The idea of justice has been central to political philosophy since its
origin. Indeed, the two towering book-ends to Western political
thought - Plato's Republic and John Rawls' milestone 1971 publication, A
Theory of Justice - are both essays on justice . Structured around the
historical and conceptual relationship between distributive and
corrective justice, A Brief History of Justice traces the development
of this fundamental idea from antiquity to the present day. This
wide-ranging, yet concise book delves deeply into the evolving
traditions of justice, from roots in Babylonian and Hebrew law and Greek
political thought to the most prominent contemporary renderings in the
work of Rawls and other modern thinkers, including incisive
chapter-length introductions to the work of Plato, Aristotle, the
utilitarians, Kant, and Rawls. David Johnston weaves a sophisticated,
yet accessible, narrative, integrating philosophical discussion with
pressing contemporary questions about justice. With clarity and
scholarly precision, A Brief History of Justice offers readers an
invaluable survey of an important and powerful concept that continues to
dominate the field of political philosophy.
David Johnston is Professor of Political Science and formerly Joseph
Straus Professor of Political Philosophy in the Department of Political
Science at Columbia University . His books include The Rhetoric of
Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes and the Politics of Cultural Transformation
(1986), The Idea of a Liberal Theory (1994), Leviathan: A Norton
Critical Edition (ed. with Richard Flathman, 1997), and Equality
(ed., 2000).
