Matt Adler, Duke Law

¿Ex Post Prioritarianism: A Defense.¿ Prioritarianism is, roughly, the view that well-being has diminishing marginal moral impact. Formalized as a ¿social welfare function (SWF)¿¿the key tool within welfare economics for structuring moral deliberation¿prioritarianism takes the form of an SWF that is Pareto-respecting, anonymous, Pigou-Dalton respecting, and separable across persons. In this talk, which synthesizes my scholarship on SWFs, I clarify the methodology and then argue for the prioritarian form using the idea of individual ¿claims.¿ I also consider the thorny question of welfarism under uncertainty, here arguing for ¿ex post¿ prioritarianism, notwithstanding its conflict with other seemingly attractive principles (namely the Pareto principle in the ¿ex ante¿ form). The talk concludes by sketching open questions for the ex post prioritarian approach: variable populations and variable individual desert/responsibility.