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Double Standards, Racial Equality and the Right Reference Class
Author(s) -
ADLER JONATHAN E.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of applied philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.339
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-5930
pISSN - 0264-3758
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-5930.1991.tb00407.x
Subject(s) - consistency (knowledge bases) , scope (computer science) , class (philosophy) , point (geometry) , yield (engineering) , law and economics , computer science , law , epistemology , sociology , political science , mathematics , philosophy , artificial intelligence , materials science , geometry , metallurgy , programming language
There is a popular way of appealing to consistency of judgment or principle whose result is to rule out relevant information. To avoid the danger of judging similar cases differently, relevantly different cases are treated alike. So the information distinguishing them is lost. I try to formulate, defend and apply a requirement upon determining whether situations are similar with respect to a principle. Adherence to the requirement is a way to prevent the loss of information through illicit appeals to consistency. Part II examines a difficulty for the requirement proposed. The difficulty concerns determinateness: given the requirement's broad scope, it cannot yield judgments on specific cases without prejudging substantive issues. Without reaching any solution to the difficulty, I point out that parallel difficulties arise for similar requirements in diverse areas, and that the problem can be mitigated to varying degrees in actual applications of these requirements.