This is an old revision of this page, as edited by ShaunMacPherson (talk | contribs) at 23:08, 13 October 2004 (Basic information, I will finish later unless someone has a copy and wants to try :)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 23:08, 13 October 2004 by ShaunMacPherson (talk | contribs) (Basic information, I will finish later unless someone has a copy and wants to try :))(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Liberal State is a paper written by Bruce A. Ackerman on the topic of social justice given scarcity in society. In this paper Ackerman gives an arguement on how several principles, rationality, consistency, neutrality, and undominated equality can result in a conversational method that can determine the legitmacy of the use of power by an individual over a resource.
Summary of the paper
Ackerman starts his arguement with the idea that there are a scarce amount of resources in society, and people will conflict over these scarce resources. The conflict arises over resources since a person must control their person and their immediate environment (to get food, etc.) to sustain life.
It is enevatable in a world of scarse resources in which a person will claim control over resources that another person has. The question is, how would such a conflict be resolved with a conscientious attempt at a reasonable answer?
One possible answer is to use power to attack the claimant. As well, the more power the person has, the more they stand to lose from arguement; the power power the person has the more easily they can surpress the claimant. Ackerman assumes that instead of violence, the person will respond with an arguement, with particular features to be discussed, as to why they should control the resources in question.
Principals, building the arguement
Ackerman hopes to build a blueprint of an arguement method that can successfully be used to settle claims over resources. The assumption mentioned in the last section is that the parties will not use violence to supress the speech of the other party. Ackerman's blueprint has four principles that, when used together, can lead to a successful discussion method to resolve resource conflicts.