The central topic for this book is the ethics of treating
individuals as though they are members of groups. The book raises
many interesting questions, including:
- Why do we feel so much more strongly about discrimination on
certain grounds e.g. of race and sex - than discrimination on other
grounds? Are we right to think that discrimination based on these
characteristics is especially invidious?
- What should we think about rational discrimination
discrimination which is based on sound statistics?
To take just one of dozens of examples from the book. Suppose a
landlord turns away a prospective tenant, because this prospective
tenant is of a particular ethnicity arguing that statistics show
that one in four of this group have been shown in the past to
default on their rent. That seems clearly unfair to people of this
ethnicity. But we are routinely being judged in this way not just
on the basis of our ethnicity, but assumptions are made about us
and decisions taken about us based on our gender, religion, job,
post-code, hobbies, blood-group, nationality, etc. Now suppose that
another landlord turns away a convicted criminal, arguing that one
in four of convicted criminals have been shown to be unreliable
rent payers. Is our intuition the same as before? Should it be?
This book is suitable for all students of philosophy, especially
those with an interest in applied ethics.
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