HARMLESS DISCRIMINATION

<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title><jats:p>In <jats:italic>Born Free and Equal: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Nature of Discrimination</jats:italic>, Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen defends the harm-based account of the wrongness of discrimination, which explains the wrongness of discrimination with reference to the harmfulness of discriminatory acts. Against this view, we offer two objections. The <jats:italic>conditions objection</jats:italic> states that the harm-based account implausibly fails to recognize that harmless discrimination can be wrong. The <jats:italic>explanation objection</jats:italic> states that the harm-based account fails adequately to identify all of the wrong-making properties of discriminatory acts. We argue that the structure of a satisfactory view cannot be outcome-focused. A more promising family of views focuses on the deliberation of the discriminator and in particular on the reasons that motivate or fail to motivate her action.</jats:p>