The Nature of Desert Claims: Rethinking What it Means to Get One's Due

by Kevin Kinghorn

Our everyday conversations reveal the widespread assumption that positive and negative treatment of others can be justified on the grounds that 'they deserve it'. But what is it exactly to deserve something? In this book, Kevin Kinghorn explores how we came to have this concept and offers an explanation of why people feel so strongly that redress is needed when outcomes are undeserved. Kinghorn probes for that core concern which is common to the range of everyday desert claims people make, ultimately proposing an alternative model of desert which represents a fundamental challenge to the received wisdom on the structure of desert claims. In the end, he argues, our plea for deserved treatment ends up being linked to the universal human concern for a shared narrative, as we seek healthy relationships within a community.

260 pages, Hardcover

Published May 20, 2021

About the author

Kevin Kinghorn (DPhil, University of Oxford) is a professor of philosophy and religion at Asbury Theological Seminary where he teaches graduate courses in philosophy of religion, moral philosophy, and theology. He is the author of The Decision of Faith: Can Christian Beliefs Be Freely Chosen? and A Framework for the Good. He lives in Mount Streling, Kentucky with his wife, Anna, and their two children.

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[Álvaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75