Global Poverty: Whose Duties? Some Problems with the Contribution Principle

JULIO MONTERO

Metaphilosophy

Año: 2008 vol. 2008 p. 612 - 620

0026-1068

In this article I claim that the Contribution Principle invoked by Christian Barry as a key principle for determining who owes what to the global destitute is mistaken as definitive principle and unjustified as a provisional principle for dealing with global poverty. This principle assumes that merely causing, or contributing to the cause of, a certain state of affairs may be sufficient to have a special responsibility to bear the costs that this state of affair entails. Since this presumption is misleading, the Contribution Principle turns out to be mistaken.