The Decent Society [antikvár]

Preface Some twenty years ago I accompanied Sidney Morgenbesser to the airport. In the lounge, while waiting for his flight, we discussed Rawls's theory of justice, which had deeply impressed us both. Before parting. Morgenbesser announced to me—as well as to all the other passengers— that the urgent problem was not the just society but the decent society. To this day I am not sure what he meant by this, but the expression made a great impression on me. This book owes its existence to that remark of Mor-genbesser's. I myself owe Morgenbesser much of my philosophical apprenticeship and not a few of my social persuasions. The idea of the decent society appealed to me, but for many years I was not able to flesh it out. Gradually conversations I had with Palestinians during their uprising (the Intifada) in the occupied territories, as well as conversations I had with new immigrants to Israel from the countries of the defunct Communist bloc, convinced me of the centrality of honor and humiliation in the lives of people—and, consequently, of the importance that ought to be allotted to the concepts of honor and humiliation in