Book Review: Benjamin Eidelson, Discrimination and Disrespect
| Author | Andrew Shorten |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929917712147 |
| Published date | 01 November 2017 |
| Date | 01 November 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsPolitical Theory |
616 Political Studies Review 15(4)
themselves with contemporary changes in the
interconnected cultural, political, economic
and social realms. Hall’s compelling and ana-
lytically rigorous theses are eloquent, precise
and exciting to read.
Max Shock
(University of Oxford)
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929917718159
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Discrimination and Disrespect by Benjamin
Eidelson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
267pp., £40.00 (h/b), ISBN 9780198732877
Benjamin Eidelson’s crisp, thorough and careful
philosophical analysis of discrimination is a wel-
come addition to the literature. Notwithstanding
his sophisticated analyses of British, American
and European law, Eidelson’s primary concern is
with the morality, rather than the legality, of dis-
crimination. While Part I of the book develops a
nuanced account of the concept of discrimina-
tion, Parts II and III discuss various grounds for
condemning discrimination as either intrinsi-
cally or contingently wrongful.
Eidelson proposes a morally neutral – as
opposed to a moralised – account of discrimi-
nation itself. According to this, discrimination
always involves treating someone less favour-
ably than some real or counterfactual other, in
some particular respect, and this differential
treatment can be explained by reference to a
particular property or trait. In addition to dis-
pensing with the idea that discrimination is
always wrong, this account is noteworthy in at
least two further ways. First, against the likes
of Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen, Eidelson holds
that one does not have to be a member of a
socially salient group in order to be discrimi-
nated against. Second, Eidelson also devotes a
full chapter to arguing against the novelty of
indirect discrimination as a distinctive cate-
gory, instead arguing that practices which are
currently designated as such are better
described either as second-order direct dis-
crimination or not as discrimination at all.
The most philosophically innovative mate-
rial is contained in Part II, where Eidelson pro-
poses a disrespect-based theory of when and
why discrimination is morally wrong. Here,
Eidelson suggests that discriminatory practices
are wrong in themselves, irrespective of their
consequences, if the discriminator manifests a
lack of respect for the discriminatee ‘that is
itself discriminatory’ (p. 74). Characteristically,
we do this when we fail to give proper delib-
erative consideration to the interests of others,
either by failing to recognise them as a person
of equal value or by failing to recognise them
as an autonomous individual.
Overall, Eidelson is a pluralist about the
morality of discrimination, and he thinks that
different instances of discrimination might be
wrong for different reasons. Part III develops
this thesis through a detailed discussion of
racial profiling. The disrespect-based theory
will only condemn some instances of racial
profiling as intrinsically wrong, and Eidelson
suggests that other ‘principled’ arguments
against the practice also fail. Nevertheless, and
perhaps optimistically, he suggests that because
racial profiling is often contingently wrong, as
a result of its various and often subtle harmful
effects, a properly calibrated cost-benefit anal-
ysis will almost always yield a recommenda-
tion against it.
Andrew Shorten
(University of Limerick)
© The Author(s) 2017
Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1478929917712147
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Marx 2020: After the Crisis by Ronaldo
Munck. London: Zed Books, 2016. 223pp., £17.99
(p/b), ISBN 9781783608072
The debate on the relevance of Marxism, dec-
ades after the demise of Karl Marx, keeps
recurring, all the more so in the current wave of
global financial instability. Adding to this
trend, Marx 2020: After the Crisis by Ronaldo
Munck showcases how the fundamental phi-
losophy of Marxism can be of greater reso-
nance in the contemporary era, in particular
against the backdrop of liberal capitalism’s
ascendancy over communist ideology.
Munck’s whole endeavour is to deliberate
on how Marx’s ideas can be applied in grap-
pling with some of the pressing issues today in
order to create a more rational global order.
Underscoring its pertinence today, the author
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