Political Justice

Otfried Höffe is one of the foremost political philosophers inEurope today. In this major work, already a classic in continentalEurope, he re-examines philosophical discourse on justice - fromClassical Greece to the present day. Höffe confronts what he sees as the two major challenges toany theory of justice: the legal, positivist claim that there areno standards of justice external to legal systems; and theanarchist claim that justice demands the rejection and abolition ofall legal and state systems. Höffe sets out to continue the 'philosophical project ofmodernity', the legitimation of human rights, and their guaranteeby the state, while at the same time rehabilitating the classicaltheory of political justice represented by Plato and Aristotle. Hequestions the success of the positivists in avoiding extra-legalnormative claims, and casts doubt on the plausibility of theircriticism of the Natural Law tradition. Most anarchists, he argues,rely on an uncritical assumption that social institutions otherthan states and legal orders do not coerce. In Höffe's view, some coercion is unavoidable, and thegrounds for its justification must be examined. Principles ofjustice will be those principles which define fundamental rights,and which must be enforced if rights are to be respected.