Values and justice

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. The Idea of Justice (2009 Sen, A. 2009. The Idea of Justice London: Penguin, and Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). 2. Rawls (1971 Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]); see also Rawls (1993 Rawls, J. 1993. Political Liberalism, New York: Columbia University Press. [Google Scholar]). 3. What I am calling the ‘Smithian’ approach here is in sharp contrast with an approach often attributed to Smith – that of quintessentially self-centred human beings working in a world in which the ‘invisible hand’ of the market mechanism produces wonderful results. That view has very little to do with Smith's own understanding of human values, or of the way the market mechanism actually works. I have discussed these diagnostic issues in my ‘Introduction’ to the anniversary edition of Smith's (2009 Smith, A. 2009. The Theory of Moral Sentiments, New York: Penguin. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), published on the 250th anniversary of the original publication of the book in 1759; see also Rothschild (2001 Rothschild, E. 2001. Economic Sentiments, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Google Scholar]). 4. Smith (1759 Smith, A. 1759. The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 110London: A. Millar. III, 1, 2, in the 1975 reprint [Google Scholar]).