The Idea of Justice

Front Cover
Harvard University Press, May 31, 2011 - Philosophy - 496 pages

Social justice: an ideal, forever beyond our grasp; or one of many practical possibilities? More than a matter of intellectual discourse, the idea of justice plays a real role in how—and how well—people live. And in this book the distinguished scholar Amartya Sen offers a powerful critique of the theory of social justice that, in its grip on social and political thinking, has long left practical realities far behind.

The transcendental theory of justice, the subject of Sen’s analysis, flourished in the Enlightenment and has proponents among some of the most distinguished philosophers of our day; it is concerned with identifying perfectly just social arrangements, defining the nature of the perfectly just society. The approach Sen favors, on the other hand, focuses on the comparative judgments of what is “more” or “less” just, and on the comparative merits of the different societies that actually emerge from certain institutions and social interactions.

At the heart of Sen’s argument is a respect for reasoned differences in our understanding of what a “just society” really is. People of different persuasions—for example, utilitarians, economic egalitarians, labor right theorists, no-nonsense libertarians—might each reasonably see a clear and straightforward resolution to questions of justice; and yet, these clear and straightforward resolutions would be completely different. In light of this, Sen argues for a comparative perspective on justice that can guide us in the choice between alternatives that we inevitably face.

From inside the book

Contents

An Approach to Justice
1
The Demands of Justice
29
Reason and Objectivity
31
Rawls and Beyond
52
Institutions and Persons
75
Voice and Social Choice
87
Impartiality and Objectivity
114
Closed and Open Impartiality
124
Lives Freedoms and Capabilities
225
Capabilities and Resources
253
Happiness Wellbeing and Capabilities
269
Equality and Liberty
291
Public Reasoning and Democracy
319
Democracy as Public Reason
321
The Practice of Democracy
338
Human Rights and Global Imperatives
355

Forms of Reasoning
153
Position Relevance and Illusion
155
Rationality and Other People
174
Plurality of Impartial Reasons
194
Realizations Consequences and Agency
208
The Materials of Justice
223
Justice and the World
388
Notes
417
Name Index
451
Subject Index
462
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