PRESENTATION AND OUTLINE

This chapter presents an analytical summarized overview of the properties of principles of adequate or fair distribution, that these principles hold by necessity created by their topic and by rationality. These principles constitute a rather well-defined set. Only a limited subset has been scholarly considered as yet – and not all fare brilliantly in the test of meaningfulness – while others doubtlessly as useful have not been yet. Logic and morality both entail that no principle can be valid for all questions; hence, each principle should be accompanied by the specification of its scope of application or by sufficient indications about it (as shown in forthcoming Section 2). For instance, ELIE was derived as a solution for overall distribution in macrojustice. A principle is characterized by two aspects, its substance and its structure (Section 4). The substance is the nature of the basic ethical reference of the judgment – this can differ from the direct object of the policy, from its instruments, and from the items whose distribution is observed or discussed. Individualistic principles are considered, and hence the substance is either in the family of freedom or means, or in that of happiness or satisfaction (Section 3) – the meanings and uses of the economic concepts of “utility” will be pointed out. Rationality in the basic and elementary sense of “for a reason,” or justified, turns out to imply two basic and related structural properties (Section 5).