Knowing what justice means and being committed to it: remarks on Allen Buchanan's analysis of conservative factual beliefs

  • Allen Buchanan argues that a particular set of false factual beliefs, especially when part of a comprehensive ideology, can lead persons to develop ‘morally conservative’ convictions that stand in the way of realising justice even though these persons have a ‘firm grasp of correct principles of justice and a robust commitment to their realisation’. In my remarks, I raise some questions concerning the core argument: How ‘firm’ can a grasp of principles of justice be if a person is blind to the realities of injustice? And how ‘sincerely committed’ to justice can such an injustice-insensitive person be? Alternatively: How firm is that grasp or commitment if one has a radically pessimistic view about human nature so that one does not believe that (egalitarian) justice can or could ever be realised? Secondly, I ask: If such ideologies or false beliefs are in play in reproducing injustice, do they not also ‘mask’ existing injustices?
Metadaten
Author:Rainer ForstGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-639183
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/japp.12540
ISSN:1468-5930
Parent Title (English):Journal of applied philosophy
Publisher:Wiley-Blackwell
Place of publication:Oxford
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2021/12/22
Date of first Publication:2021/12/22
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2022/04/05
Volume:38
Issue:5
Page Number:5
First Page:742
Last Page:746
HeBIS-PPN:494706228
Institutes:Gesellschaftswissenschaften
Dewey Decimal Classification:1 Philosophie und Psychologie / 10 Philosophie / 100 Philosophie und Psychologie
3 Sozialwissenschaften / 32 Politikwissenschaft / 320 Politikwissenschaft
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung-Nicht kommerziell - Keine Bearbeitung 4.0