The Basic Minimum

A common presupposition in contemporary moral and political philosophy is that individuals should be provided with some basic threshold of goods capabilities or well-being. But if there is such a basic minimum how should this be understood? Dale Dorsey offers an underexplored answer: that the basic minimum should be characterized not as the achievement of a set of capabilities or as access to some specified bundle of resources but as the maintenance of a minimal threshold of human welfare. In addition Dorsey argues that though political institutions should be committed to the promotion of this minimal threshold we should reject approaches that seek to cast the basic minimum as a human right. His book will be important for all who are interested in theories of political morality.