There are two ways to think about justice: One focuses on goods to be distributed to persons based on the situation these recipients are in, the other focuses on past and present relations between persons and possible structures of domination. Both try to overcome the arbitrariness that may inhere in political and social life, but they have very different interpretations of it. The lecture argues for a relational view of justice as based on a principle of the proper justification of social norms – in short, for a discourse theory of justice.
Nationally and internationally, Rainer Forst is considered the most important German political philosopher of his generation. As the Frankfurt-based scholar continues the German — and especially Frankfurtian — political philosophy of Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth, and engages it critically with American representatives like John Rawls, he shapes his very own philosophy. It revolves mainly around the basic concepts of justice, tolerance and justification. In a highly original fashion, Forst has contemplated and formulated the insight that humans have always been embedded in various “practices of justification.” These require that ultimately all actions must be legitimized according to particular logics of morality, law and other discourses. Our practical reasoning is the ability to recognize and accept these logics — such is Forst’s far-reaching conclusion as a political philosopher.
The panel entitled “Two Pictures of Justice” will be held at Campbell Conference Facility at Munk School of Global Affairs on October 17, 2013, 6-9 PM
