Work · Political Philosophy & Ethics (20th–21st c.)
On Justice
Analyses six common conceptions of justice and finds a shared formal core: beings of the same essential category must be treated alike; which categories count, however, depends on values that logic cannot prove.
Introduction
Perelman published “De la justice” in Brussels in 1945. The essay examines six common conceptions of justice – to each the same, according to merit, works, needs, rank or legal entitlement – and shows that they share a formal principle: beings of the same essential category must be treated alike. Which characteristics count as essential, however, depends on values, which cannot be derived by logic. This conclusion led Perelman to seek a theory of reasoning about values that would not leave them to arbitrariness, and so to the project of the new rhetoric. The essay is a standard reference in discussions of formal justice.
Connections
Taken up in
- The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation1958 · Chaïm Perelman
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