OEB: 500, Orgnizational Ethics and Behaviour in

Health Care.
Topic

Theories of justice and Fair opportunity

Pesented by
Muhammad Shahid
MSc.N
Year II , Semester I, (III)
Course Facilitator: Mr. Muhammad Jaffar (ION-DUHS).
Date 01-12-2015

Objectives
At the end of this presentation
learner will be able to :
1)
2)
3)
4)

Define and classify the types of justice

Argue on justice in islam
Discuss the selected theories of justice
Understand Mills utilitarian theory of
justice, its application and objections
5) Intreprete Robert Nozicks Libertarian
Theory of Justice

Continue ...
6) How can we apply libertarian theory of
justice.
7) Describe the John Rawls theory of justice
or fair opportunity .
8) Application of John Rawls theory of justice
and Objections
9) Summary
10)References

What is Justice

The process or result of using laws to fairly judge and

punish crimes and criminals.
Marryam Webster Dictionary
Fairness in the way people are dealt with.
CambridgeDictionary
1. The system of laws in a country that judges and punishes
people:
2. The justice system in this country consists of a series of law
courts at different levels.
3. The police are doing all they can to bring those responsible
for the bombing to justice.

Justice in Islam
The Meaning of Justice
1) In the Islamic worldview, justice denotes placing
things in their rightful place.
2) It also means giving others equal treatment.
3) In Islam, justice is also a moral virtue and an
attribute of human personality, as it is in the
Western tradition. Justice is close to equality in
the sense that it creates a state of equilibrium in
the distribution of rights and duties, but they are
not identical.
4)Sometimes, justice is achieved through
inequality, like in unequal distribution of wealth.

Justice in Islam
God spoke to His Messenger in this
manner:
1) O My slaves, I have forbidden injustice for Myself and
forbade it also for you. So avoid being unjust to one
another. (Saheeh Muslim)
1) We sent Our Messengers with clear signs and sent down
with them the Book and the Measure in order to establish
justice among the people (Quran 57:25)

Types of justice
There are four types of justice that
people can seek when they have
been wronged:
1)Distributive justice
2)Procedural justice
3)Restorative justice
4)Retributive justice

Distributive justice
1)

Distributive justice, also known as economic justice, is

about fairness in what people receive, from goods to
attention.

2)

Its roots are in social order and it is at the roots of

socialism, where equality is a fundamental principle.

3)

If people do not think that they are getting their fair share
of something, they will seek first to gain what they believe
they deserve.

Procedural justice
1) The principle of fairness is also found in the idea of fair
play (as opposed to the fair share of distributive justice).
2) If people believe that a fair process was used in deciding
what it to be distributed, then they may well accept an
imbalance in what they receive in comparison to others.
3)

If they see both procedural and distributive injustice, they

will likely seek restorative and/or retributive justice.

Restorative justice
1) The first thing that the betrayed person may seek from the
betrayer is some form of restitution, putting things back as
they should be.
2) The simplest form of restitution is a straightforward
apology. Restoration means putting things back as they
were, so it may include some act of contrition to
demonstrate one is truly sorry. This may include action and
even extra payment to the offended party.
3) Restorative justice is also known as corrective justice.

Retributive justice
1) Retributive justice works on the principle of punishment, although
what constitutes fair and proportional punishment is widely
debated. While the intent may be to dissuade the perpetrator or
others from future wrong-doing, the re-offending rate of many
criminals indicates the limited success of this approach.
2) Punishment in practice is more about the satisfaction of victims
and those who care about them. This strays into the realm of
revenge, which can be many times more severe than reparation
as the hurt party seeks to make the other person suffer in return.
In such cases 'justice' is typically defined emotionally rather that
with intent for fairness or prevention.

Selected theories of justice

I will discuss three theories of justice:
1) Mills utilitarian theory of justice.
2) Nozicks Libertarian Theory of Justice
3) Rawlss theory of justice

Mills utilitarian theory of justice.

John
Stuart
Mill
(1806-1873),
himself a utilitarian, sought to
rescue utilitarianism from this and
other objections.

Mill argues that respect for individuals

rights as the most sacred and binding
part of morality is compatible with the
idea that justice rests ultimately on
utilitarian considerations. But is Mill
right to be confident? Can the principle
of utility support the notion that some
rights should be upheld even if doing
so makes the majority very unhappy?

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873),

Continue..
1)

Utilitarians tend to be among those who see no major divide between

justice and morality.

2)

Utilitarians see justice as part of morality and dont see justice to have a
higher priority than any other moral concern. In particular, utilitarians
think that we should promote goodness (things of value), and many think
that goodness can be found in a single good; such as happiness,
flourishing, well-being, or desire satisfaction.

3)

Utilitarian ideas of justice connect morality to the law, economic

distribution, and politics. What economic or political principles will
utilitarians say we should accept? That is not an easy question to answer
and is still up in the air. We have to discover the best economic and
political systems for ourselves by seeing the effects they produce (90).

Continue ...
Utilitarians often advocate for social welfare because everyones
well-being is of moral interest and social welfare seems like a
good way to make sure everyone flourishes to a minimal extent.

On the other hand utilitarians often advocate free trade

because:

a) Free trade can help reward people for hard work and encourage
people to be productive,
b) The free market allows for a great deal of freedom,
c) Freedom has a tendency to lead to more prosperity,
d) Taking away freedom has a tendency to cause suffering.

Mills conception of rights can

include

Positive rights (for public education, food, shelter,

medical assistance, etc.)

Negative rights (to be allowed to say what we

want, to be allowed to have any religion, etc.) Both
of these sorts of rights can potentially help people
have greater well being.

