5.2 Value profile: justice  (Page 6/8)

The table below summarize much of the discussion in this module to this point. It also refers to some point that are beyond the scope of this module. For example, Sandel provides a communitarian criticism of Rawls. Rawls’ self can be detached from its social surroundings and defined in terms of rational self-interest. Sandel argues that justice must confront more robust selves or individuals who are inseparable from their social context. Hence, the social contract itself (or Rawls’ original position) must always factor in the projects and social relations that partially constitute who we are. Second, Walzer argues that there are spheres of justice that correspond to different practical areas; each sphere has its own distinct principle or procedure of distribution and these different procedures cannot be reduced to one all-inclusive view. So economic goods can be distributed consequentially but political goods must have some kind of right-based or deontological procedure. Third and finally, Nussbaum and Sen see justice as following from a more robust conception of human dignity that is filled out by substantive freedoms or what they term capabilities. M. Nussbaum. (2006). Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, species Membership . Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press.