Distant Strangers
Ethics, Psychology, and Global Poverty

Lichtenberg argues for a practical and moral approach to reducing poverty, exploring concepts such as altruism and aid.

Judith Lichtenberg (Author)

9780521763318, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 October 2013

286 pages
23.6 x 15.7 x 1.9 cm, 0.53 kg

'Lichtenberg has produced in a fairly short volume an intuitively compelling, empirically informed work on a vitally important topic. It's a book that has meaty conceptual and evaluative claims for philosophers as well as practically useful suggestions for policymakers and a comfortably-off public. It's a wonderful contribution to global justice debates.' Kimberly Brownlee, The Philosophical Quarterly

What must affluent people do to alleviate global poverty? This question has occupied moral and political philosophers for forty years. But the controversy has reached an impasse: approaches like utilitarianism and libertarianism either demand too much of ordinary mortals or else let them off the hook. In Distant Strangers, Judith Lichtenberg shows how a preoccupation with standard moral theories and with the concepts of duty and obligation have led philosophers astray. She argues that there are serious limits to what can be demanded of ordinary human beings, but this does not mean we must abandon the moral imperative to reduce poverty. Drawing on findings from behavioral economics and psychology, she shows how we can motivate better-off people to lessen poverty without demanding unrealistic levels of moral virtue. Lichtenberg argues convincingly that this approach is not only practically, but morally, appropriate.

1. Introduction
2. Entanglements and the claims of mere humanity
3. Duties and rights, charity and justice
4. 'Negative' and 'positive' duties
5. Oughts and cans
6. Why people do what others do - and why that's not so bad
7. Whose poor?/Who's poor?: Deprivation within and across borders
8. Hopefully helping: the perils of giving
9. Motives and morality
10. Conclusion: morality for mere mortals.

Subject Areas: Economic theory & philosophy [KCA], Political science & theory [JPA], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Philosophy [HP], Development studies [GTF]