Retributive justice

About: Retributive justice is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5148 publications have been published within this topic receiving 98148 citations.

Equity, Equality, and Need: What Determines Which Value Will Be Used as the Basis of Distributive Justice?

Abstract: The concept of justice is discussed, and the thesis is advanced that “equity” is only one of the many values which may underlie a given system of justice. Hypotheses about the conditions which determine which values will be employed as the basis of distributive justice in a group are proposed, with discussion centered about the values of “equity,” “equality,” and “need” and the conditions which lead a group to emphasize one rather than another value.

Liberalism and the Limits of Justice

Abstract: A liberal society seeks not to impose a single way of life, but to leave its citizens as free as possible to choose their own values and ends. It therefore must govern by principles of justice that do not presuppose any particular vision of the good life. But can any such principles be found? And if not, what are the consequences for justice as a moral and political ideal? These are the questions Michael Sandel takes up in this penetrating critique of contemporary liberalism. Sandel locates modern liberalism in the tradition of Kant, and focuses on its most influential recent expression in the work of John Rawls. In the most important challenge yet to Rawls' theory of justice, Sandel traces the limits of liberalism to the conception of the person that underlies it, and argues for a deeper understanding of community than liberalism allows.

Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership

Abstract: Theories of social justice are necessarily abstract, reaching beyond the particular and the immediate to the general and the timeless. Yet such theories, addressing the world and its problems, must respond to the real and changing dilemmas of the day. A brilliant work of practical philosophy, Frontiers of Justice is dedicated to this proposition. Taking up three urgent problems of social justice neglected by current theories and thus harder to tackle in practical terms and everyday life, Martha Nussbaum seeks a theory of social justice that can guide us to a richer, more responsive approach to social co-operation. The idea of the social contract - especially as developed in the work of John Rawls - is one of the most powerful approaches to social justice in the Western tradition. But as Nussbaum demonstrates, even Rawls's theory, suggesting a contract for mutual advantage among approximate equals, cannot address questions of social justice posed by unequal parties. How, for instance, can we extend the equal rights of citizenship - education, health care, political rights and liberties - to those with physical and mental disabilities? How can we extend justice and dignified life conditions to all citizens of the world? And how, finally, can we bring our treatment of non-human animals into our notions of social justice? Exploring the limitations of the social contract in these three areas, Nussbaum devises an alternative theory based on the idea of 'capabilities.' She helps us to think more clearly about the purposes of political co-operation and the nature of political principles - and to look to a future of greater justice for all.