Towards Justice and Virtue

Introduction

Onora O’Neill’s book of 1996 offers an account of practical reasoning meant to bring together two traditions often set against each other: liberal theories of justice, with their universal principles and rights, and virtue ethics, with its attention to character and particular situations. Principles, she argues, must be ones that a plurality of agents could all adopt despite their differences, and starting from obligations rather than rights makes it clear who owes what to whom. From this she derives principles of justice, such as rejecting injury and deception, and principles of virtue, such as help and care, whose application calls for judgement. The book draws on Kant but rejects reading him as a rigid rule-follower.

Connections

Builds on

• Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals1785 · Immanuel Kant

Criticizes

• A Theory of Justice1971 · John Rawls

More works by Onora O’Neill

• 2002A Question of Trust