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What is wrong with discriminating on the basis of personal appearance? Andrew Mason considers this question in three contents: employment decisions; the choice of friends or romantic partners; and the everyday practice of judging and commenting upon people's looks.
List of contents
- 1: Introduction
- Part One What Makes Discrimination Wrong?
- 2: Non-contingent wrongness
- 3: Contingent wrongness
- PART II Contexts of Appearance Discrimination
- 4: Appearance, race, and employment
- 5: Appearance as a reaction qualification
- 6: Appearance and personal relationships
- 7: Everyday lookism
- Part Three Responding to Appearance Discrimination
- 8: Prevention
- 9: Compensation and beyond
- Bibliography
About the author
Andrew Mason is Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. He has also held posts at the Universities of St Andrews, Oxford, Hull, Reading, and Southampton, and visiting fellowships at the European University Institute, KU Leuven, Goethe University Frankfurt, and Aarhus University. He is the author of several books, including Living Together as Equals (OUP, 2012), Levelling the Playing Field (OUP, 2006), and Community, Solidarity and Belonging (CUP, 2000).
Summary
What is wrong with discriminating on the basis of personal appearance? Andrew Mason considers this question in three contents: employment decisions; the choice of friends or romantic partners; and the everyday practice of judging and commenting upon people's looks.
Additional text
Mason's book shows how good applied philosophy can be. It raises deep theoretical issues (not just about the moral significance of discrimination but about the nature of wrongness in general and of agency) while committing to practical implications that can guide moral decision-making and policy reforms. Mason's approach highlights the fruitfulness of systematically considering the variety of complaints, interests, and reasons at play in a moral phenomenon while resisting the temptation to reduce these to a single dimension of importance.
