A Brief History of Justice

"David Johnston has given us what we have long lacked, a fine and readable account of the importance of justice, which focuses as much (or more) on the heritage of our thought about this matter as on the detail of the particular theories that have preoccupied philosophers for the past thirty years."
—Jeremy Waldron, Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, Oxford; and University Professor, NYU Law School

David Johnston (Author)

9781405155779, Wiley

Paperback / softback, published 3 June 2011

288 pages
21.7 x 13.9 x 1.6 cm, 0.354 kg

“Highly recommended.  Lower-level undergraduates through graduate students; general readers.” (Choice, 1 March 2012)

A Brief History of Justice traces the development of the idea of justice from the ancient world until the present day, with special attention to the emergence of the modern idea of social justice.

• An accessible introduction to the history of ideas about justice
• Shows how complex ideas are anchored in ordinary intuitions about justice
• Traces the emergence of the idea of social justice
• Identifies connections as well as differences between distributive and corrective justice
• Offers accessible, concise introductions to the thought of several leading figures and schools of thought in the history of philosophy

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

Subject Areas: Philosophy [HP]