Prioritarianism

Prioritarianism or the priority view is a view within ethics and political philosophy that holds that the goodness of an outcome is a function of overall well-being across all individuals with extra weight given to worse-off individuals. Prioritarianism resembles utilitarianism. Like utilitarianism, prioritarianism is a form of aggregative consequentialism; however, it differs in that it does not weight the well-being of all individuals equally, but instead prioritizes those individuals that are worse-off.Prioritarianism holds that the moral value of achieving a benefit for an individual (or avoiding a loss) is greater, the greater the size of the benefit as measured by a well-being scale, and greater, the lower the person's level of well-being over the course of her life apartfrom receipt of this benefit. Prioritarianism or the priority view is a view within ethics and political philosophy that holds that the goodness of an outcome is a function of overall well-being across all individuals with extra weight given to worse-off individuals. Prioritarianism resembles utilitarianism. Like utilitarianism, prioritarianism is a form of aggregative consequentialism; however, it differs in that it does not weight the well-being of all individuals equally, but instead prioritizes those individuals that are worse-off. The term 'prioritarianism' was coined by moral philosopher Larry Temkin in an effort to explicate the theory's non-egalitarian form. Richard Arneson, a proponent of the view, offers the following formulation: