Chapter 4 — Social Justice

Social justice concerns life in society — the way public life is ordered and the principles by which social goods and duties are distributed among different members of society. Unlike love, which involves relationships with a few people we know well, justice deals with broad societal arrangements. The chapter states that questions of justice are of central importance for politics.

The chapter identifies three principles. First, equal treatment for equals: all individuals deserve equal rights and must not be discriminated against on grounds of class, caste, race, or gender. Second, proportionate justice: people should be rewarded in proportion to the scale and quality of their effort, taking into account skills required and possible dangers. Third, recognition of special needs: society should take into account the special requirements of people with disabilities, age-related disadvantages, or lack of access to education and health care.

The principle of treating equals equally holds that all individuals share certain characteristics as human beings and therefore deserve equal rights and equal treatment. In liberal democracies this includes civil rights such as life, liberty and property, political rights like the right to vote, and social rights that provide equal opportunities. People should be judged on the basis of their work and actions, not on the basis of the group to which they belong — for example, two people performing the same work from different castes must receive the same reward.

Proportionate justice means rewarding people in proportion to the scale and quality of their effort, and taking into account factors such as the effort required, the skills required, and the possible dangers involved in the work. Equal treatment gives the same reward for the same work, while proportionate justice allows different rewards for different kinds of work. The chapter notes that miners, skilled craftsmen, or people in socially useful but sometimes dangerous professions like policemen may not always receive a reward that is just compared to what others earn.

The principle of recognising special needs holds that society should take into account special requirements of people when distributing rewards or duties. Physical disabilities, age, or lack of access to good education or health care are considered grounds for special treatment. In India, lack of access to education or health care is often combined with social discrimination on grounds of caste, so the Constitution allowed for reservations of government jobs and quotas for admissions to educational institutions for people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes.

John Rawls was a well-known political philosopher who argued that there could be a rational justification for helping the least privileged members of a society. He proposed that the only way to arrive at a fair and just rule is to imagine making decisions about how society should be organised without knowing which position one would occupy in that society — not knowing one's caste, wealth, or level of privilege. Rawls showed that rational thinking, not morality, could lead people to be fair and judge impartially about distributing society's benefits and burdens.

The veil of ignorance is a thought experiment by John Rawls in which people decide the rules and organisation of society without knowing what kind of family they would be born into, whether they would be upper or lower caste, rich or poor, or privileged or disadvantaged. Rawls argues that under such conditions of complete ignorance about their position, rational individuals would think from the point of view of the worst-off and design rules ensuring reasonable opportunities for the weaker sections. The merit of this position is that it expects people to just be their usual rational selves — not saints — yet still arrive at fair rules.

In fourth-century BC Athens, Plato discussed issues of justice in The Republic through a long dialogue between Socrates and his young friends Glaucon and Adeimantus. Glaucon argued that people who were unjust seemed much better off than those who were just, since those who twisted rules to serve their interests were often more successful. Socrates responded that if everyone manipulated rules to suit their own interests, nobody would be secure and it would harm all in the long run. He clarified that justice does not mean doing good only to friends — it involves the well-being of all people.

According to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, human beings possess dignity. If all persons are granted dignity, then what is due to each of them is that they have the opportunity to develop their talents and pursue their chosen goals. Justice therefore requires that we give due and equal consideration to all individuals, and this has shaped our modern understanding of what each person is owed as a human being.

Just distribution refers to the fair distribution of goods and services, whether between nations or between different groups and individuals within a society. The chapter argues that if there are serious economic or social inequalities, governments may need to redistribute important resources to provide something like a level playing field for citizens. In India, for instance, the Constitution abolished the practice of untouchability to promote social equality and different state governments have taken measures like land reforms to redistribute resources in a more fair manner.

The chapter states that it is generally agreed that basic minimum conditions include the amount of nourishment needed to remain healthy, housing, supply of clean drinking water, education, and a minimum wage. Providing people with these basic needs is considered one of the responsibilities of a democratic government. However, providing such conditions to all citizens may pose a heavy burden on governments, particularly in countries like India which have a large number of poor people.

Supporters of free markets argue that if markets are left free of state interference, the sum of market transactions would ensure a just distribution of benefits — those with merit and talent would be rewarded accordingly. However, critics note that free markets tend to work in favour of the strong, wealthy, and powerful because private business goes where it is most profitable. This is why many argue that the state should step in to ensure that basic facilities are made available to all members of society.

B.R. Ambedkar is quoted in the chapter as saying: 'A just society is that society in which ascending sense of reverence and descending sense of contempt is dissolved into the creation of a compassionate society.' This quote appears in Section 4.4 on Pursuing Social Justice.

J.S. Mill is quoted at the end of the chapter as saying: 'Justice implies something which it is not only right to do and wrong not to do; but which some individual person can claim from us as his moral right.' This highlights that justice is not merely a matter of doing what is good — it is tied to the moral rights that individuals can claim.

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