Knowledge you can walk. Read the idea below, then step up to the general, across to peers or down to the specific.
Spiritual
Social Justice
Social justice is justice in how a society shares wealth, opportunities and privileges while recognizing and protecting people's rights.
Learn, discuss, create, buy or invest
The idea
Social justice is about fairness in how a society shares wealth, chances and privileges, in a place where people's rights are recognized and protected. It gives people rights and duties through the systems a society runs, such as taxes, social insurance, public health, public schools, labor laws and rules for markets. These systems aim to share out the benefits and burdens of working together and to give people an equal chance.
Ideas about justice go back to the Greek thinkers Plato and Aristotle and to Christian thinkers such as Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas. In 1971 the philosopher John Rawls made social justice the center of his book A Theory of Justice.
In Western and Asian cultures, the idea has often meant making sure that people fill their roles in society and receive what society owes them. The idea is also used in work for gender, ethnic and social equality. People use it when they speak up for migrants, prisoners, the environment and people with disabilities. Because cultures and thinkers disagree about what a fair share looks like, the meaning of the term is often debated.
Check yourself
Question 1 of 2
Who made social justice central to the philosophy of the social contract in A Theory of Justice?
Composition
what it's made of
- Fair distribution — How wealth, opportunities and privileges are shared across a society.
- Rights and duties — What a society's institutions owe people and expect from them.
- Public institutions — Taxes, social insurance, public health, public schools, labor law and market rules.
- Equal opportunity — Removing barriers so people can move up in society.
- Safety nets — Programs that protect people from falling into hardship.
Connection
how it relates
Under Moral Philosophy
Change
how and why it evolves
- Past
- The term social justice first appeared in the late eighteenth century and was defined by Luigi Taparelli in the early 1840s. After the Revolutions of 1848 it spread more widely, and in the early 20th century it was built into international law.
- Now
- Current movements emphasize breaking barriers to social mobility, creating safety nets and economic justice. Since 1993, the Vienna Declaration has treated social justice as a purpose of human rights education.
- Next
- Debates over what a fair sharing of wealth and opportunity means will likely continue, especially as economies and technologies change.