Ética e igualdade distributiva em Ronald Dworkin

Abstract

This master's dissertation studies the conception of ethics adopted by Ronald Dworkin aiming at connecting it to the equality of resources. It is argued that, in the book Sovereign Virtue (SV) - Dworkin’s most debated and criticized work regarding justice - it is possible to identify only the definition and the endorsement of the resources as metrics of equality. A defense of the distributive equality conception, preferred by the author, in turn, can be found in the article Foundations of Liberal Equality (FLE). Therefore, in the cited book, Dworkin only presents and manifests support for the equality of resources. However, in the article FLE, Dworkin provides reasons for it to be accepted in case the reader is convinced about the superiority of the critical value model preferred by him. In order to demonstrate it, it is firstly identified the problem that motived Dworkin to write the FLE. Thereafter, the model of challenge is presented. Forward, the distributive equality problem is defined and “endorsement” is differentiated from “defense”. Furthermore, the problem of motivation for a political theory in Dworkin’s terms is presented, with the identification of the reasons why he defends that the equality of resources flows naturally from the critical value model adopted by him. Lastly, it is exposed how the repackaged utilized for the model of challenge appears in Justice for Hedgehogs (JH) - a more mature work from the author - does not impact the argument developed in FLE. In JH, the model of challenge is treated in terms of two principles of dignity, but the implications regarding the equality or resources are practically the same.