Distributive Justice [antikvár]

PREFACEA book on the topic of "distributive justice" might plausibly be expected to be a work of passion: the issue is one of those high-energy fuels of controversy capable of generating a great deal of heat. One way of looking at the problem is from the perspective of the discontented poor man, wroth at the disparity between himself and the rich, and yearning on grounds of "justice" for egalitarian rectification. Another perspective is that of the uneasily contented rich man who, ill at ease about this same disparity, is eager to defend on systematic grounds the "justice" of the social arrangements which permit and perpetuate it. The topic is one that virtually demands a polemical tract. However, the reader who expects to meet one in the present work will have his expectations disappointed. This book addresses itself not so much to the large fabric of the ethical theory of social polity, as to the smaller, largely conceptual issues that lurk within the grand theories as threads holding the parts together. Saying this is not, however, as modest as it sounds. Our smaller considerations are not irrelevant to the larger doctrines: where the threads are poor, tlie whole garment comes apart at the seams. At any rate we are here not engaged upon the partisan work of the social critic or apologist, but the impartial work of the philosopherto elicit the implications inherent in key concepts, to draw essential distinctions, to note inescapable difficulties, to insist upon considerations that must be taken into account. If our délibéra-