Date Thesis Awarded
5-2018
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Arts (BA)
Department
Philosophy
Advisor
Chris Tucker
Committee Members
Christopher Freiman
Joel Schwartz
Abstract
Traditional moral theories share a commitment to basic tenets of impartial equality: each person is equally morally worthy. In practice, however, it is generally considered to be a requirement that moral agents act in certain special ways toward their loved ones. This "permissible partiality" is sometimes extended to groups rather than individuals. In this paper, I discuss various suggestions for how partiality might be justified and how it might be applied to groups of citizens. I argue that partiality can provide some basis for explaining the bonds of shared citizenship, but that these bonds must adhere to the basic tenets of morality. I discuss this suggestion through a proposed hybrid model of partiality.
Recommended Citation
Winckler-Olick, Hannah, "Citizenship and Partiality: Group Membership and the Bounds of Morality" (2018). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1154.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1154
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