SİYASAL DÜŞÜNCE

Multi-dimensionality is one of the main features of the contemporary understandings of social justice. It emphasizes the fact that whether a society is just or not cannot be assessed based on one single variable or unit of evaluation.

Plato, in his famous opus, namely the Republic, focuses on “justice” as a central theme and discusses on the identification of justice through its relation to the concept “virtue”. He points out justice in this discussion as a “virtue of individual” that is different from the contemporary understanding of justice as “virtue of institutions”.

Aristotle is considered as one of the founding fathers of the Western Philosophy. He is considered as the preliminary philosopher, who made a distinction between legal justice and social justice that is an idea specified as the beginning of the political philosophy by some scholars.

Scottish philosopher David Hume paved the way toward the idea of utilitarianism. He is also known for his influence on the Western Philosophy, especially through the idea of empiricism, scepticism, and naturalism.

Different from the utilitarian model of social justice that advocates giving priority to the aggregative interests of society, the libertarian model of social justice highlights the importance of certain inalienable rights of an individual, such as earning and holding the private property.

In line with the definition that Michael Young provided in his famous work, namely The Rise of the Meritocracy (1958), some define merit as “intelligence and effort”. Drawing on a meritocratic perspective, the libertarian model of social justice claims that inequalities are legitimate if they are outcomes of differences based on merit.

Rawls identifies five categories of primary goods. These are pointed out as basic rights and liberties; freedom of movement and free choice of occupation; powers and prerogatives of offices and positions of authority and responsibility; income and wealth; and the social bases of self-respect

First of all, Sen criticizes Rawls with giving priority to the liberal rights over the economic ones. Sen asks, “why should we regard hunger, starvation and medical neglect to be invariably less important than the violation of any kind of personal liberty?”

Dworkin rejects the idea of equality of welfare since it does not attain any responsibility to people in terms of their expensive tastes and, thus, compensates inequalities resulting from different preferences

Honneth constructs his perspective based on the identity model of Hegel.

According to Cook (2006) Justice in everyday life is usually considered in relation to “the workings of police, courts, judiciary and related criminal agencies". The correct answer is choice A.

Both in classical and contemporary ages, the idea of social justice is discussed in relation to various concepts such as rights, desert, merit, rule, covenant, consent, free-will, freedom, fairness, choice, well-being, poverty, inequality. However, “religion” is not one of those concepts. The correct answer is choice E.

Plato points out justice in his famous opus – Republic- as a virtue of individual that is different from the contemporary understanding of justice as virtue of institutions. The correct answer is choice C.

Absence of moral dimension in Hobbes’ justice perception was noticed by Scottish philosopher David Hume who broadened Hobbes’ approach to the idea of justice in his book called A Treatise of Human Nature. The correct answer is choice B.

According to the utilitarian approach to the idea of social justice, a just society is associated with the perspective that the common interest of the society is taken as the prevailing criteria in decision, actions, or policies of the ruling authority.

The difference between the utilitarian and libertarian accounts of social justice is based on the priorities of each conception. Libertarianism highlights the importance of certain inalienable rights of individual whilst utilitarianism attaches priority to the aggregative interests of society with a perspective putting the individuals’ rights at the second row. The correct answer is choice A.

Nozick’s theory of entitlement primarily focuses on individuals’ holding of private properties and is established on three principles that are all above. The correct answer is choice E.

From an egalitarian perspective, three main concerns against the libertarian perspective can be noted. The first one is to give complete priority to liberal rights, especially to those securing private property. Basic and the most crucial human needs, such as being well nourished, basic health, being literate and escaping from avoidable mortality, cannot be ignored on the grounds of priority of libertarian rights.The correct answer is choice C.

Dworkin rejects the idea of equality of welfare since it does not attain any responsibility to people in terms of their expensive tastes and, thus, compensates inequalities resulting from different preferences.The answer is B.

Honneth argues that the recognition is the primary element of justice, due to new social movements. The corrects answer is choice A.