030205 VO Justice (2021W)

Justice is among the central, frequently quoted and intensely contested ideals of human coexistence. Justice indicates what we owe to each other: conduct, goods, rights and duties. Justice is referred to in discussions about lowering the tax burden for some groups and raising it for others, about the allocation of scarce medical goods, about shaping relations among the generations or about the legitimation of military measures, such as the “humanitarian intervention” in Libya. In order to approach such issues, we need, first of all, to clarify what we mean by the term: Justice not just an individual virtue, it is also a requirement of institutions – particularly of law and the state, where rights and duties, goods and positions are distributed. Depending on context, justice appears in different manifestations, be it with regard to the legitimation of power relations (political justice), the distribution of resources (social justice), the compensation of wrongs (corrective justice) or the question how to deal with respective conflicts in a way to generate reasonably acceptable solutions (procedural justice). Based on this foundation, a short history of justice from antiquity to our present age will be sketched, followed by a presentation of current theories, such as Rawls’s liberal conception of justice as fairness, communitarianism, multiculturalism as well as libertarian, egalitarian and non-egalitarian humanist theories. Subsequently, issues of justice in the welfare state, in close social relations and in gender relations are enlarged upon. The engagement with the relationship of law and justice as well as the challenge of global justice concludes the lecture. Apart from philosophical foundations, particular attention will be given to current debates. The lecture serves to deliver knowledge; discussion will be a vital part.