collected snippets of immediate importance...


Monday, July 23, 2012

jeremy waldron, homelessness and the issue of freedom (1981)

(309) homelessness as troubling on liberal grounds

(313) homeless forever at the mercy of others, regarding where they can be

(315) "[Homelessness] is one of the most callous an tyrannical exercises of power in modern times by a (comparatively) rich and complacent majority against a minority of their less fortunate fellow human beings" [let's not hold all the non-homeless reponsible, but ok]

(316) [Take-away is that everyone needs certain prerequisites in order to make use of freedom--one of which is a place to be, but others can be freedom from want, etc., etc.]

(317) In other words, it's absurd to speak of freedom separate of 'needs'--denial of basic needs is emphatically a denial of freedom

(318): the point about homelessness can be made in terms of 'negative freed' -- this is not about enabling people, but ensuring that they're not banned  [of course, this speaks to the ambivalence of the positive vs. negative distinction]

(321) to justify a property system that condemns some to unfreedom, you need to summon other values. not freedom.

(329-330) you don't need individual intention for unfreedom to be of concern. [the 'invisible hand' can intend it, that's enough]


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