Philosophy: Ethics & Society

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Philosophy: Ethics and Society
1 Compensatory Obligations.
Thompson starts by agreeing that the policies of reverse discrimination in hiring, impose costs to the white males, thus affecting them but she adds that this is not necessarily unjust.[Thompson, Judith., “ Preferential hiring”., p. 383]
a) As Robert criticizes a principal that is linked to Judith Thompson, he gave an example of a driveway. He says that when he was away, his neighbor decided to repair his driveway. The neighbor did all the plans and gave out the contract and paid. Unfortunately, Robert’s neighbor had an enemy who knew of the plans and decided to change the instructions guiding the contractor to repair the neighbor’s driveway and instead directed the contractor to repair Robert’s driveway. The contractor unaware of the changed instructions went ahead and repaired Robert’s driveway instead of that of the neighbor.[Daniel, Butt., “ Benefiting from Injustice”., p. 140]
b).To describe Daniel Butt’s strategy for defending Thompson’s principle against Fullinwider’s criticism, it is true to agree that Robert’s thinking on Thomson's principle did not receive a full nod from Butt who feels like Robert argument is grounded on what he terms as “confusion of how extensive the power of compensatory obligations that arise from injustice should be.”[Daniel, Butt., “ Benefiting from Injustice”., p. 140]
Butt supports his claim by giving a drive that compares the monetary benefits that may arise from the example of a driveway. He argues that it is true to say that he might not be willing to pay the cost of the driveway, say for instance at the normal rate of $500, but the fact remains that he has benefited from the repair, considering that he is happy with the new look of the driveway now than before. Butt then explains that if for instance, the contractor offered him a low-cost price of say $200, then, knowing that this is a sure economic discount from $500, then he would be happy to pay. With this noted, Butt then poses the question of how then would it be unreasonable, to pay a neighbor $200 when such injustice happens.[Ibid., p. 141]
c) Concerning the ethics of affirmative action, then Thompson’s idea would be successful if the situation of the white males in the affirmative action becomes better than it would have been if the past injustices never occurred. This explains the logic that there is the moral responsibility to bear the compensatory obligations to a level that one is comfortable depending on their valuation to ensure that those who suffer the injustice do not develop a conflict with beneficiaries who never participated in the injustice.[ibid., p.142]
2. Gorge Hull's Contributions on Affirmative Action.
Affirmative action is usually implemented as a way of making redress to people who suffered injustice in the past. This nature of offering justice in present for past injustice has made affirmative action and its proponents such as George Hull face several criticisms on the applicability of the same. According to George Hull, affirmative action faces three-pron...