Is Social Justice Just? - by Christopher J Coyne (Hardcover)

What is social justice?

In these pages, twenty-one accomplished academics seek to do justice to "social justice." Inequality exists and obviously causes rifts in societies. But it's not obvious how the government should address those rifts, or if it should address them at all. Have we forgotten the perhaps more efficient power of personal choice--and the corollary obligation: to serve our neighbors--to make our society more humane?

Beginning with the first political philosophers in ancient Athens, and continuing right through Marx into our post-modern era, men have wrestled with the question of justice; and the answers have been as earnest as they have been varied.

Today, our "expert" class also claim to have answers--updated answers, more "equitable" answers, more technological answers ... in short, answers that are simply better suited to our times.

But are those answers in any way correct? Do they work? Are they--just?

In these elegant, nuanced essays, the authors use the wisdom of ancient and modern philosophers to shed light on these important questions--and the answers are revealing.

Armed with ample evidence from real-world experiences, lessons from history, the wisdom of the classics, modern philosophers, and even the teachings of the world religions, the contributors of Is Social Justice Just? illuminate the central role of the individual in achieving justice in all its aspects.

Read Is Social Justice Just? and discover:

• how to do social justice wrong with the poison of resentment, envy, and ignorance;
• how to do social justice right with the insights of philosophers and theologians;
• how to respect people's rights and liberties without sacrificing true equality;
• and how to reform flawed public policies that just make everything worse.

With a foreword by Jordan B. Peterson, a preface by Nicholas Rescher, and a collection of essays by some of the best and brightest scholars of our time, Is Social Justice Just? is a timely and urgent work.

Read it, and you will begin to think about "social justice," and justice, in some surprising new ways.

Review Quotes

About the Author

Michael C. Munger is Senior Fellow and former co-editor of The Independent Review at the Independent Institute, and Professor of Political Science, Economics and Public Policy and Director of the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program at Duke University. He has been Staff Economist at the Federal Trade Commission, President of the Public Choice Society, and President of the North Carolina Political Science Association, and he has taught at Dartmouth College, University of Texas at Austin, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Christopher J. Coyne is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and Co-Editor of The Independent Review, Professor of Economics and Director of Graduate Programs for the Department of Economics at George Mason University, Co-Editor of the Review of Austrian Economics, and Book Review Editor at Public Choice. He received his Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University. He has taught at the University of West Virginia and Hampden-Sydney College, and he has been the Hayek Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University.

Jordan B. Peterson is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Toronto. Peterson received his B.A. in political science at the University of Alberta and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from McGill University. He remained at McGill as a post-doctoral fellow from 1991 to 1993 before moving to Harvard University, where he became Associate Professor of Psychology and was nominated for the Levinson Teaching Prize. In 1998, he moved back to Canada as a faculty member in the psychology department at the University of Toronto.