Justice

This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to certain of the most important debates regarding the concept of justice in contemporary political thought. It will unfold specifically through a consideration of John Rawls' seminal 1971 text A Theory of Justice, and various of Rawls' most important philosophical critics. Working within the liberal tradition, Rawls will attempt to reconcile freedom and equality through the construction of a model of justice as fairness which posits a comprehensive scheme of equivalent human liberties, inequalities existing only to the extent that they are attached to offices and positions open to all, and to the extent that they benefit the least-advantaged members of the political community. After examining Rawls' account of justice as fairness, we will examine four texts which critique Rawls from distinct theoretical orientations. Specifically we will look at a libertarian critique (Robert Nozick), a communitarian critique (Michael Walzer), a feminist critique (Susan Moller Okin), and a realist critique (Raymond Geuss).