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Justice, Political Liberalism and Utilitarianism P1: TNL CUFX199-FM CUFX199-Fleurbaey-v2 978 0 521 64093 0 December 11, 2007 21:1 This page intentionally left blank P1: TNL CUFX199-FM CUFX199-Fleurbaey-v2 978 0 521 64093 0 December 11, 2007 21:1 JUSTICE, POLITICAL LIBERALISM, AND UTILITARIANISM The utilitarian economist and Nobel Laureate John Harsanyi and the liberal egalitarian philosopher John Rawls were two of the most eminent scholars writ- ing on problems of social justice in the last century. This volume pays tribute to Harsanyi and Rawls by investigating themes that figure prominently in their work.Insome cases, the contributors explore issues considered by Harsanyi and Rawls in more depth and from novel perspectives. In others, the contribu- tors use the work of Harsanyi and Rawls as points of departure for pursuing the construction of new theories for the evaluation of social justice. A lengthy intro- ductory essay by the editors provides background information on the relevant economics, game theory, philosophy, and social choice theory, as well as readers’ guides to the individual contributions, so as to make this volume accessible to scholars in a wide range of disciplines. Marc Fleurbaey is Research Director at the Centre de Recherche Sens, Ethique,´ Societ´ e´ (CNRS and UniversiteP´ aris Descartes), France, and, for 2006–08, Lach- mann Fellow at the London School of Economics. He is a Managing Editor of the journal Social Choice and Welfare, and he coedited the Cambridge University Press journal Economics and Philosophy from 2000 to 2004. Maurice Salles is Professor of Economics at the University of Caen, France, where he has taught since 1982. Coordinating Editor of the journal Social Choice and Welfare since 1984, he coedited the volume Social Choice, Welfare, and Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and has served as an Honorary Research Associate at the London School of Economics since 2002. John A. Weymark is Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. He is President of the Society for Social Choice and Welfare for 2008– 09 and is a Managing Editor of the journal Social Choice and Welfare. i P1: TNL CUFX199-FM CUFX199-Fleurbaey-v2 978 0 521 64093 0 December 11, 2007 21:1 ii P1: TNL CUFX199-FM CUFX199-Fleurbaey-v2 978 0 521 64093 0 December 11, 2007 21:1 Justice, Political Liberalism, and Utilitarianism Themes from Harsanyi and Rawls Edited by MARC FLEURBAEY MAURICE SALLES JOHN A. WEYMARK iii CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521640930 © Cambridge University Press 2008 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2007 ISBN-13 978-0-511-39461-4 eBook (NetLibrary) ISBN-13 978-0-521-64093-0 hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. P1: TNL CUFX199-FM CUFX199-Fleurbaey-v2 978 0 521 64093 0 December 11, 2007 21:1 Contents Preface page vii List of Contributors xi 1AnIntroduction to Justice, Political Liberalism, and Utilitarianism 1 Marc Fleurbaey, Maurice Salles, and John A. Weymark PART ONE THEMES FROM RAWLS 2John Rawls’s Theory of Justice: Some Critical Comments 71 John C. Harsanyi 3Rawls, Responsibility, and Distributive Justice 80 Richard Arneson 4Improving Our Ethical Beliefs 108 James Griffin PART TWO HARSANYI’S IMPARTIAL OBSERVER AND SOCIAL AGGREGATION THEOREMS 5Harsanyi’s Impartial Observer Is Not aUtilitarian 129 John E. Roemer 6Social Aggregation and the Expected Utility Hypothesis 136 Charles Blackorby, David Donaldson, and John A. Weymark 7AWelfarist Version of Harsanyi’s Aggregation Theorem 184 Claude d’Aspremont and Philippe Mongin 8Preference Aggregation after Harsanyi 198 Matthias Hild, Richard Jeffrey, and Mathias Risse v P1: TNL CUFX199-FM CUFX199-Fleurbaey-v2 978 0 521 64093 0 December 11, 2007 21:1 vi Contents PART THREE GOODNESS AND WELL-BEING 9Can There Be a Preference-Based Utilitarianism? 