3-4 Credits
Professor Western
MWF 9:05-9:55 am
Partially fulfills Social Science requirement.

Justice: what is it? What makes a thing just? Is it a question of merit? Is justice what happens when somebody deserves what they get? (And if so, how do we decide what somebody “deserves?”) Is justice the most good for the most people? (And if so, how do we decide what is “good” and for whom?) Is justice simply fair? (And how do we decide what’s “fair”)? Is justice essentially securing everybody’s equal rights? (And if so, what are our rights, and who gets to determine them?) Is justice a community standard, or universal? Is today’s sense of justice too individual-centric? Are justice and love compatible? Or, if we want to both love others and treat them justly, do these two impulses somehow conflict?

At first glance these questions may seem abstract, but how we answer them has very real consequences for the world we live in. We make decisions daily about what is right and wrong, fair and unfair. Daily we justify or endorse certain actions or social arrangements based on how we conceive of justice. Is it right that you receive an excellent education while other American citizens cannot? Is the vast disparity between rich and poor justified? Is it right that we tax the rich to give welfare to the poor? Should we be able to say whatever we want, and if not, what should be the limits on speech? When is war justified, if ever? Should companies be allowed to patent DNA? The list goes on and on… ranging from the immediate to the global, from the personal to the political.

Because the question “what is justice?” is so important in shaping our lives, we have to look closely at the answers we give. The purpose of this class is to critically investigate conceptions of justice – both established traditions of thought about justice and our own personal conceptions. We will start with a study of the leading conceptions of justice, from Aristotle to John Rawls. Then, using our knowledge of these traditions as a foundation, we’ll discuss justice in our own lives, looking primarily at questions of inequality and property (the rich and the poor, “who gets what and why?”). The course may consider other questions of justice as well, like free speech, DNA ownership, and affirmative action. On these matters we will consider the very real, personal and sociological effects of our decisions about justice. Finally, the last section of the class will consider ways in which our conceptions of justice either compliment or contradict our commitments to community and love.

In this class students can expect to read: philosophers on justice from the ancient (Aristotle) to the modern (Locke, Rousseau, Bentham, Robert Nozick and John Rawls); both Christian and secular thinkers on love, virtue and justice, and; contemporary cases that raise issues of justice and injustice in America today. Students should expect to write a paper at the end of this class that argues the justice or injustice of a case, issue or event of their choice.

Texts may include:
Michael Sandel , Justice: A Reader, ISBN: 0195335120
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Political Writings, ISBN: 0872200477
John Rawls, Justice as Fairness, ISBN: 0674005112