Contemporary Debates on Luck Egalitarianism

The term "luck egalitarianism" was coined by Elizabeth Anderson in her widely discussed article "What Is the Point of Equality?" (Ethics, vol. 109, no. 2, 1999), where she used it to group together a family of otherwise distinct theories — including Ronald Dworkin's equality of resources, Richard Arneson's equal opportunity for welfare, and G.A. Cohen's equal access to advantage — that share a common structural commitment: justice requires neutralizing the effects of "brute luck," the unchosen circumstances of a person's life, such as native talent, family background, or health, while permitting inequalities that result from a person's own voluntary choices and exercised responsibility.