Epistemic Limitations & the Social-Guiding Function of Justice

The contemporary methodological debate about justice has centered around a dispute about the value of so-called ideal theory. I argue that justice performs a social-guiding function, which explains how people should respond to their limited and fallible abilities to realize justice institutionally....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Adams, Matthew R. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2024
In: Journal of moral philosophy
Year: 2024, Volume: 21, Issue: 3/4, Pages: 270-297
Further subjects:B Nonideal theory
B Justice
B social-guiding
B Ideal theory
B epistemic limitations
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Summary:The contemporary methodological debate about justice has centered around a dispute about the value of so-called ideal theory. I argue that justice performs a social-guiding function, which explains how people should respond to their limited and fallible abilities to realize justice institutionally. My argument helps to re-orientate the contemporary methodological debate. The obvious disagreement between many prominent supporters and skeptics of ideal theory obscures the fact that they are united by a false assumption: the practical value of justice exclusively consists of its institution-guiding function. To capture the overlooked social-guiding function, a richer normative theory of justice is required; I show how such a theory can be supplied by “ideal-transitional” principles.
ISSN:1745-5243
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of moral philosophy
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/17455243-20233977