Reverse Discrimination

Abstract

The papers by Professor Wolgast and Mr Tur are scholarly surveys of material relevant to the subject of reverse discrimination. Mr Tur surveys court cases and legal decisions relating to such discrimination, while Professor Wolgast gives us an account of the views of philosophers. I will not comment on the facts so presented nor on the scholarship of the symposiasts (which is clearly extensive), my reason being that I am not completely competent to do so. Instead I will discuss four things which seem to me to emerge from the papers. One point is connected with Mr Tur’s paper, one with Professor Wolgast’s paper, and a third, which I in fact deal with first, is connected with the themes of both papers. I will also towards the end of my remarks discuss a question which Professor Wolgast merely touches on, and which Mr Tur does not refer to at all, but which nevertheless seems to me to be relevant to the topic.