Ch 8 - Justice

1. Ch 8 - Justice From Plato to Rawls

2. Plato’s Account of Justice • Conventional View: Helping Friends and Harming Enemies • Cynical View: Might Makes Right • Plato’s View: Harmony, internal and external – inner harmony of faculties of the soul; outer harmony of social classes.

3. John Rawls: Distributive Justice • Egalitarianism: treat everyone as fairly as possible. • The Original Position: A Thought Experiment: act rationally to bring about best interests of the people • Social Contract • Veil of Ignorance: pretend ignorance of your gender, race, ethnicity, age, income, locality. Divide benefits to level playing field.

4. Rawls’s Principles • The Difference Principle: • Social and economic inequalities are to be attached to positions and offices open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity • They are to be to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged members of society.

5. Non-Rawlsiantheoris of Distributive Justice Distribution of Scarce Goods – example of organ transplant • Rawlsian approach: go to the medically most needy and likeliest to succeed. • Egalitarian approach: have a lottery • Welfare or utilitarian approach: those most likely to have a long life should get the kidney • Libertarian or market-based: give it to the highest bidder

6. Justice and the Politics of Difference Iris Marion Young’s Justice and the Politics of Difference (1990) Views justice in terms of overcoming oppression and domination. Exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperiealism, and violence. Civil Rights Movement, feminism and other political movements.

7. Justice and the Capabilities Approach: Sen and Nussbaum • AmartyaSen: connection of poverty, freedom and justice. Stay close to the ground and look for ways of making things better. Not Rawls’s origianl position where specific cultural heritages are banished but with the concrete and how to improve it. • Martha Nussbaum: capabilities approach: life, bodily health, bodily integrity, freedom of travel, bodily safety, forms of affiliation, play, imagination and concern for other species.

8. Criminal Justice • Retributive Justice: lextalionis, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Inflicting such punishment can itself be debasing or simply impossible. • Compensatory Justice: proportional compensation to the victim • Restorative Justice: set the record straight about what happened during oppression. • Justice as Hozho: Navajo notion of harmony through ceremonial restoration of relationships. • Global Justice: either just solutions to global problems or global conception of justice cutting across national, regional and cultural boundaries.

9. The Just War Tradition • Jus ad bellum: the just conditions for entering into a war • Just cause • Right intention • Publicly declared by a lawful authority • Last resort • Probability of success • Jus in bello: the just conduct of war • Discriminate between combatants and civilians • Principle of proportionality • Use no means that are evil in themselves • Jus post Bellum: A Just Peace • Just cause for termination • Right intention • Public declaration and legitimate authority • Discrimination • proportionality

10. Environmental Justice • Famine and atmospheric and water pollution transcend national boundaries. Small developing countries may feel the effects of large highly industrialized countries directly through pollution, reduced air and water quality as well as sea level rise from global warming. They may experience the polluting effects of of foreign owned industry. • Spread of disease in an era of international travel. • Is it fair for some nations and their populations to suffer harmful consequences of actions taken by other nations with knowing disregard of their negative consequences.

11. Economic Exploitation • Manufacturing processses cross natinal boundaries. Labor is cheaper and environmental and safety restrictions more lax, natural resources more easily and cheaply available in developing countries. • How achieve economic justice in a world of radical economic disparities?

12. Fundamental Character of Justice • Justice is a fundamental moral concept. • What is the meaning of justice • How do we make the world a just place? • Justice is the foundation of a lasting world peace.