Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Political philosophy for Earthlings
- 2 Two ways to think about justice
- 3 Social justice in multicultural societies
- 4 Liberalism, equal opportunities and cultural commitments
- 5 Equality of opportunity and the family
- 6 Justice and boundaries
- 7 Social justice versus global justice?
- 8 ‘Are they my poor?’: the problem of altruism in a world of strangers
- 9 Taking up the slack? Responsibility and justice in situations of partial compliance
- 10 A tale of two cities; or, political philosophy as lamentation
- Index
- References
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Political philosophy for Earthlings
- 2 Two ways to think about justice
- 3 Social justice in multicultural societies
- 4 Liberalism, equal opportunities and cultural commitments
- 5 Equality of opportunity and the family
- 6 Justice and boundaries
- 7 Social justice versus global justice?
- 8 ‘Are they my poor?’: the problem of altruism in a world of strangers
- 9 Taking up the slack? Responsibility and justice in situations of partial compliance
- 10 A tale of two cities; or, political philosophy as lamentation
- Index
- References
Summary
This book collects a number of my essays about justice written over the period 2000–2010. It was a good decade for writing about justice, judging by the stream of books and articles that academic political philosophers produced, but not so good for justice itself. Justice in this context means justice in the distribution of rights and opportunities, income and wealth, goods and services – what is often called social justice, though the term has become problematic, as we shall shortly see. The philosophers who write about justice nearly all understand it as requiring some form of equality, and there has been intense debate about exactly which form should be chosen; there is also intense debate about how widely the justice net should be cast, whether the aim should be equality within each separate political community or equality worldwide. Whichever way the idea of justice is understood, however, the real world seems to have moved in entirely the opposite direction. Levels of interpersonal inequality have relentlessly increased, both nationally and globally, mainly because in both developed and developing countries a class of super-rich persons has emerged, easily able to outflank the policies states have traditionally employed to reduce inequality among their citizens. Alongside this, there is evidence that public opinion, even in countries with strong traditions of social democracy, has become more tolerant of inequality. Fewer people now think that it is part of the state's business to redistribute income and wealth in favour of the poor. There is certainly anger at the present time directed against rich bankers and financiers who are thought to have inflicted harm on others by virtue of their risky behaviour, but this does not extend to sports stars and celebrities whose extravagant lifestyles are seen as appropriate reward for having won out in the lottery of life.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Justice for EarthlingsEssays in Political Philosophy, pp. 1 - 15Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013