Humans are justificatory beings—they offer, demand, and require justifications. The rules and institutions we follow rest on narratives that have evolved over time and, taken together, constitute a dynamic and tension-laden normative order. This book presents a new approach to critical theory. Each chapter reflects on the basic principles that guide our normative thinking. The book's argument goes beyond obsolete “ideal” and “realist” theories and shows how closely the concepts of normativity and power are interrelated, and how power rests on the capacity to influence, determine, and possibly restrict the space of justifications for outsiders. By combining insights from the disciplines of philosophy, history, and the social sciences, the book revaluates theories of justice, as well as of power, and provides the tools to conceptualize the “justification narratives” that form the bedrock of our social and political life.