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Philosophical Reflections on the Idea of a Universal Basic Income

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2022

Catherine Rowett
Catherine Rowett*
Affiliation:
University of East Anglia
*
c.rowett@uea.ac.uk
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Abstract

A universal basic income is an unconditional allowance, sufficient to live on, paid in cash to every citizen regardless of income. It has been a Green Party policy for years. But the idea raises many interesting philosophical questions, about fairness, entitlement, desert, stigma and sanctions, the value of unpaid work, the proper ambitions of a good society, and our preconceptions about whether leisure (time for recreation and free creativity) or jobs (working to give the proceeds of our labour and the luxury of free time to someone else) are the thing we should prize above all for free citizens. Coming from the perspective of ancient philosophy, I consider the answers offered in the ancient world to some of these questions, and how we might learn from rethinking our notions of how to create a good society in which people can be free and realise their creative and intellectual potential.

Type
Paper
Information
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 91: A Philosophers' Manifesto: Ideas and Arguments to Change the World , May 2022 , pp. 81 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 2022

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