STUDY UNIT 3: CHAPTER 6

Question 1

WHAT ARE REPARATIVE JUSTICE ARGUMENTS?

Answer 1

are arguments which are rooted in historical wrongs which call for compensation.

Question 2

THREE THEORIES OF Justice:

Answer 2

1. Utilitarianism
2. Justice as fairness
3. African theories of justice

Question 3

1. UTILITARIANISM:

Answer 3

focuses on achieving the consequences that provide the greatest happiness in the long run, taking everyone’s interests into account.

Question 4

2. JUSTICE AS FAIRNESS:

Answer 4

focuses on ensuring equality in the basic rights and liberties of individuals, fair equality of opportunity and that any socio-economic inequalities are to be the greatest benefit of the least advantaged.

Question 5

3. AFRICAN THEORIES OF JUSTICE:

Answer 5

the focus of this section was on the idea of ubuntu which was seen to require an ethic founded in the importance of creating relationships between individuals that are respectful.

Question 6

THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITARIAN ETHICS:

Answer 6

acts are right insofar as they promote the greatest amount of happiness.

Question 7

ACCORDING TO JOHN MILL:

Answer 7

according to John Mill, happiness can be understood in terms of pleasure, and unhappiness in terms of pain.

Question 8

IN BENTHAM’S FORMULATION OF UTILITARIANISM:

Answer 8

in Bentham’s formulation of utilitarianism, what mattered was merely the quantity of pleasure or pain that was experienced.

Question 9

BUT FOR MILL,

Answer 9

but for Mill, it is not simply the quantity of pleasure that mattered but the quality of pleasure too.

Question 10

ACT UTILITARIANISM:

Answer 10

is a theory that promotes evaluating whether particular acts are compatible to the utilitarian principle.

Question 11

WHERE DO PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE COME FROM:

Answer 11

1. Justice flows from laws given by a religious authority, such as God.
2. Justice flows from a notion of “natural laws” that is out there which determines how laws ought to be constructed.
3. Justice flows from an agreement that would be reached between people under fair conditions.

Question 12

TWO IMPORTANT CAPACITIES:

Answer 12

1. Capacity of having a sense of justice
2. Capacity of having a conception of the good.

Question 13

1. CAPACITY OF HAVING A SENSE OF JUSTICE:

Answer 13

this means that they understand and can act upon the principles of justice they determine.

Question 14

2. CAPACITY OF HAVING A CONCEPTION OF THE GOOD:

Answer 14

this means that they have some idea of what is valuable for them in life

Question 15

WHAT IS ORIGINAL POSITION?

Answer 15

Original position is a situation in which fair terms of co-operation are agreed to between free and equal citizens, who are born into the same society in which they lead their lives