Conceptual Analysis and Distributive Justice

Abstract

This paper, written for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Distributive Justice, ponders several understandings of conceptual analysis in the context of debates over distributive justice. The paper's first three main sections consider the concept/conception distinction in its multi-layered complexity in a couple of prominent recent accounts of justice. It explores how those theories of justice unfold over several levels of increasing specificity. Thereafter, the paper takes up the vexed question whether expositions of the concept of justice can ever be austerely analytical or formal rather than morally value-laden. After distinguishing between value-independence and value-neutrality, the paper argues that -- although some possible accounts of justice are at least partly value-neutral -- no accounts of justice are ever value-independent.

Keywords: justice, distributive justice, Rawls, Dworkin, Hillel Steiner, conceptual analysis, concepts, political philosophy

JEL Classification: K4, K49