Dr Fernando Lizárraga

Egalitarianism, Incentives, and Hospitality

The pursuit of a just society usually involves the quest for equality, both as a distributive pattern and as a kind of interpersonal relationship. In its various forms, egalitarianism has to deal with the problem of motivation. The need for incentives to elicit optimal contributions and the practice of fraternity often appear as conflicting issues for the specification of principles and institutional designs.

I aim to elaborate a proposal as to how inner fraternal motivations might fit within a pluralistic conception of equality. Firstly, I intend to unfold a renewed critique of inequality-generating incentives by returning to what G. A. Cohen defined as the Christian social nostrum: a revolution in feelings and motivations that supplement egalitarian institutional structures. Second, I put forth a more robust notion of fraternity by incorporating a refined conception of the classical ideal and practice of hospitality.