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Sufficiency and the Minimally Good Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2021

Nicole Hassoun Open the ORCID record for Nicole Hassoun [Opens in a new window]
Nicole Hassoun*
Affiliation:
Binghamton University, Vestal, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: nhassoun@binghamton.edu
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Abstract

What, if anything, do we owe others as a basic minimum? Sufficiency theorists claim that we must provide everyone with enough – but, to date, few well-worked-out accounts of the sufficiency threshold exist, so it is difficult to evaluate this proposition. Previous theories do not provide plausible, independent accounts of resources, capabilities, or welfare that might play the requisite role. Moreover, I believe existing accounts do not provide nearly enough guidance for policymakers. So, this article sketches a mechanism for arriving at an account of the minimally good life that can help locate the sufficiency threshold.

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Utilitas , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 321 - 336
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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