From Now and to Eternity: Prioritarianism and Time

Shlomi Segall
The Political Science Department and PPE
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Mon, Nov 4, 2013, 4-6 pm
LA200

Absract:

What is the temporal unit of prioritarianism? The paper argues against complete-life prioritarianism and in favor of priority to those who are worse off at any given time-slice. With regard to equality, in contrast, we must adopt the opposite position, namely, we must be concerned with, and only with, complete lives. I propose to search for the temporal unit of prioritarianism by outlining five distinguishing features of the view (not meant as an exhaustive list). Prioritarianism is: an other-things-being-equal, non-comparative view that is concerned with aggregating an impersonal value that applies both inter-personally as well as intra-personally. I shall then assess the implications of these five features for time. I will attempt to show that prioritarianism cannot apply to anything longer than time slices. The paper concludes, however, that the implications of priority and time are no objection to prioritarianism, but that they do constitute an objection to what one might term anti-egalitarian prioritarianism. We ought, in sum, be prioritarians about time-slices, and egalitarians about complete lives.