Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Indian concept of institutional and behavioral justice,
niti
, versus the concept
of justness of the actual lives people lead,
nyaya
. There are two enlighten-
ment traditions. First, social contract thinking concentrates on the institu-
tions of justice. Second, the comparative tradition compares different ways
of life, influenced by institutions and actual behavior of others, social inter-
actions, etc. The social choice theory developed by Condorcet (1785) and
Arrow (1951) belongs to the comparative tradition. Both traditions rely to a
great extent on (practical) reason. Sen believes that good public reasoning
for more justice should help overcome bad parochial reasoning. He main-
tains that there is not one single best way because different positions can be
equally reasonably defended.
In earlier writings, Amartya Sen has developed the capability approach,
together with Martha Nussbaum. He builds on this in formulating his Idea
of Justice. Nussbaum's conceptualization of the capability approach is more
elaborate than Sen's. Therefore, only Nussbaum's formulation and discus-
sion of the implications of the capability approach for global justice will be
presented below.
13.2.3 Philosophical Basis of Martha Nussbaum's Capability Approach
In
Frontiers of Justice
(2006), the American philosopher Martha Nussbaum
builds upon theories of justice in the tradition of social contract thinking,
mainly Rawls' theory. She explicitly discusses the concepts proposed by other
philosophers than Rawls, which she uses in her own capability approach. In
this section, the contributions of these other philosophers will be sketched in
order to enable a better understanding of Nussbaum's theory outlined below.
In general, social contract theories assume an original natural position in
which all humans are free, equal, and independent. These individuals will only
agree to limits to their freedom in a mutual social contract intended to achieve
the benefits of communal life, including comfort, safety and peace, and protec-
tion of their property rights (Locke, Second Treatise of Government, quoted in
Nussbaum 2006, p. 23). David Hume introduces the idea of “circumstances of
justice,” developed further by Rawls. Incidentally, Hume is not a social contract
thinker, but this idea is more fitting to Rawls' theory of justice than similar con-
cepts from social contract thinkers (Nussbaum 2006, p. 25).
In Nussbaum's capability approach, she focuses on those who have not
been involved in designing the social contract, including women, disabled
persons, people in poor countries, and nonhuman animals.* In this regard,
she disagrees with Rawls, according to whom people can only have access
to justice if they are in the right circumstances of justice (free, equal, and
independent). Rawls considers mutual benefit as the aim of societal coopera-
tion and assumes that contracting parties are driven by their own interests.
Nussbaum, on the other hand, points out that other relevant theories assume
*
Nussbaum considers human beings to be rational animals, a concept borrowed from Aristotle.
