Elizabeth Anderson
Equality means that no one dominates anyone else, not that everyone gets the same share – and the modern workplace is a private government.
Placement
Pragmatist philosopher in Michigan: equality is about relations – no one dominates anyone – not about the distribution of goods; the workplace is a “private government” that liberal theory has failed to see; she has also written on feminist epistemology.
Key ideas
- Relational equality
- Private government
- Democratic epistemology
Teachers: John Rawls
Influence
Influenced by 4
John Stuart Mill
influenced by
Anderson read Mill’s ‘experiments in living’ as a model of how ethical knowledge is gained and revised through experience (‘John Stuart Mill and Experiments in Living’, 1991). E. Anderson, “John Stuart Mill and Experiments in Living”, Ethics 102 (1991); J. S. Mill, On Liberty (1859)
Evidence: AI draft
John Stuart Mill › 1806–1873
John Dewey
influenced by
Anderson defended Dewey’s experimentalist model of democracy, in which citizens learn from the consequences of policies, against jury-theorem and market models (‘The Epistemology of Democracy’, 2006). E. Anderson, “The Epistemology of Democracy”, Episteme 3 (2006); J. Dewey, The Public and Its Problems (1927)
Evidence: AI draft
John Dewey › 1859–1952
John Rawls studied with
studied with
Anderson took her PhD at Harvard in 1987 under Rawls with a dissertation on value in ethics and in economics, which became Value in Ethics and Economics (1993). Mathematics Genealogy Project, entry E. S. Anderson (Harvard 1987); E. Anderson, Value in Ethics and Economics (1993)
Evidence: AI draft
John Rawls › 1921–2002
Amartya Sen
influenced by
Anderson used Sen’s capability approach to define democratic equality as access to the capabilities needed to function as an equal citizen (‘What Is the Point of Equality?’, 1999). E. Anderson, “What Is the Point of Equality?”, Ethics 109 (1999); A. Sen, Inequality Reexamined (1992)
Evidence: AI draft
Amartya Sen › b. 1933
Works
Against luck egalitarianism: equality is a social relation among free people, not a pattern of distribution.
Employers rule workers like governments – unaccountable ones; why liberal theory has failed to see it.
Position
Anderson’s article “What Is the Point of Equality?” criticised the “luck egalitarianism” of Dworkin, Arneson and Cohen, which holds that justice should compensate people for bad luck but not for their choices: it treats citizens as objects of pity and demands intrusive judgments of responsibility. Equality, she argues, is about social relations: a society in which no one is dominated, marginalised or treated as inferior, and all have the capabilities to function as equal citizens. “Private Government” argues that employers exercise a form of government over workers – dictating conduct inside and sometimes outside work, without accountability – which liberal political thought, fixated on the state, has failed to see.
Life & context
Elizabeth Anderson (born 1959) studied at Swarthmore College and took her doctorate at Harvard in 1987 under John Rawls. She has taught at the University of Michigan since then, where she is John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies. She received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2019. Her work combines political philosophy, ethics, social epistemology and the philosophy of the social sciences, and she identifies with the pragmatist tradition.
Further main works
- Value in Ethics and Economics (1993)
- The Imperative of Integration (2010)
Appears in
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