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Reviews According to David Miller, there are two ways to think about justice. Platonic approaches to justice are based on universal moral truths – values that are independent of both common sense morality and the context to which they are applied (3).1 These Platonic truths can be discovered independently of empirical information concerning societies and institutions, or the abilities and vulnerabilities of actual human beings. Justice for earthlings, by contrast, allows that principles of justice might vary with the context to which they are applied. According to this approach, theories of justice should be sensitive to facts about human nature and societies and to the (considered) judgements of actual people.Miller defends justice for earthlings. He argues that Platonic political philosophy, most notably exemplified in the work of G. A. Cohen, not only fails to understand how justice is inherently rooted in actual social practices and institutions, but also ‘places justice so far out of the reach of human beings that nothing we can practically achieve will bring us significantly closer to the cherished goal’ (230). If we follow the Platonic approach to political philosophy, then all there is left for us is to lament over the enormous gap between Platonic http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Economics & Philosophy Cambridge University Press

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de Maagt, Sem
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 30 (2): 7 – Jun 2, 2014
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Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 
ISSN
1474-0028
eISSN
0266-2671
DOI
10.1017/S0266267114000194
Publisher site
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Abstract

According to David Miller, there are two ways to think about justice. Platonic approaches to justice are based on universal moral truths – values that are independent of both common sense morality and the context to which they are applied (3).1 These Platonic truths can be discovered independently of empirical information concerning societies and institutions, or the abilities and vulnerabilities of actual human beings. Justice for earthlings, by contrast, allows that principles of justice might vary with the context to which they are applied. According to this approach, theories of justice should be sensitive to facts about human nature and societies and to the (considered) judgements of actual people.Miller defends justice for earthlings. He argues that Platonic political philosophy, most notably exemplified in the work of G. A. Cohen, not only fails to understand how justice is inherently rooted in actual social practices and institutions, but also ‘places justice so far out of the reach of human beings that nothing we can practically achieve will bring us significantly closer to the cherished goal’ (230). If we follow the Platonic approach to political philosophy, then all there is left for us is to lament over the enormous gap between Platonic

Journal

Economics & Philosophy – Cambridge University Press

Published: Jun 2, 2014

References

  • Facts and principles