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The Penalties for Being Rich

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2009

Andrew Ward
Andrew Ward
Affiliation:
University of York
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Extract

In ‘Considering Equality’, Mrs Margaret Coady criticizes my discussion of Professor Bernard Williams's justly renowned essay ‘The Idea of Equality’. During the course of her paper, Mrs Coady ascribes to me views that I do not hold. But I shall not consider these points of detail because they deflect from the substantive disagreement between Professor Williams and myself. I shall merely examine what, as I see it, is the core of Mrs Coady's case against me. This certainly does relate to the substantive issue.

Type
Discussion
Information
Philosophy , Volume 53 , Issue 205 , July 1978 , pp. 386 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1978

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References

1 Williams, Bernard, ‘The Idea of Equality’, Philosophy, Politics and Society, Laslett, P. and Runciman, W. G. (eds) (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1962), 110–131Google Scholar; Ward, Andrew, ‘The Idea of Equality Reconsidered’, Philosophy, 48, No. 183 (01 1973), 85–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Coady, Margaret M., ‘Considering Equality’, Philosophy, 50, No. 192 (04 1975), 235–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 His explicit formulation of the principle is: ‘the proper ground of distribution of medical care is ill health; this is a necessary truth’. But this is ambiguous. It can mean: either (a) if there are no other social considerations, medical care should only be distributed on grounds of ill health; or (b) whatever other social considerations there are, medical care should only be distributed on grounds of ill health. I personally would agree with (a); but Williams interprets his explicit formulation in the manner of (b). If he did not, he would be unable, on his principle alone, to reach the conclusion that it is irrational for the receipt of medical care to depend partly on wealth. For there evidently are other social considerations: one of which is how fairly to finance medical care.

3 Op. cit., 236 (italics original).