Abstract
In this article, Forst presents a critical theory of justice in dialogue with Nancy Fraser. Using the concept of justification as the connection between theory and practice allows us to de-reify concepts like justice, democracy, power or alienation – aiming to identify and overcome domination in various contexts of social life.
This article is dedicated to Nancy Fraser, a dear friend and great critical theorist to whom I owe more inspiration and insights than a single text could express. I am grateful to the audience at the Association for Political Thought Conference at Oxford University in January 2016 for helpful questions and comments. Special thanks are due to Brian Milstein for a critical reading of the text and a number of important remarks. I elaborate some of the points discussed here in more detail in the Introduction to my Normativity and Power (Forst 2016).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
For the difference between my view and that of Philip Pettit, see Forst (2015d).
- 4.
I discuss my approach in a comparison with the sociology of justification developed by Boltanski and Thévenot in my Introduction to Normativity and Power (Forst 2016).
- 5.
See Forst (2012, part I). Generally speaking, I employ a more substantive normative concept of reason than does Habermas, especially in the context of morality and justice.
- 6.
- 7.
Here a range of cases should be distinguished, in particular, directly participating in or contributing to injustice; indirectly participating in injustice by profiting from it but without actively contributing to relations of exploitation; finally, the “natural” duty to put an end to unjust relations, even if one does not profit from them but is in a position to put an end to them. I cannot go into these distinctions further here.
- 8.
I discuss this as a “dialectics of morality” in Forst (2012, ch. 11). See also the following quote by Immanuel Kant: “Having the resources to practice such beneficence as depends on the goods of fortune is, for the most part, a result of certain human beings being favored through the injustice of the government, which introduces an inequality of wealth that makes others need their beneficence. Under such circumstances, does a rich man’s help to the needy, on which he so readily prides himself as something meritorious, really deserve to be called beneficence at all?” (Kant 1996, p. 573, A:454)
- 9.
Rawls (1999, p. 5) also argues that the concept of justice is opposed to arbitrariness: “Those who hold different conceptions of justice can, then, still agree that institutions are just when no arbitrary distinctions are made between persons in the assigning of basic rights and duties and when the rules determine a proper balance between competing claims to the advantages of social life.”
- 10.
For a historical account of struggles against injustice, see Moore (1978).
- 11.
I develop the notion of power relevant here in Forst (2015c).
- 12.
This concerns a set of rights as well as institutional and social preconditions I cannot elaborate on here. See Forst (2012: part II).
Bibliography
Allen, A 2014, “The power of justification” in Justice, Democracy and the Right to Justification: Rainer Forst in Dialogue, (ed.) R Forst, 65–86. Bloomsbury, London.
Benhabib, S 2015, “The uses and abuses of Kantian rigorism. On Rainer Forst’s moral and political philosophy.” Political Theory 43(6): 777–790.
Cohen, GA 2011, ““Afterword to chapters one and two,” in On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice and Other Essays in Political Philosophy, (ed.) M Otsuka, 61–72. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Forst, R 2007, “First things first. Redistribution, recognition and justification.” European Journal of Political Theory 6(3): 291–304, also in Forst (2013b), ch. 5.
Forst, R 2012, The Right to Justification: Elements of a Constructivist Theory of Justice, (trans.) J Flynn, Columbia University Press, New York.
Forst, R 2013a, “Transnational justice and democracy: overcoming three dogmas of political theory,” in Political Equality in Transnational Democracy, (eds.) S Näsström and E Erman, 41–60. Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
Forst, R 2013b, Justification and Critique: Towards a Critical Theory of Politics, (trans.) C Cronin, Polity Press, Cambridge.
Forst, R 2013c, Toleration in Conflict: Past and Present, (trans.) C Cronin, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Forst, R 2014a, “Justice and democracy in transnational contexts: a critical realistic view.” Social Research 81(3): 667–682.
Forst, R 2014b, “Justifying justification: reply to my critics,” in Justice, Democracy and the Right to Justification, (ed.) R Forst, 169–216. Bloomsbury, London.
Forst, R 2015a, “A critical theory of politics: grounds, method and aims. Reply to Simone Chambers, Stephen White and Lea Ypi.” Philosophy & Social Criticism 41(3): 225–34.
