The Ethics of Assistance

Deen K. Chatterjee is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah. His areas of specialization are political philosophy, applied ethics, and philosophy of religion and culture. He is co-editor of Globalization, Development and Democracy (2003), and Ethics and Foreign Intervention (Cambridge, 2003).

The essays in this volume present the latest beliefs of some leading contemporary moral and political philosophers on the issue of assisting the foreign poor. Topics focus around the themes of political responsibility of governments of affluent countries to relieve poverty abroad and the personal responsibility of individuals to assist the distant needy. This timely volume will interest scholars in ethics, political philosophy, political theory, international law and development economics, as well as policy makers, aid agency workers, and general readers interested in the topics.

Preface; 1. Introduction Deen K. Chatterjee; Part I. The Ethics of Distance: 2. Outsiders: our obligation to those beyond our borders Peter Singer; 3. Moral limits on the demands of beneficence Richard J. Arneson; 4. The new problem of distance in morality F. M. Kamm; 5. Absence and the unfond heart: why people are less giving than they might be Judith Lichtenberg; Part II. Communities and Obligations: 6. Moral closeness and world community Richard W. Miller; 7. National responsibility and international justice David Miller; Part III. The Law of Peoples: 8. Women and theories of global justice: our need for new paradigms Martha Nussbaum; 9. Human rights as foreign policy imperatives Erin Kelly; 10. Human rights and the law of peoples Charles R. Beitz; Part IV. Rights, Responsibilities and Institutional Reforms: 11. Thickening convergence: human rights and cultural diversity Henry Shue; 12. Global justice: whose obligations? Onora O'Neill; 13. 'Assisting' the global poor Thomas W. Pogge.