Thomas Pogge and his Critics

by Alison M. Jaggar

The massive disparity between the relative wealth of most citizens in affluent countries and the profound poverty of billions of people struggling elsewhere for survival is morally jolting. But why exactly is this disparity so outrageous and how should the citizens of affluent countries respond? Political philosopher, Thomas Pogge, has emerged as one of the world’s most ardent critics of global injustice which, he argues, is caused directly by the operation of a global institutional order that not only systematically disadvantages poor countries but is imposed on them by precisely those wealthy, powerful countries that benefit the most from the order’s injustice. In allowing their governments to perpetrate this injustice, Pogge contends that citizens of the wealthy countries collude in a monumental crime against humanity.

In this book Pogge’s challenging and controversial ideas are debated by leading political philosophers from a range of philosophical viewpoints. With a clear and informative introduction by Alison Jaggar, and original contributions from Neera Chandhoke, Jiwei Ci, Joshua Cohen, Erin Kelly, Lionel McPherson, Charles W. Mills, Kok-Chor Tan, and Leif Wenar, this volume deepens and expands the debate over global justice and moral responsibility in the world today.

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 17, 2010

About the author

Alison M. Jaggar is a College Professor of Distinction in the Philosophy and Women and Gender Studies departments at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is also a Research Coordinator at the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature, University of Oslo, Norway. Jaggar was one of the first people to introduce feminist concerns in to philosophy. She is a founding member of the Society for Women in Philosophy, was instrumental in the creation of the field of feminist studies, and taught what she believes to have been the first feminist philosophy course ever offered.

Jaggar's work has been hugely influential, with Rosemarie Tong and Nancy Williams suggesting in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy that "If ethics is about human beings' liberation, then Alison Jaggar's summary of the fourfold function of feminist ethics cannot be improved upon in any significant way" and Jaggar's texts being considered classics.

Jaggar received a bachelor's in philosophy at Bedford College, University of London in 1964. She received a master's in philosophy from the University of Edinburgh in 1967, and her doctorate in philosophy from the State University of New York, Buffalo in 1970. During her career, Jaggar has held appointments at SUNY Buffalo, Miami University of Ohio, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of California, Los Angeles, Rutgers University, Victoria University of Wellington, and the University of Oslo.

Jaggar has authored a large number of widely cited papers, most notably Love and knowledge: Emotion in feminist epistemology, published in 1989 and cited by at least 800 other peer-reviewed papers as of August, 2013. Jaggar has also acted as co-editor for the first issue of Telos, and was an associate editor of Hypatia from 2006-2008.

(from Wikipedia)