Abstract
Abstract
This book develops a novel approach to theorizing liberal egalitarian justice. On the orthodox approach, a theory of justice comprises a set of normative principles to guide the design and workings of social institutions. The book argues that we should redirect the flow of theoretical attention to the values that normative principles aim to realize: We should aim for theory to provide evaluative discernment rather than normative principles. The term “values,” simply picks out the things that matter. Among the things that matter to egalitarians are civic relationships of a certain character and fair distributions of social goods. This redirection on its own is purely methodological: Those thinking about justice should take a longer look at what things matter—and what reasons those things furnish and how their mattering stacks up against the mattering of other things that matter—before they turn to the work of trying to systematize those answers in the form of principles for the design of political institutions. The book argues for that methodological reorientation in harness with a substantive way of filling it out with liberal egalitarian values. This proposed combination of schema and values, “the anatomy of justice,” comprises a modular approach to theorizing justice across circumstances of justice and deep injustice. The case for the anatomy of justice rests on what it can do: The anatomy resolves longstanding difficulties internal to liberal egalitarianism, provides unified but circumstance-responsive guidance for improving unjust societies, and supports compelling defenses of liberalism against feminist and egalitarian critics.