The Idea of Justice

Introduction

Sen’s book of 2009 is dedicated to the memory of John Rawls, whose theory it criticises. Rawls and the social-contract tradition pursue what Sen calls “transcendental institutionalism”: the search for perfectly just institutions. Sen argues instead for a comparative approach that ranks feasible alternatives and removes manifest injustices, in the line of Smith, Condorcet, Bentham, Mill and Marx. He illustrates the plurality of reasons with three children quarrelling over a flute: one can play it, one is the poorest, one made it. Using the Sanskrit distinction between niti (rules and institutions) and nyaya (justice as actually realised), he stresses public reasoning and Adam Smith’s “impartial spectator”, which allows views from outside one’s own society.

Connections

Builds on

• The Theory of Moral Sentiments1759 · Adam Smith

Criticizes

• A Theory of Justice1971 · John Rawls

More works by Amartya Sen

• 1999Development as Freedom

Appears in

• Journey ‘What Is Just?’ · Stop 10 of 10