What must affluent people do to alleviate
global poverty? This question has occupied moral and political philosophers for
forty years. But the controversy has reached an impasse: approaches like
utilitarianism and libertarianism either demand too much of ordinary mortals or
else let them off the hook. In Distant Strangers, Judith Lichtenberg shows how a
preoccupation with standard moral theories and with the concepts of duty and
obligation have led philosophers astray. She argues that there are serious
limits to what can be demanded of ordinary human beings, but this does not mean
we must abandon the moral imperative to reduce poverty. Drawing on findings from
behavioral economics and psychology, she shows how we can motivate better-off
people to lessen poverty without demanding unrealistic levels of moral virtue.
Lichtenberg argues convincingly that this approach is not only practically, but
morally, appropriate.
