Part 1 (Week 1 - Week 5) - Justice as a Virtue 1. Introduction: Reading about justice 2. The Idea of Justice as a Virtue 3. Platos theory of justice - The Republic, Book IV 4. Aristotles theoryof justice - Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 5. Alsadair MacIntyre on justice and practical rationality - After Virtue Part 2 (Week 5 - Week 9) - Theories of Distributive Justice 6. The Idea of Distributive Justice 7. John Rawls on justice as fairness - A Theory of Justice 8. Eva Feder Kittay on justice and care - Loves Labor: Essays on Women, Equality and Dependendy 9. Paul Ricoeur on capability justice - Reflections on the Just Part 3 (Week 10 - Week 14) - Justice in Contemporary Societies 10. Luc Boltanski on everyday justice and injustices - Love adn Justice as Competences 11. Kristin Shrader - Frechette on environmental justice - Environmental Justice. Creating Equality, Reclaiming Democracy 12. Patrick Devlin on justice, law, and morality - Morals and the Criminal Law 13. Mark Coeckelbergh on justice and AI - The Political Philosophy of AI 14. Recapitulation: Reimagining Justice
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The concept of justice has generated a vast and varied literature in philosophy, sociology, and political sciences. Representing balance and usually connected to the ideas of fairness, morality, and law, justice is a perennial question in the history of humanity. Justice has to do with punishment and reward, namely with the principles we decide to apply when we want fair outcomes. Undoubtedly, justice is a complex matter. On the one hand, justice deals with the idea of equality. On the other hand, though, since people have different needs, justice has to consider the basic reasons that justify to treat poeple in different ways. Therefore, justice is contextually determined and it is a polysemic concept, having various meanings and referring to various levels of the private and collective life .Indeed, justice can be referred to individuals, to interpersonal relationshops, and to the social and the political sphere of life. Justice can be understood in relation to social peace and mutual recognition as well as in relation to struggle and violence. For these reasons, justice seems to be a powerful paradox. Moreover, justice cannot be univocally or completely on the side of the good. Rather, it seems to be first experienced together with its contrary, that is, with injustice. It is through the experiences of personal suffering or those concerning the suffering of others, that we become sensible to the need for individual justice and for that of others. How should we define, then, justice? This question has attracted the attention of philosophers for over two millennia. How to theorize justice? In which sense justice is related to conepts such as equality and liberty? Why are there conflicting views concerning the proper scope of justice? What is the difference between distributive and procedrual justice? This course aims as formulating critical answers to these questions. In order to achieve this goal, students will be invited to read and comment selected texts in English from the philosphical and sociological literature. The course will offer them the opportunity to verbalize their understanding, share their thoughts, and examine the proposed topic from a coherent variety of perspectives.
The course will be divided into three parts. (1) The first part will consider the topic of justice as a virtue with reference to the ancient therories of justice developed by Platos and Aristotles. Moreover, in the first part the course will consider the contemporary perspective on justice as a virtue presented by Asladair MacIntyre. (2) The second part will deal with the theories of distributive justice. Justice will be considered as linked to the notions of fairness, care, and capability, through the reading and the interpretation of texts of John Rawls, Eva Geder Kittay, and Paul Ricoeur. (3) The third part the course will discuss contemporary issues related to justice. Specifically, it will deal with social justice, environmental justice, criminal justice, and artificial intelligence and justice.
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