Theories of Justice

1
Theories of Justice

• Justice as a virtue
• Distributive justice
• Utilitarianism
• Justice as fairness (Rawls)
• Entitlement theory of justice (Nozick)

2
Justice as a virtue

• Michael Slote, Justice as a Virtue, Stanford
  Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http//www.seop.leeds.
  ac.uk/entries/justice-virtue/
• Individual trait
• Social justice
• the first virtue of institutions (John Rawls)
• Justice and ethics
• Not all ethical questions are questions of
  justice
• Justice is a virtue that relates to matters of
  goods, property and distribution

3
Justice and reason

• Plato
• Virtue ethical conception of justice
• Aristotle
• Meritocratic conception of social justice
• Rationalism
• Plato and Aristotle conceptualize justice as
  moral reasoning

4
Justice and benevolence

• Moral sentimentalism
• Francis Hutcheson (1694 1746)
• David Hume (1711-1776)
• Natural motives
• Benevolence, curiosity, prudence
• Artificial virtues
• Justice, law-abidingness, fidelity to promises,
  modesty
• Being virtuous depends on capacity for sympathy
• Justicerespect for property
• Potential for conflict between
• Universal/impartial benevolence
• and
• Justice and moral obligation

5
Justice without morality

• Social contract theory
• Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau
• Utilitarianism
• Consequentialism
• Opposed to deontological arguments about goodness
  of motives determining the moral status of an
  action
• Questioning the importance of justice
• JS Mill justice derives from human tendencies to
  retaliate and to empathize

6
Distributive justice

• Strict egalitarianism
• Equality of outcome
• Indices for measuring value of goods
• Time frames for achieving pattern of distribution
• Preservation of pattern
• Equality of opportunity
• Meritocratic/desert-based justice
• Needs-based
• Marx From each according to his ability, to
  each according to his needs
• Contribution-based
• Social Darwinism

7
Utilitarianism

• Henry Sidgwick, The Methods of Ethics (1907)
• 18/19th century, evolved from enlightenment
  project, classic liberalism
• Individualist philosophy, but utilitarianism
  explicitly proposes a moral philosophy that
  serves to evaluate social arrangements
• Teleological theory of ethics
• Two main concepts of ethics
• The right and the good
• The good defined independently from the right
• Judgments of value
• The right defined as that which maximizes the good

8
Human nature and social welfare

• Principles for society are derived from
  principles for individuals
• Individual strives to realize his own interests,
  his own greatest good
• Homo economicus
• Happiness (Bentham)
• Balancing desires
• Principle of utility
• Society aims to advance the welfare of the group
• Balancing desires, satisfactions and
  dissatisfactions of members
• Principle of social utility
• Utilitarians are no egoists i.e. someone else
  can be happier than oneself, as long as joint
  happiness does not decrease

9
Utilitarian justice

• Any policy or institution which produces a net
  gain in terms of utility or pleasure for society,
  is considered just
• Just is what benefits more than it disadvantages
• Utilitarian theory of justice is indifferent to
  the distribution of satisfactions among
  individuals
• Striving for maximum social fulfilment
• Net balance principle no requirement of equality

10
Justice as fairness

• John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (1971)
• Justice as the first virtue of social
  institutions
• Subject of justice
• The basic structure of society
• Concerning general rules, which are to be
  permanent
• The basis for deciding individual cases (of
  allocation) consistently
• Justice as fairness
• Principles of justice are agreed to in an
  initial situation that is fair
• Rules decided by members who are on equal terms
• Rules are to apply for indefinite future
• Rules applying to every member alike
• Rules decided upon in the absence of a dominant
  faction

11
The Original Position

• Rawlsian thought experiment
• The original position is defined in such a way
  that it is a status quo in which any agreements
  reached are fair. It is a state of affairs in
  which the parties are equally represented as
  moral persons and the outcome is not conditioned
  by arbitrary contingencies or the relative
  balance of social forces. Thus justice as
  fairness is able to use the idea of pure
  procedural justice from the beginning. (120)
• Imperfect procedural justice e.g. criminal
  trial
• Pure procedural justice e.g. gambling
• The idea of the original position is to set up a
  fair procedure so that any principles agreed to
  will be just. (136)
• Rawls original position is a moralists device
  to propose universal principles of justice for a
  world of egoists
• OP renders egoists morally equal when deciding
  upon a just social arrangement
• Egoism is restricted by ignorance

12
The Veil of Ignorance

• the parties are situated behind a veil of
  ignorance. They do not know how the various
  alternatives will affect their own particular
  case and they are obliged to evaluate principles
  solely on the basis of general considerations.
• No knowledge of own status, social background,
  talents, psychological make-up, economic, social
  circumstances, culture, civilization, etc.
• The veil of ignorance makes possible a unanimous
  choice of a particular conception of justice.
  (140)
• Initial choice
• Equal liberty for all (incl. equality of
  opportunity)
• First Principle of Justice
• Equal distribution of income and wealth
• Why not allowing for inequalities that work to
  make everyone better off (Pareto-optimality)?

13
The Difference Principle

• Inequality is unjust
• Unless necessary to improve the position of those
  who are worst-off
• Rawlsian justice is egalitarian, but not
  fundamentally rejecting inequalities
• Just inequalities incentives
• Inequality is unjust even if it leaves the
  worst-off in the same position as before and
  everyone else better off
• Weaker principle inequality unjust if its
  removal or reduction would improve position of
  weakest in society
• Unique concern with the weakest members of
  society!

14
Entitlement Theory of Justice

• Robert Nozick
• Distributive Justice (1973)
• Anarchy, State and Utopia (1974)
• Historical vs. current time-slice principles of
  justice
• Entitlement theory is historical
• Justice of a distribution depends on how it came
  about
• Original acquisition of holdings
• Transfer of holdings
• Rectification of injustice in holdings

15
Liberty and justice

• Utilitarianism and Rawlsian theory are all
  ahistorical, current time-slice principles of
  justice
• Marxism has a historical element
• Claims that workers deserve the product and full
  fruit of their labor (51)
• Entitlement based on past history, valuing work
  vs. ownership
• Must the look of justice reside in a resulting
  pattern rather than in the underlying generating
  principles? (55)
• Liberty upsets patterns
• Those who work overtime because their needs are
  material are punished (taxed) while those who do
  not because their needs are immaterial are not
• Patterned principles of distributive justice
  necessitate redistributive activities. The
  likelihood is small that any actual freely
  arrived at set of holdings fits a given pattern
  and the likelihood is nil that it will continue
  to fit the pattern as people exchange and give.
  (65)

16
Entitlement and Welfare

• Understood taxation (beyond what is required for
  minimal state) as stealing, and as akin to forced
  labour
• Used by New Right (Reagan), but less so by
  Thatcherism, to justify erosion of welfare state
• Remaining sources of welfare/taxation
• Basic taxation for running minimal state
• Compensation for acquisition of natural resources
• Rectification of historical injustices
  (illegitimate appropriations)
• Inheritance tax for second-generation transfers