The Concept of Justice and Equality : : On the Dispute between John Rawls and Gerald Cohen / / Eliane Saadé.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Plus DeG Package 2015 Part 1
• VerfasserIn: Saadé, Eliane,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2015]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Series: Practical Philosophy , 20
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (223 p.)

Unless considered on a practical level, where a precise distribution of social goods is chosen, John Rawls’s and Gerald Cohen’s approaches to social justice cannot be complementary. Their disagreement about justice and its principles calls for a choice, which opts either for the Rawlsian theory or for the Cohenian one. What is the more plausible approach to social justice? This work compares both approaches and aims to defend Cohen’s position in the light of two considerations. It answers the philosophical question about the analysis of the idea of justice, which puts the virtue of justice in its philosophical context. It, however, presents a method everyone can apply in order to arrive at the fundamental principles of justice by employing the power of reason. An analysis of the concept of justice based on the power of reason should seek to uncover the ultimate nature of justice, which is independent of facts and of other virtues. Once exposed, the understanding of justice arrived at should inform social institutions and determine people’s daily decisions. A just society is therefore a society where just persons and just institutions exhibit the virtue of justice.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Foreword -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1 The Rawlsian Theory of Justice -- 2 A Meta-Ethical Theory: Cohen’s Idea of Justice -- 3 A Meta-Ethical Theory: Cohen’s Rescue of Justice -- 4 The Difference Principle -- 5 The Rescue of Equality from the Rawlsian Theory of Justice -- 6 Scrutinizing the Cohenian Rescue of Equality -- 7 The Cohenian Alternative -- 8 Disagreement on the Status of Principles -- 9 Disagreement on the Status of Facts -- 10 Different Understandings of Justice -- Conclusion -- References -- Author Index -- Subject Index