Concluding Thoughts and Review

Abstract

Recall, going all the way back to Chapter 1, my concern about determining how one could measure, or at least come to have a general sense and informed judgement of, the justness of one’s society. What is the benchmark by which we can both judge the severity of our individual and collective failings and, at the same time, invoke to help inspire and direct us towards a more fair and humane society? Unfortunately a good deal of contemporary political philosophy, which is dominated by the principled paradigm of ideal theory, misplaces or misconstrues what this benchmark is. The appropriate metric for measuring the justness of our society is, I have argued, a virtue-oriented metric. One that emphasizes the virtues of fair social cooperation - toleration, civility and fairness.