You could claim that itās wrong of me to only give one of my children a banana, even if thatās the only child whoās hungry. Some would say I should always split that banana in half, for egalitarian reasons. This is in stark contrast to EA and hard to rebut respectfully with rigor.
In an undergrad philosophy class, the way my prof described examples like this is as being about equality of regard or equality of concern. For example, if there are two nearby cities and one gets hit by a hurricane, the federal government is justified in sending aid just to the city thatās been damaged by the hurricane, rather than to both cities in order to be āfairā. It is fair. The government is responding equally the needs of all people. The people who got hit by the hurricane are more in need of help.
For a more realistic example, I talked to one person who said that theyād focus significantly on homelessness in their own city as well as homelessness in Rwanda, because itās unfair to not divide the resources. Theyāre not doing the most good, because they find it more ethical to divide their resources.
So I think your professorās description is good, but Iām not sure it helps discuss egalitarianism/āprioritarianism with laymen in their terms. When I say Iād give everything to Rwanda, Iām answering āwhat does the most good?ā and not āwhatās the most fair/ājust?ā Nonetheless Iāll consider raising this response next time the objection comes up.
In an undergrad philosophy class, the way my prof described examples like this is as being about equality of regard or equality of concern. For example, if there are two nearby cities and one gets hit by a hurricane, the federal government is justified in sending aid just to the city thatās been damaged by the hurricane, rather than to both cities in order to be āfairā. It is fair. The government is responding equally the needs of all people. The people who got hit by the hurricane are more in need of help.
For a more realistic example, I talked to one person who said that theyād focus significantly on homelessness in their own city as well as homelessness in Rwanda, because itās unfair to not divide the resources. Theyāre not doing the most good, because they find it more ethical to divide their resources.
So I think your professorās description is good, but Iām not sure it helps discuss egalitarianism/āprioritarianism with laymen in their terms. When I say Iād give everything to Rwanda, Iām answering āwhat does the most good?ā and not āwhatās the most fair/ājust?ā Nonetheless Iāll consider raising this response next time the objection comes up.