CRJU 2220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Divine Command Theory, John Stuart Mill, Distributive Justice
26 Nov 2017
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Document Summary
Justice is the legal or philosophical theory by which fairness is administered. The concept of justice differs in every culture. An early theory of justice was set out by the ancient greek philosopher plato in his work the republic. Advocates of divine command theory argue that justice issues from god. In the 17th century, theorists like john locke argued for the theory of natural law. Thinkers in the social contract tradition argued that justice is derived from the mutual agreement of everyone concerned. In the 19th century, utilitarian thinkers including john stuart mill argued that justice is what has the best consequences. Theories of distributive justice concern what is distributed, between whom they are to be distributed, and what is the proper distribution. Egalitarians argued that justice can only exist within the coordinates of equality. John rawls used a social contract argument to show that justice, and especially distributive justice, is a form of fairness.
