Reason and justice / Richard Dien Winfield.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Winfield, Richard Dien, 1950- author.

Series:

SUNY series in systematic philosophy.

SUNY Series in Systematic Philosophy

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Justice (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 318 p. )

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [1988]

Summary:

This is a finely argued, detailed, and comprehensive systematic theory of justice, brilliantly extending Hegelian ethics much as Rawls's Theory of Justice rehabilitated and extended classical Liberalism. Winfield argues that justice, like reason, must be self-grounding, and that to achieve this, it must be self-determined. The theory of justice must therefore abandon its appeal to metaphysically given or transcendentally constituted norms and instead determine the institutions of freedom. In pursuit of this task, Winfield offers insightful discussions of property relations, morality, the family, capital and commodity relations, economic and social justice, and the state. In contrast to Liberalism, which sees the state as instrumental to non-political ends, Winfield defends the democratic state as the just realization of freedom. Throughout, it is argued that justice is defined interactively, where one's freedom is determined by how one's interactions respect and foster the institutional freedom of others.Although the author's arguments proceed systematically, at each stage he deals adroitly with the relevant major thinkers in the Western tradition-not only with Hegel, but with the ancients, the classical liberals, Marx, and contemporaries such as Rawls.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction

1 The Two Traditional Approaches to Justification

2 The Challenges of Scepticism and Nihilism

3 The Current Impasse In Normative Theory

4 The Alternative of A Systematic Philosophy Without Foundations

Part I. Dilemmas of the Metaphysical Approach to Truth and Justice

Chapter 1 Given Determinacy and Justification

Chapter 2 The Metaphysics of Justice

Part II. The Critique of the Given and the Appeal to a Privileged Determiner

Chapter 3 The Futile Temptation of Transcendental Argument

Chapter 4 The justice of Liberty

Chapter 5 The Promise and Illusion of Practical Reason

Part III. Freedom from Foundations and the Validity of Self-Determination

Chapter 6 Self-Detennination and Systematic Philosophy

Chapter 7 The Theory of Detenninacy and the Quests for Truth and Justice

Part IV. The System of Justice

Chapter 8 The Elementary Structures of Freedom

Chapter 9 The Family as an Institution of Freedom

Chapter 10 Economic Freedom and the Just Society

Chapter 11 Capital and the Legitimacy of Commodity Relations

Chapter 12 The Realization of Social Justice

Chapter 13 Democracy and the Just State

Chapter 14 The Historical Genesis of Justice

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliography: p. 301-312.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781438424231

143842423X

9780585090580

0585090580

OCLC:

1295272581