Forst, R 2015b, “The right to justification: moral and political, transcendental and historical. Reply to Seyla Benhabib, Jeff Flynn and Matthias Fritsch.” Political Theory 43(6): 822–37.
Forst, R 2015c, “Noumenal power.” Journal of Political Philosophy 23(2): 111–127.
Forst, R 2015d, “Transnational justice and non-domination. a discourse-theoretical approach,” in Domination Across Borders, (eds.) B Buckinx, J Trejo-Mathys, and T Waligore, 88–110. Routledge, London.
Forst, R 2016, Normativity and Power, (trans.) C Cronin, Oxford University Press, Oxford, InPress.
Forst, R, and Günther, K 2011. “Die Herausbildung normativer Ordnungen. Zur Idee eines interdisziplinären Forschungsprogramms.” In Die Herausbildung normativer Ordnungen, (eds.) R Forst and K Günther, 11–30. Frankfurt Am Main Campus.
Fraser, N 1987, “What’s critical about critical theory? The case of Habermas and gender.” In Feminism as Critique, (eds.) S Benhabib and D Cornell, 31–55. University of Minnesota Press, Minnesota.
Fraser, N 1991, “Rethinking the public sphere: a contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy.” In Habermas and the Public Sphere, (ed.) C Calhoun, 109–142. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Fraser, N 1996, “A false antithesis: a response to S. Benhabib and J. Butler.” In Justice Interruptus. Critical Reflections on the “Postsocialist” Condition, (ed.) N Fraser, 207–224. Routledge, New York.
Fraser, N 2003a, “Social justice in the age of identity politics: redistribution, recognition, and participation.” In Redistribution Or Recognition? A Political-Philosophical Exchange, (eds.) N Fraser and A Honneth, 7–109. Verso, London/New York.
Fraser, N 2003b, “Distorted beyond all recognition: a rejoinder to Axel Honneth.” In Redistribution Or Recognition? A Political-Philosophical Exchange, (eds.) N Fraser and A Honneth, 198–236. Verso, London/New York.
Fraser, N 2005, Reframing Justice. Spinoza Lectures, Van Gorcum, Amsterdam.
Fraser, N 2007, “Identity, exclusion, and critique: a response to four critics.” European Journal of Political Theory 6(3): 305–38; also Fraser, N 2008, Adding Insult to Injury. Nancy Fraser Debates her Critics, (ed.) K Olson, 327–346. Verso, New York/London.
Fraser, N 2009, Scales of Justice: Reimagining Political Space in a Globalizing World, Columbia University Press, New York.
Habermas, J 1984, 1987, The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 2., (trans.) T McCarthy. Beacon Press, Boston.
Honneth, A 2009, Pathologies of Reason: On the Legacy of Critical Theory, (trans.) J Ingram. Columbia University Press, New York.
Honneth, A 2014, Freedom’s Right: The Social Foundations of Democratic Life, (trans.) J Ganahl. Columbia University Press, New York.
Horkheimer, M 2002, “Traditional and critical theory.” In Critical Theory: Selected Essays, (eds.) M Horkheimer and MJ O’Connell, 188–243. Continuum, New York.
Kant, I 1996, “Metaphysics of morals.” In Practical Philosophy, (ed./trans.) M Gregor, 353–603. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Laden, A 2014, “The practice of equality.” In Justice, Democracy and the Right to Justification: Rainer Forst in Dialogue, (ed.) R Forst, 103–26. Bloomsbury, London.
Marx, K 1975, “Letter to A. Ruge,” September 1843, In Early Writings, (trans.) R Livingstone, G Bento. Vintage Books, New York.
Miller, D 2013, Justice for Earthlings, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Moore, B 1978, Injustice. The Social Bases of Obedience and Revolt, Macmillan, London.
Rawls, J 1999, A Theory of Justice, rev. ed. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Sangiovanni, A 2014, “Scottish constructivism and the right to justification.” In Justice Democracy and the Right to Justification: Rainer Forst in Dialogue, (ed.) R Forst, 29–64. Bloomsbury, London.
White, S 2015, “Does critical theory need strong foundations?” Philosophy Social Criticism 41(3): 207–11.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Forst, R. (2017). What’s Critical About a Critical Theory of Justice?. In: Bargu, B., Bottici, C. (eds) Feminism, Capitalism, and Critique. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52386-6_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52386-6_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-52385-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-52386-6
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)