221 John Broome 10 Harsanyi, Rawls, and the Search for a Common Currency of Advantage 239 Robert Sugden 11 Utilitarianism versus Fairness in Welfare Economics 263 Marc Fleurbaey and Fran¸cois Maniquet 12 Rationality and Want-Satisfaction 281 Brian Barry PART FOUR SHARING THE GAINS FROM SOCIAL COOPERATION 13 Naturalizing Harsanyi and Rawls 303 Ken Binmore 14 The Social Contract Naturalized 334 Brian Skyrms 15 An Alternative Model of Rational Cooperation 351 Edward F. McClennen PART FIVE RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES 16 Republican Political Theory 389 Philip Pettit 17 Rule Utilitarianism and Liberal Priorities 411 Jonathan Riley Index 435 P1: TNL CUFX199-FM CUFX199-Fleurbaey-v2 978 0 521 64093 0 December 11, 2007 21:1 Preface This volume has its origins in a conference on “Justice, Political Liberal- ism, and Utilitarianism in Honour of John Harsanyi and John Rawls” that was held at the UniversitedeC´ aen in June 1996. This conference received generous financial support from the Association pour le Developpement´ de la Recherche en Economie´ et en Statistique, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the Centre de Recherche en Economie´ et Manage- ment (UMR-CNRS 6211), the UniversitedeCaen,´ and the Ville de Caen. We are grateful to the scholars who served as referees of the individ- ual chapters, to Pascal Engel for his help in the organization of the Caen conference, and to Cathy Zebron who assisted with the preparation of the final manuscript. At Cambridge University Press, thanks are due to Patrick McCartan, who responded so favorably when this volume was first proposed to him, and to Scott Parris, who has been our editor from the outset. We are particularly grateful to our contributors and to Scott for their patience and encouragement during the inordinately long time it has taken to bring this project to fruition. Marc Fleurbaey Maurice Salles John A. Weymark vii P1: TNL CUFX199-FM CUFX199-Fleurbaey-v2 978 0 521 64093 0 December 11, 2007 21:1 viii P1: TNL CUFX199-FM CUFX199-Fleurbaey-v2 978 0 521 64093 0 December 11, 2007 21:1 John Harsanyi John Rawls Photograph courtesy of Anne Harsanyi Photograph courtesy of Mardy Rawls ix P1: TNL CUFX199-FM CUFX199-Fleurbaey-v2 978 0 521 64093 0 December 11, 2007 21:1 x P1: TNL CUFX199-FM CUFX199-Fleurbaey-v2 978 0 521 64093 0 December 11, 2007 21:1 List of Contributors Richard Arneson Department of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego Brian Barry Department of Political Science, Columbia University, and Department of Government, London School of Economics KenBinmore Department of Economics, University College London Charles Blackorby Department of Economics, University of Warwick, and Groupement de Recherche en Economie´ Quantitative d’Aix-Marseille John Broome Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford Claude d’Aspremont Center for Operations Research and Econometrics and Departement´ des sciences economiques,´ UniversiteC´ atholique de Lou- vain David Donaldson Department of Economics, University of British Columbia Marc Fleurbaey Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Centre de Recherche Sens, Ethique,´ Societ´ e,´ UniversitePar´ is 5; London School of Eco- nomics; and Institut d’Economie´ Publique James Griffin Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford John C. Harsanyi∗ Haas School of Business, University of California, Berke- ley Matthias Hild Darden School of Business Administration, University of Virgina xi P1: TNL CUFX199-FM CUFX199-Fleurbaey-v2 978 0 521 64093 0 December 11, 2007 21:1 xii List of Contributors Richard Jeffrey∗ Department of Philosophy, Princeton University Franc¸ois Maniquet Center for Operations Research and Econometrics, UniversiteC´ atholique de Louvain Edward F. McClennen Department of Philosophy, Syracuse University Philippe Mongin Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Ecole´ des Hautes Etudes´ Commerciales Philip Pettit Department of Politics, Princeton University Mathias Risse Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Jonathan Riley Department of Philosophy and Murphy Institute of Pol- itical Economy, Tulane University John E. Roemer Departments of Political Science and Economics, Yale University Maurice Salles Centre de Recherche en Economie´ et Management, Univer- sitedeCaen´ Brian Skyrms Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of California, Irvine Robert Sugden School of Economics, University of East Anglia John A. Weymark Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University ∗Deceased P1: KAE CUFX199-01 CUFX199-Fleurbaey-v2 978 0 521 64093 0 February 20, 2008 11:5 1 An Introduction to Justice, Political Liberalism, and Utilitarianism Marc Fleurbaey, Maurice Salles, and John A. Weymark The opposition between utilitarianism and liberal egalitarianism has trig- gered the most important developments in political philosophy in the twen- tieth century and has had a considerable effect on other subjects as well, such as law and economics. The turn of the new century has witnessed the death of two prominent scholars in these debates, John Harsanyi and John Rawls. Harsanyi
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