What’s wrong with being lonely? Justice, beneficence, and meaningful relationships

Valentini, Laura (2016) What’s wrong with being lonely? Justice, beneficence, and meaningful relationships. Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume, 90 (1). pp. 46-69. ISSN 1467-8349

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Abstract

A life without liberty and material resources is not a good life. Equally, a life devoid of meaningful social relationships—such as friendships, family attachments, and romances—is not a good life. From this it is tempting to conclude that just as individuals have rights to liberty and material resources, they also have rights to access meaningful social relationships. I argue that this conclusion can be defended only in a narrow set of cases. “Pure” social-relationship deprivation—i.e., deprivation that is not caused, or accompanied, by deficits in liberties and material resources—mostly generates demands of private beneficence. I suggest that social-relationship deprivation is unjust, hence a rights-violation, only when it is due to factors—e.g., one’s race—that are irrelevant to one’s being a good participant in social relationships. I thus conclude that access to meaningful social relationships is not a fundamental concern for theories of (personal or political) justice.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://aristoteliansupp.oxfordjournals.org/
Additional Information:	© 2016 The Aristotelian Society
Library of Congress subject classification:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Sets:	Departments > Government
Date Deposited:	11 May 2016 15:23
URL:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/66491/

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