Chapter 5 - Setting Another Place for Desert

Summary

While the traditional, 3-place model of desert cannot acccount for the examples from Chapter 4, an expanded model can do so: "The truth about A possessing Y should be acknowledged by A receiving X ." There is an impicit, fourth placeholder in this model of desert, having to do with "acknolwedging truth" about a person's actions or traits. Admittedly, any model of desert can add further placeholders as specifics are added to the desert claim. However, my model requires the four placeholders as a minimum to make a conceptually well-formed statement about desert. There is a clear sense in which my model is forward-looking, as it emphasizes the shared acknowledgment of a person's traits so as to build a shared narrative needed for future, harmonious relationships. However, the forward-looking aspects of my model are not the merely consequentialist considerations that move us beyond considerations of desert. Rather, my 4-place model captures the core concern common to the concept "desert" itself.