Human inter dependency and un conditional rights Hartley Dean London School of Economics Outline Ethics and morality The hegemonic liberalindividualist ethic Human interdependency ID: 245270
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Ethics and Social Welfare:Human interdependency and unconditional rights
Hartley DeanLondon School of EconomicsSlide2Slide3
Outline Ethics and morality
The hegemonic liberal-individualist ethicHuman (inter-)dependency
Human (co-)responsibilitiesUnconditional rights ?Slide4
1. Ethics and moralityA contested distinction
A dialectical relationship
Ethics
Cognitive ‘ethos’
Values
(what is ‘right’)
Abstract principles
Doctrines
(eternal)
Systemic/universal
MoralsCultural ‘mores’Norms (what is ‘good’)Customary practicesCodes (agreed)Living/localSlide5
2. The hegemonic liberal-individualist ethicRegards dependency and responsibility as inimical
Deep-rooted contractarian assumptionsThe sovereignty of the bargaining/competitive human subject must be ‘traded’ to secure the minimum necessary level of social order
Civil and political rights take precedence over social rights which must remain (a) subordinate to political and legal processes; and (b) subject to ‘progressive realisation’Social rights and social liberalism
‘Reluctant collectivism’ of Keynes and Beveridge
The Roosevelt legacy and the UDHR
The re-construction of social rights in a post-social era?
Equality of (moral) worth and the ‘covenant of opportunities and responsibilities’
A test of ‘worth’: avoidance of (welfare) dependency
Welfare conditionality: no help without stringsSlide6
3. Human (inter-)dependencyAlternative
solidaristic conceptions of rightsThe sovereignty of the attached/co-operative human subject must be ‘pooled’ to secure the maximum achievable level of social cohesion
Rights as a system of mutual protection premised on a collectively held recognition of individual vulnerability/frailty (Turner)The struggle for recognition (Honneth)
The ‘ethical life’ depends on recognition through:
Love: self-identity
Solidarity: collective identity
Rights: mutual recognition of each other’s claims Slide7
3. Human (inter-)dependency (Contd…./)
The right to (ontological) securityThe distinction between categorical and ontological identity (Taylor): the noumenal self
Frailty and the right to social protection, social inclusion and ‘asylum’An ethic of careSelf-alienation from social humanity: capitalism’s fetishised notions of work, dependency and justiceRe-constituting individuals as interdependent ‘selves-in-relationship’; and social policy in terms of the organisation/ negotiation of how we care for and about each other (e.g. Sevenhuijsen/ Williams)Slide8
4. Human (co-)responsibilitiesCompeting conceptions of responsibility
ethical
individualist/ collectivist/
contractarian
solidaristic
moralistic
civic duty
co-responsibility
conditional obedience
moral obligationSlide9
4. Human (co-)responsibilities (Contd…./)
An (alternative) ethic of co-responsibilityThe social negotiation of mutual obligation: beyond the mechanistic calculus of policy prescriptionApel
: co-responsibility requiresRational judgements, not moral traditionsAn effective (global) communication community capable of acknowledging the needs/claims of all its membersEqual respect for scientific and ethical claims to
truth
Constituting personhood
Minimum
material
provision is as constitutive of personhood as liberty or autonomy and reflects extent to which we each have ethical responsibility for everybody else (Griffin)Slide10
The evidence (from UK):Popular discourse
Is capable (reluctantly) of acknowledging human interdependencyIs ensnared by a narrow (ethically individualistic) notion of responsibility
Accedes to the inalienability of certain human rights, but is inhibited from translating awareness of interdependency into support for universal social rightsSlide11
ConclusionTo promote an
ethically premised unconditional rights-based approach to social welfare provision would be:
Jolly nice (Pooh)Ever so difficult (Eyore)Tremenously exciting (Tigger)