Research On The Thought Of Justice Of David Miller

The concept of justice ranks a very important position in the Western philosophical, political and legal thinking. It even has been building the political and legal system in Western in a qualified sense. The famous political philosopher, David Miller, who's a representative figure of the Marxist School from the Oxford University, created a new model of market socialism——cooperative system market socialism from the political economics perspective. He is an advocate of market socialism and a supporter of multiple social justice. The theory he has put forward is called new pluralistic theory. In the book "Principles of Social Justice" studying from the modes of human relationship he has proposed three principles: the principle of deserts, of need and of equality pointing at the three modes: instrumental association, community, citizenship respectively. In the new theory of social justice he made a comprehensive, systematic exposition further developing the theoretical space of the social justice. Miller inherited the existing theories of justice in a critical way. His thinking contains a great deal of elements such as markets, liberalism, communitarianism, socialism, contextualism, institutionalism, nationalism, globalism and the methodology of social justice which are all indispensable respects in studying his political philosophy. The difference between the theory of Miller and others lies in that besides the empirical description, Miller's just thinking attaches more attention to the social environment backing the principles of justice, that is, a response to the diverse world from multiple angles of view and a guarantee of the realization of justice. It is a necessary guidance to the people playing different roles in different social backgrounds or those in different pattern of relations under the same circumstance. Miller strongly opposed the justice consideration regardless of contexts. He believes that justice is a concern about the issue that "in what circumstance, who will distribute what to whom?" In this regard, we summarize his theory as "social contexts pluralist theory of justice". This paper attempts to study Miller just thinking from Marxist perspective, making systemic integration and innovation with a reference of existing research, evaluating Miller's theory comprehensively and drawing merits from it so as to enrich the Marxist theory of justice, summarize its references for building a fair and just socialism and a harmonious society and provide theoretical basis for socialist modernization constructionThere're four sections in this paper. Firstly it discussed the formation and perfection of Miller's just thinking. With a brief introduction of the practical and theoretical background, it described the improving procedure of the theory. Secondly, it investigated the theory by analyzing the points of argument and penetration. Moreover, it probed the three assumptions and three principles: the principle of deserts, of need and of equality. In Part III, it explored the scope of application of the theory, analyzed justice from two ways——Universalism and Contextualism. The challenges to them and how Miller's theory is working with the impact of cultural pluralism and globalization are also within the consideration. Finally, it gave a commentary on the theory and discussed the unique value of it. From Marxist perspective it explored Miller's thinking. It also listed the enlightenments for China's current system building.