Concrete utilitarian suggestions:

1) Mill argued that we should reduce the division between
workers and owners (92-94).
2) We can promote greater equality of income (93).

Applying Mills theory of

justice
Mill thinks that we should have rights, laws, and
government intervention.
a) Maximize the goodness
b) Maximize happiness
c) Minimize the evil because it causes suffering.
What rights will likely lead to greater happiness?
We discuss three of those rights:
1. Right to property:
2. Right to social welfare:
3. Right to education:
When are rights violated in pakistan ?

Objections
1. Its too simple
2. Utilitarianism fails to account for
the need to be respectful
3. It ignores personal relationships
4. Its too demanding

Robert Nozicks Libertarian Theory

of Justice
Libertarians are people who favor
negative rights (and the right to
property in particular), small
government, and a free market.
Many libertarians ascribe to an
extreme view that denies the
existence of positive rights and
favors a laissez-faire free market
no matter how horrible the
consequences are.

This seems to entail no

government regulation or public
education.

Born

November 16,
1938
Brooklyn,
New York, U.S.

Died

Regi
on

January 23,
2002(aged63)
Cambridge, Massa
chusetts
, U.S.[1]
20th-century phil
osophy
Western philosoph
y

Scho
ol

Analytic,
Libertarianism

Era

Libertarian Theory of Justice

Nozicks view seems to imply that taxation is a
form of theft because it violates our property
rights.
People are coerced by governments to give up
their property when they are being taxed.
No one can take away our legitimately attained
property without permission.
Any public service funded by taxation would then
also be illegitimate, such as public education or
food for the poor.

Applying Nozicks theory of

justice

Nozicks theory of justice affirms that we have

negative rights (to be left alone) but denies that we
have positive rights (to social welfare or education).
Nozick says taxation is a form of coerced redistribution
of wealth and its unjust because we have a right to
property and we dont have a right to social welfare.
I expect that Nozicks government to be fully funded
by donations and/or requires volunteers.
It would be wrong to tax people to have a police
department because thats just one more unjust
violation of our property rights. The police department,
fire department, public schools, prisons, and
everything else must either be for profit, exist from
volunteers, and/or be funded by donations.

How do we apply Nozicks

theory of justice?
First, we need to know what rights we have. He
thinks we have Lockean rightsa right from
being harmed, a right to property, freedom of
speech, and so on.
Second, we need to know how those rights apply
to various contexts.
Objections:
1.
2.
3.
5.

We have duties to each other

Freedom is more than negative rights
The free market can lead to exploitation and oppression
The free market can lead to horrible consequences.

John Rawls theory of justice

Rawls described his theory of justice
called Justice as Fairness in his book
A Theory of Justice.
Rawls agrees with Nozick that justice
is quite separate from morality and he
too rejects utilitarian forms of justice.
He first suggests a new way to learn
about
principles
of
justicethe
original position (103-105).
The original position asks us to
imagine that a group of people will
get to decide the principles of justice.

Born:February 21, 1921,

Baltimore, Maryland, United S
tates
Died:
November 24, 2002,
Lexington, Massachusetts, Un
ited States
Areas of interest:
Politics,Political philosophy,
Social contract
,Liberalism,Justice
John Bordley Rawls was an
American moral and political
philosopher.

John Rawls theory of justice

He argues that in a veil of ignorance they couldnt
be as biased towards their profession, race,
gender, age, or social status because they
wouldnt know which categories they belong to
(104-105).
As far as self-interest is concerned, Rawls argues
that they will want principles of justice that will
fairly distribute certain goods that everyone will
valuewhat Rawls calls primary social goods
(105).
He argues that two intuitive principles of justice in
particular will reach reflective equilibrium:

Here I will discuss two

principles of justice
1) Equality
2) Enequality
1. Each person is to have an equal right to the most
extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible
with a similar system of liberty for all.
2. Social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two
conditions:
first, they are to be attached to positions and offices open
to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity;
and second, they are to be the greatest expected benefit
of the least advantaged members of society (107).

Continue ..
Rawls says that the first principle has priority over the
second
The liberties Rawls has in mind are negative rights, like the
freedom of thought.
The distribution of social goods can include education, food,
and housing; which could be considered to be positive rights.
The second principles second restrictionthat social and
economic inequalities must benefit the worst off groupis
known as the difference principle and seems to imply that
total communism is automatically just if such a system has
no economic or social inequalities because its only
inequalities that require a rationale. Capitalism will only be
justified if it benefits the least advantaged groupthe poor,
orphans, and so on.

Applying Rawls theory of

justice
Rawls agrees with Nozick that we have negative rights
and no positive rights, but he argues that social and
economic inequalities are unjust unless they meet
certain requirements.
Rawls thinks that redistribution of wealth and taxes
are justified if it is the best way for the worst off to
benefit from social and economic inequalities.
He thinks total economic equality is just (perhaps in a
socialist state), but he thinks that a capitalistic system
might actually be better and help the worst off by
rewarding productive behavior to give an incentive to
increase productivity and therefore prosperity.

Objections
1) Basic liberties arent good enough
2) Arent these people too risk averse?
3) The difference principle unjustly restrains
freedom and power
4) The difference principle can lead to poverty
5) International responsibilities

References:

Rawls,J. (1971).A theory of justice(2nded.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press

of Harvard University Press.

Retrieved from http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/376/justice-in-islam/

on 22-11-2015.

Retrieved from http://changingminds.org/explanations/trust/four_justice.htm

on 25-11-2015.

Retrieved from https://ethicalrealism.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/threetheories-of-justice

on 22-11-2015.

(Rawls, 1971, p.xx)