that ties discrimination to differential treatment of people on the basis of their membership in socially salient groups.
Takes issue with some of the standard devices used to counteract discrimination, e.g. proportional representation of different groups, and submits that combating discrimination requires more than state actions.
Argues that states may sometimes permissibly discriminate.

Born Free and Equal?

A Philosophical Inquiry into the Nature of Discrimination

Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen

Description

What is discrimination? There are certain instances of differential treatment that almost anyone would describe as discriminatory; yet upon deeper examination, this near-unanimity gives way to disagreement and difference. For instance, is it discrimination when hospitals hire non-smokers only? Not only do people differ on which cases of differential treatment they see as discriminatory, they also disagree about when discrimination is morally wrong; what makes it morally wrong; and, indeed, about whether all forms of discrimination are morally wrong! Finally, many disagree over what should be done about wrongful discrimination-especially about what the state could permissibly do to eliminate wrongful discrimination, e.g. in people's love lives.

This book addresses these issues. It argues that there are different concepts of discrimination and that different purposes pertaining to different contexts determine which one is the most useful. It gives special attention to a concept of discrimination that ties discrimination to differential treatment of people on the basis of their membership in socially salient groups. Second, it argues that when discrimination is wrong, it is so first and foremost because of its harmful effects. Third, it takes issue with some of the standard devices used to counteract discrimination and submits that combating discrimination requires more than state actions. Finally, it argues that states may sometimes permissibly discriminate.

Born Free and Equal?

A Philosophical Inquiry into the Nature of Discrimination

Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen

Introduction
1. The questions
2. The approach
3. Overview of the book

Part I: The concept of discrimination

Chapter 1: What is discrimination?
1. Introduction
2. Discrimination in the generic sense
3. Irrelevance discrimination
4. The moralized concept of discrimination
5. Group discrimination
6. Social salience
7. Because
8. Treatment
9. Summary
Appendix 1: Methodology
Appendix 2: Discrimination skeptics: Oppression and dominance

Chapter 2: Indirect discrimination
1. The distinction between direct and indirect discrimination
2. Altman's definition
3. The no-intention condition
4. The disadvantage condition
5. The disproportionateness condition
6. Sufficient for indirect discrimination?
7. Direct vs. indirect discrimination
8. Conclusion
Appendix 1: Some other definitions of indirect discrimination
Appendix 2: Institutional and structural discrimination

Chapter 3: Statistical discrimination
1. Introduction
2. Statistical discrimination vs. non-statistical discrimination
3. Direct vs. indirect, statistical discrimination
4. What statistical discrimination is not
5. Conclusion
Appendix: Genetic discrimination and social salience

Part II: The wrongness of discrimination

Chapter 4: Mental state based accounts
1. Introduction
2. Some common accounts
3. Mental states and permissibility
4. Different mental state accounts
5. Alexander on disrespect and discrimination: The falsehood account
6. Alexander on disrespect and discrimination: The comparative falsehood account
7. Alexander on disrespect and discrimination: The irrational, comparative falsehood account
8. Conclusion

Chapter 5: Objective meaning accounts
1. Introduction
2. Hellman's account: Demeaning others
3. Some challenges to Hellman's account
4. Scanlon on racial discrimination and the meaning of actions
5. An important ambiguity
6. Some worries about Scanlon's account
7. The moral distinctiveness of discrimination based on judgments of inferiority
8. Conclusion

Chapter 6: Harm-based accounts
1. Introduction
2. The essentials of the harm-based account
3. The baseline issue
4. The metric of harm
5. Some challenges to the harm-based account
6. A desert-prioritarian account
7. Some objections
8. A test case: Moral wrongness of indirect discrimination
9. Conclusion
Appendix: Moreau on deliberative freedom and discrimination

Part III: Neutralizing discrimination

Chapter 7: Discrimination and the aim of proportional representation
1. Introduction
2. The Simple View and ambition-sensitivity
3. The Counterfactual, Holistic View
4. Which counterfactual scenario?
5. Is absence of discrimination necessary for suitable representation?
6. Second-best representational aims
7. Conclusion

Chapter 8: Discrimination in punishment
1. Introduction
2. Loci of legal discrimination
3. Criteria vs. indicators of discrimination
4. The pure discrimination case
5. The no-complaint argument
6. Conclusion

Chapter 9: Reaction qualifications
1. Introduction
2. Discounting qualifications based on illegitimate preferences
3. Refining meritocracy
4. Illegitimate preferences not disadvantaging targeted groups
5. Respect and reaction qualifications
6. Conclusion

Chapter 10: Discrimination in the private sphere
1. Introduction
2. A legal duty to engage in wrongful private discrimination
3. A legal right to engage in wrongful private discrimination
4. A legal duty not to engage in wrongful private discrimination
5. A legal duty or permission to engage in private discrimination that is not wrongful
6. A legal duty not to engage in private discrimination that is not wrongful
7. Conclusion

Chapter 11: Racial profiling
1. Introduction
2. A right to be treated as an individual
3. Unequal treatment
4. Unfairness
5. The making of statistical facts and the justifiability of statistical discrimination
6. Putting the argument to the interpersonal test
7. Non-comprehensively justified?
8. Challenges
9. Conclusion

Bibliography
Index

Born Free and Equal?

A Philosophical Inquiry into the Nature of Discrimination

Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen

Author Information

Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen (D.Phil., Oxford) is professor of political theory at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. He works primarily in political and moral philosophy and has published in journals such as Journal of Political Philosophy, Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, Philosophical Studies, Economics and Philosophy, and The Journal of Ethics. He is an associate editor of Ethics and chair of Society for Applied Philosophy.

Born Free and Equal?

A Philosophical Inquiry into the Nature of Discrimination

Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen

Reviews and Awards

"In a relatively new field of scholarship focused on thinking philosophically about discrimination, Lippert-Rasmussen's contribution stands out for its comprehensiveness, its detail and its high quality." --Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"[Lippert-Rasmussen] is a master of advancing discussion on a topic by showing that where the rest of us saw only two or three possible positions, there are many positions, often smeared together in a confused way in prior writings on the topic. The different views need to be carefully distinguished, and we then need to look carefully at what can be said for and against each in turn. When we do this, our view of the issues significantly shifts. This method and its fruits are evident throughout the book... [The] author's analytical skill and creative imagination in following through this method make the book a pleasure to read."--Richard J. Arneson, Professor of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego