MLS 556M - Conceptions of Justice

Credit(s): 2
What is justice? This question has taxed philosophers and political thinkers for millennia. Aristotle and Plato defined it as treating equals equally, and unequals unequally. The moderns of the 17th century revolutionized the political and philosophical landscape by positing a principle of universal human equality. Social reformers of the 19th century offered utilitarian justifications for political and economic change. How did all these conceptions of justice vary from each other? What ideals of equality remain a legacy of which epoch, and what can we learn from all these different conceptions of fairness?