The Faces of InjusticeYale University Press, 01.01.1990 - 144 Seiten How can we distinguish between injustice and misfortune? What can we learn from the victims of calamity about the sense of injustice they harbor? In this book a distinguished political theorist ponders these and other questions and formulates a new political and moral theory of injustice that encompasses not only deliberate acts of cruelty or unfairness but also indifference to such acts. Judith N. Shklar draws on the writings of Plato, Augustine, and Montaigne, three skeptics who gave the theory of injustice its main structure and intellectual force, as well as on political theory, history, social psychology, and literature from sources as diverse as Rosseau, Dickens, Hardy, and E. L. Doctorow. Shklar argues that we cannot set rigid rules to distinguish instances of misfortune from injustice, as most theories of justice would have us do, for such definitions would not take into account historical variability and differences in perception and interest between the victims and spectators. From the victim's point of view--whether it be one who suffered in an earthquake or as a result of social discrimination--the full definition of injustice must include not only the immediate cause of disaster but also our refusal to prevent and then to mitigate the damage, or what Shklar calls passive injustice. With this broader definition comes a call for greater responsibility from both citizens and public servants. When we attempt to make political decisions about what to do in specific instances of injustice, says Shklar, we must give the victim's voice its full weight. This is in keeping with the best impulses of democracy and is our only alternative to a complacency that is bound to favor the unjust. |
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
accept agents American anger Aristotle Bardell Bardell's belief blame Callicles Cambridge cause certainly citizens civic claim Coalhouse Cocoanut Grove fire conduct consent crime criminal democratic disaster distributive justice E. L. Doctorow especially Ethics expectations fact fate feel Giotto's Justice greed guilt Hayek human ideology ignorance indifference individual inequality injured Jean-Jacques Rousseau Joel Feinberg least less lives look merely Michel de Montaigne Milton Friedman misfortune and injustice model of justice Montaigne moral moreover natural necessity Nicomachean Ethics normal justice normal model notion officials one's passive injustice passively unjust Perker Pickwick Plato political primary justice promises psychological punishment reason recognize regard Relative Deprivation response retaliation Retributive Justice revenge Rousseau ruler rules sense of injus sense of injustice simply skeptics social society suffering sure theory thought tice tion unfair University Press unjust person victims of injustice Voltaire women wrong York
Verweise auf dieses Buch
Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy Susan Neiman Keine Leseprobe verfügbar - 2004 |