Spheres of Justice

Spheres of Justice: a defense of pluralism and equality ( German: . Spheres of Justice A plea for pluralism and equality ) is a work of the philosopher Michael Walzer from 1983 Waltz is considered a representative of communitarianism, of a social than a political philosopher. liberalism represents. The work is his contribution to the debate on political justice, which had been initiated by the work " A Theory of Justice " by John Rawls and " Anarchy, State and Utopia " by Robert Nozick in the 1970s. Starting point for a waltz was barred together with Nozick 1970/71 seminar on " Capitalism and Socialism " at Harvard.

Human society is characterized, that are produced and distributed in their goods. The universalist approaches to distributive justice of the simple egalitarianism of Rawls and Nozick rejects the libertarianism of waltz. Justice is not determined by pre-political values ​​. Therefore goods have no objective value. He is, however, that there are a variety of spheres of social life that do not require a uniform principle, but each separate standards of justice. The value of goods produced socially. Depending on the Good, culture and life situation, the distribution must be different ( particularism ). There is no universal justice with objective standards. Rather, it is culturally relative. "Justice is a human construct [ ... ] " (SDG, 30). Therefore needed a concept of complex equality, in which not egalitarian, but is distributed according to relevant reasons.

Counter critics, especially aimed against relativism emphasizes Waltz in the prefaces to the German editions that he had no contribution to metaethics want to make. Rather, his book was a political post in the concrete political issues stood in the different spheres of society in the foreground.

As principles of justice differs waltz between human rights and distributive justice. The issue of human rights, he addresses in the Preface. This is followed by an introductory chapter in which Walzer developed the idea of ​​complex equality and the different spheres. He then discussed in eleven separate chapters, the individual spheres membership, safety and welfare, money and goods, offices, hard work, leisure, education, kinship and love, acceptance, and Political Power. In conclusion, he deals with the question of the tyranny of individual goods, for example, of money, compared to other spheres apart and considered the views justice in the 20th century. The final movement of his work says:

Expenditure

  • Spheres of Justice: a defense of pluralism and equality. Basic Books, New York 1983, ISBN 0-465-08189-4
  • Spheres of Justice. A plea for pluralism and equality. Übers Hanne Herkommer. Campus, Frankfurt 1992, new edition with a preface current ibid. 2006, ISBN 978-3-593-38035-3

Excerpts

  • Martin Morgenstern, Robert Room eds. Government justifications and historical meanings. Series meeting Philosophy, 4: " Political Philosophy ". Bavarian Schulbuchverlag BSV, Munich 2001 ISBN 3762703256 & Patmos, Dusseldorf 2001 ISBN 3491756413 pp. 48f. (corresponding to pages 15 - 19 49f & Fischer TB 1998 issue. )
Harvard University Robert Zimmer (philosopher)
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