Summary
Amartya Sen argues that the urgent need is not a theory of an ideally just state, but a theory that yields judgments of comparative justice, indicating progress toward or away from realizing justice in the present globalized world. He offers an alternative approach to mainstream theories, insisting on the role of public reason in making societies less unjust. Sen's approach acknowledges that reasoning about justice does not always settle all questions, even in theory, and that choices between competing, well-defended positions are necessary.
Sen advocates for a theory of justice that absorbs divergent points of view, rather than reducing them. He emphasizes that modern concerns about justice must avoid parochialism and address global injustice. Readers will understand how to use pluralities of reasonable assessments to construct a practical theory of justice and how to make judgments about moving closer to or further from justice.
Key concepts
- Comparative justice — Judgments that indicate when and why societies are moving closer to or farther away from realizing justice.
- Public reason — The role of public reasoning in establishing what can make societies less unjust.
- Pluralities of reasonable assessments — The acceptance and utilization of several different and competing positions on justice that can each be well-defended.
- Global injustice — Questions of injustice that extend beyond national borders.
From the book
Description: Is justice an ideal, forever beyond our grasp, or something that may actually guide our practical decisions and enhance our lives?In this wide-ranging book, Amartya Sen presents an alternative approach to mainstream theories of justice which, despite their many specific achievements have taken us, he argues, in the wrong direction in general.At the heart of Sen's argument is his insistence on the role of public reason in establishing what can make societies less unjust. But it is in the nature of reasoning about justice, argues Sen, that it does not allow all questions to be settled even in theory; there are choices to be faced between alternative assessments of what is reasonable; several different and competing positions can each be well-defended.Far from rejecting such…
Description: The most important contribution to the subject since John Rawls' A Theory of Justice. Sen argues that what we urgently need in our troubled world is not a theory of an ideally just state, but a theory that can yield judgments as to comparative justice, judgments that tell us when and why we are moving closer to or farther away from realizing justice in the present globalized world.
Snippet: Sen argues that what we urgently need in our troubled world is not a theory of an ideally just state, but a theory that can yield judgments as to comparative justice, judgments that tell us when and why we are moving closer to or farther ...