Research On The Justice Theory Of Capability Approach

Since the human community emerged,people never stop talking about the justice argument.This is due to the theme of justice is not only related to the human community order,but also embodies human pursuit of the ideal of justice.Since 1971,John Rawls published A theory of Justice,the issue of justice has become a central issue in politics philosophy.John Rawls,Ronald Dworkin,Robert Nozick,Michael Sandel,Alasdair MacIntyre and other political philosophers are involved in this protracted debate.India born economist and philosopher Amartya Sen in criticizing the other's theory of justice,to create a more realistic theory method and take capability approach as the core of his theory.In the past 40 years,including Martha Nussbaum,Elizabeth Anderson,Eva Kittay and other political philosophers have made the capability approach as important as Rawls's theory in political philosophy area.As everyone knows,until now,there is not a universal law in the justice theory area,but this does not mean that we can not compare with different justice theories.A good theory of justice is not have to be perfect,and a theory of justice can have larger and comprehensive explanation ability,this is a measurement of an important symbol of a mature justice theory.The main purpose of this study is to through the ability of explaining different scenarios,a comparative study of the utilitarian scheme and Rawls's scheme,differences between scenarios lead to explanation different accordingly.By comparing a series of research the author tries to find capability approach,which compared to the utilitarian justice theory and Rawls's theory of justice,show us it's advantages and disadvantages.This paper is divided into five chapters of the main body and the conclusion,altogether six parts.The first chapter mainly introduces the development of the contemporary theories of justice,background of the capability approach,research purpose,research methods and research at home and abroad.This thesis firstly discusses several modes of utilitarian justice theory,and then introduces the basic situation of Rawls's theory of justice,and expounds the capability approach to refute the theory of justice derived by utilitarianism and the Rawls's doctrine came into being.So far,the capability approach to compare three versions of path influential,respectively proposed by Sen,Nussbaum and Anderson.In the first chapter,the author also briefly states the similarities and differences between the three kinds of capability approaches.The second chapter first introduce Jeremy Bentham,John Mill and Thomas Scanlan as the representative of the utilitarian moral theory,and then describes the criticism of utilitarian moral theory by Sen.Sen criticism mainly focused on three aspects:firstly,the utilitarian views on the issue of human happiness is too subjective,which makes utilitarianism ignore many important factors affecting human happiness in the view of utilitarianism.Human happiness,mainly affected by a single factor,namely the elimination of human suffering and increase human happiness.However,it is questionable whether humans in all circumstances have been driven out of action,many important motives are ignored by utilitarian.Secondly,Utilitarianism's theory of efficiency requires the maximization of the overall interests.However,this will result in unacceptable social justice conclusion:in order to maximize the overall interests,sometimes,individuals need to sacrifice their own interests.Common sense tells us that we need some moral limits to guarantee the basic individual rights can't be violated,otherwise,there is no sense of security of society which is difficult to accept.Thirdly,A theory of justice should be able to show the richness of human motivation,unfortunately,the utilitarian just placed on the maximization of human pursuit of self-interest.The third chapter traces back to the basic structure of Rawls's theory of justice,and then discusses in detail the capability approach philosopher's criticism of Rawls's theory.The capability approach philosophers criticize Rawls's theory can be divided into two kinds.The first kind is represented by Sen and Eva Kittay,while the second kind is represented by Nussbaum.Sen believe a justice theory should not just be the measurement of people's happiness and pleasure,but should be replaced by the capability approach as a comprehensive measurement.The main reason is the that Sen believe primary good evaluation standards to a certain extent,ignored the primary good into valuable function differences among people.Kittay believes that Rawls's primary good approach ignores the dependence interests,these dependence due to lack of capability and need codependent with others,therefore,they are in the disadvantaged status.But in Rawls's system,these dependence weakness will not get enough care.Therefore,one cannot fully consider the interests of dependence is hard to believe as a justice society.Unlike Sen and Kittay,NussBaum main focus on Rawls theory's social contract essence.NussBaum through inheriting and developing of Aristotle and Kant,sharply pointed out some theoretical dilemma of Rawls's theory.The fourth chapter discusses in detail the production process,the theoretical advantages,the philosophical basis and the problems of the theory of justice with capability approach.Sen originally used "entitlement" as his core method,this is due to Sen's long-term research for social poverty and hunger issues.Then,with the deepening of research level,Sen abandoned the entitlement approach,gradually replaced by capability approach.Compared with the entitlement approach,capability approach is more a comprehensive assessment to evaluate people's basic capability.Although Sen always insisted advocates capability approach to assess the capability of people's happiness,but so far Sen refused to offer capability list.And Sen has always been concerned about the problem of injustice in society,especially because of the social system is not perfect,so that the capability of citizens always deprived by social disciplines,therefore,Sen has always been an urger to advocate democracy and public reason.Nussbaum based on Aristotle's moral philosophy and political philosophy make it as the foundation of the capability approach,so then accordingly make capability approach has the solid foundation.At the same time,she also make a 10 list of specific area,thus capability approach became a theory of justice which can be operated.Anderson's philosophy is derived from the social justice movement,like Karl Marx,both of them are very concerned about the exploitation and oppression of the social system.Based on Sen and Nussbaum,he make three areas to capability approach so that put capability approach became a more mature approach.And Anderson also reflects a the general character of capability approach philosophers:we not only pay attention to the theory of justice,but also pay attention to the existence of the world unfair issues.The fifth chapter is the biggest innovation of this paper.Theories of justice can do nothing if they don't have the moral and political cornerstone.Therefore,the fifth chapter mainly discusses the moral and political cornerstone of the capability approach.Robert Nozick's theory of side-constraint rights advocated by many philosophers.However,Sen and Nussbaum against this theory.On the contrary,Sen and Nussbaum advocate a broad consequentialist approach,which take all kind influence factor as serious.In the view of capability approach philosophers,side-constraint right theory is not only against our moral intuition and may in turn cause of right injury due to excessive protection of rights.While a broad consequentialist approach can not only effectively protect the rights,but also can make a moral limit in the market mechanism.The conclusion part is the summary of the whole thesis,based on compare with utilitarianism,Rawls's theory of justice,capability approach,the author believe that capability approach is a more comprehensive and more persuasive approach.