The Sufficient, the Excessive and the Reasonable. Thresholds in an Extended Theory of Sufficientarianism

With the advent of sufficientarianism, the specification of a threshold has assumed a central role in philosophical debates on distributive justice. Both limitarianism and theories of eco-sufficiency have adopted the language of thresholds. The focus on thresholds in theories of distributive justice raises the question of how to deal with the interval between the lower and upper thresholds. The thesis of this article is that a third threshold of ‘reasonable enough’ is required. Only three thresholds together produce an adequate theory of sufficientarianism.