Monday, May 5, 2014

"Social Justice" ?

Among the many arguments without arguments, none is more pervasive or more powerful than that of what is called “social justice.”  Yet it is a term with no real definition, even though it is a term that has been in use for more than a century.  All justice is inherently social, since someone alone on a desert island cannot be either just or unjust.  What seems to be implied by adding the word “social” to the concept of justice is that justice is to be established among groups, rather than just among individuals.  But this collectivizing of justice does little to make the concept of social justice any clearer.  However, the term does at least signal a dissatisfaction with conventional notions of formal justice, such as applying the same rules to all.


Thomas Sowell, Intellectuals and Society, p.159

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