Single Idea 20994

[catalogued under 25. Social Practice / D. Justice / 1. Basis of justice]

Full Idea

The demands of justice must give priority to the removal of manifest injustice, rather than concentrating on the long-distance search for the perfectly just society.

Gist of Idea

We must focus on removing manifest injustice, not just try to design a perfect society

Source

Amartya Sen (The Idea of Justice [2009], 12 'Disability')

Book Reference

Sen, Amartya: 'The Idea of Justice' [Penguin 2010], p.259


A Reaction

So the point is not to understand the world, but to change it? I'd want to put in a word for the theoretical and idealised project, which I see in terms of writing the perfect constitution. You can't just pick off injustices, perceived intuitively.