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About the Authors
David A. Clark is Teaching Associate and Affiliated Lecturer at the Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge. His research focuses on well-being, poverty and inequality from a capability perspective. His books include, Visions of Development: A Study of Human Values (2002), The Elgar Companion to Development Studies (2006, 2007), Adaptation, Poverty and Development: The Dynamics of Subjective Well-Being (2012), and The Capability Approach, Empowerment and Participation: Concepts, Methods and Applications (with Mario Biggeri and Alexandre Apsan Frediani, in press).
Gay Meeks is Senior Research Associate at the Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge. She teaches an M Phil paper on Philosophical Issues in Economic Development and has particular interests in moral and political philosophy, the philosophy of economics, and the works of John Maynard Keynes and Amartya Sen.
Notes
1 With “canny” in the southern English sense meaning “shrewd” and in the Scottish/Geordie sense meaning “nice.”
2 In his essay, “Of Studies” (1597). The quotation continues: “that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention” (Bacon [1597] Citation2008, 439).
3 However, the statement on page 6 that “You can’t get something into the conclusion of an argument that isn’t already in the premises” is challenged by examples from Black (Citation1964, 167), including: A citizen is a person; therefore, a married citizen is a married person.
4 The quote is from the Nobel Prize Foundation (Citation2017).
5 Easterlin et al. (Citation2010) subsequently challenged these results, and the debate has continued (e.g. Diener, Helliwell, and Kahneman Citation2010).
6 On this see Barr and Clark (Citation2010) and Clark (Citation2012).
7 See Hulme (Citation2009) and White (Citation2006).
8 These figures are constant 2015 US dollars from OECD (Citation2017).
9 The proportion of the (fast growing) population in extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa did fall from 56% to 41% in this period (World Bank Citation2017).
10 From “Rational Fools … ” in Citation1977, through Sen (Citation1997, Citation2002, Citation2005, Citation2007) to The Idea of Justice in 2009.
11 The quotation is from Sen (Citation2006, 21).
12 Lichtenberg likewise mentions (fleetingly, 120) possible self-interest in reducing global insecurity.
13 See pp. 7, 19–20.
14 There are some points of congruence with Susan James’s “The Duty to Relieve Suffering” (Citation1982), although James focusses more on harm arguments.
15 See de Lazari-Radek and Singer (Citation2014, Citation2017).
16 We are grateful to Josh Miller for pointing up a South African perspective on the metaphor.
17 This argument has been developed from her original graduate thesis from “many years ago.” For further discussion and more “distinction questioning” see Smart and Williams (Citation1973), Harris (Citation1974), Sen (Citation1982), and the nuanced account of harm prevention in Pogge (Citation2002).
18 See Singer (Citation2009, 142–144) who considered both poverty line and MDG goal fulfilment calculations (using data from Sachs in both cases).
19 The practical approach of directing initial attention to issues of manifest injustice, rather than beginning with an attempt to devise an ideally just system, is championed by Sen (Citation2009). The numbers in the “other” category in above, comprising Europe, central Asia and other high-income countries, suggests how small the additional percentage of GNP needed to eliminate extreme poverty in these richer nations also would be. It would be interesting to consider calculations of relative numbers and alleviation costs for those counted “poor” (but not “very poor”) at home and overseas with respect to Chapter 7’s discussion.
20 Lichtenberg notes parts of this separately but seems not to fit the pieces together to give the full picture of Singer.
21 He treats the top 10% of US taxpayers as coming into the “comfortable” bracket (163), at the threshold of which 5% of income might be set as a public standard of giving, but asks more from the very richest.
22 Although not all commitments made will be honoured in full (see 42, n. 46).
23 It is perhaps not coincidental that the collectively titled Should Rich Nations Help the Poor? has in Hulme an author based in Europe rather than the USA.