Chapter 7 - The Fullness of Truth and the Emptiness of Desert

Summary

My model of desert works well in accounting for the wide range of desert claims people make in everyday conversations, including claims about inanimate objects being deserving. Surveying desert claims along this wide range, once we exclude the concern for acknowledged truth that lies at the heart of my model, and once we exclude considerations clearly beyond the concern of desert (such as consequentialist calculations), there is no concern left that might plausibly serve as the concern behind our desert claims. Thus, there is a sense in which desert, as conceived by the traditional 3-place model, can be described as an empty concept. For if we assume that model of desert, then we are left to conclude that there are few－if any－instances of actual desert claims. People simply do not have the concern assumed on that traditional model. Yet my own model of desert－emphasizing the role of a shared narrative as a condition for healthy relationships moving forward－readily explains why people would make desert claims and be so insistent on the need for redress until all parties receive the recognition due them.