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PrescriptivePolitical & legal

Charity or justice

On the axis: Moral demandingness · the global economic order

If distant misery stems from unjust institutions we benefit from, giving is no longer enough: the duty would be to repair and transform the order, not to give alms. Is individual giving a duty, or the alibi of an ongoing injustice?

Philosophers' positions

Kant

inferable
+0.6
Justification

The moral demand is high: always act from duty and not from mere conformity, subjecting all one's maxims to the universal law. Kant tempers this by distinguishing perfect duties, strict and without exception, from imperfect duties such as beneficence or the cultivation of one's talents, which leave latitude to judgment, holding back from an extreme maximalism.

Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, section II · Metaphysics of Morals, Doctrine of Virtue

Anchors: Kant · Pogge

leads to: Distributive justice (Does justice stop at borders?)