What is justice?
From Aristotle to Rawls: fair shares, the social contract, happiness, liberty.
6 lessons · about 40 min
The steps
- Philosophy & religionUp next
1. Justice
What “just” means, in a few minutes: how it differs from what is legal, and three big questions in philosophy: how to share, where justice comes from and why we punish.
- Philosophy & religion
2. Nicomachean Ethics
Does being fair mean giving everyone the same? With Aristotle, you'll share out sacks of grain, then judge a theft: two situations where justice isn't worked out the same way.
- Philosophy & religion
3. Thomas Hobbes
What would people be like with no power above them? Imagine the state of nature with Hobbes, and find out why justice is born with the state.
- Philosophy & religion
4. Jeremy Bentham
Bentham's philosophy in a few minutes: judging every action and law by the happiness it produces, and the conclusions he drew, from animal welfare to the reform of laws and punishments.
- Philosophy & religion
5. John Stuart Mill
Mill's philosophy in a few minutes: when may society limit an individual's freedom, and why should even people who are wrong be allowed to speak?
- Philosophy & religion
6. John Rawls
Rawls's thinking in a few minutes: choose the rules of a society without knowing what place you will have in it, and judge an inequality by how the worst off fare.