Introduction
Nowhere has the critical impulse “overshot its target” as widely as in relation to the concept and activity of justification (Latour, 2002). The truth of this proposition in psychology is evidenced in the ambiguity of language and concepts dealing with the truth of propositions generally: Reasons are not always reasonable, but often “rationalizations”; moral justification might as easily be called “moralizing”; and what is “just” can always be countered as just one’s opinion.
A great deal of psychological theory and research focuses on the construction and deconstruction of justifications, with much of this work documenting the ways in which justifications can be self-serving (Gino & Ariely, 2012; Wolff & Moser, 2008), group serving (Sidanius & Pratto, 2001), or system serving (Day, Kay, Holmes, & Napier, 2011; Jost & Banaji, 1994; Shepherd & Kay, 2012). The emancipatory potential of critical psychology’s contribution lies not only in critique of ego-justification and...
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Online Resources
Moral Foundations Theory: http://www.moralfoundations.org/
Philosophical Society: http://www.philosophicalsociety.com/
The Righteous Mind: http://righteousmind.com
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Trosky, A., Malley-Morrison, K., Cantrell, C. (2014). Justification, Overview. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_587
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