Discussion: The Dualism of Facts and Standards

Abstract

One of F. A. Hayek’s contentions about the concept of social rights is that it entails the concept of social or distributive justice. According to Hayek, the concept of social justice is simply meaningless in a market order: ‘social justice does not belong to the category of error but to that of nonsense, like the term of a “moral stone”.’1 It is important to stress this point. Hayek has also criticized some particular views of social justice, the ones entailing common patterns of distribution, but he has been always keen on highlighting the fact that he is not basing that critique upon a particular defence of any specific pattern of distribution as opposed to other specific ones. What he wants to assert is that the discussion about the justice or injustice of results in a market order is meaningless. In other words, Hayek maintains that he is not embracing his own particular conception of social justice as opposed to other particular ones.KeywordsSocial JusticeMoral DutySocial InjusticeMarket OrderFree SocietyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.