Just suffering : a theoretical engagement with the demands of justice
This thesis will engage with the relationship between justice and suffering in order to more clearly understand what being just entails and how we can theorise justice as demanding in a desirable way. Theorising this relationship will focus on the role of various conceptions of self and community to show how justice, as contextual and communal, can be demanding in a way that does not drive the self that suffers apart from those that benefit from justice. Methodologically the thesis will follow in the tradition of self-reflection in the way it was described by Alan Blum and Peter McHugh. This means that the thesis will try to understand justice and suffering by looking at the foundations of justice, or, put differently, by trying to theorise what it is that makes some instances of suffering just. To this end the argument will begin by outlining a concept of community and of justice to then begin looking at various arguments that relate justice with suffering, either explicitly or implicitly and describe this relationship as desirable. Understanding community in a way that is based on Jean-Luc Nancyâs idea of being-with-others the thesis already sets out a way of conceptualising a social actor that is essentially
Schnuer, Gregor
justice ; suffering ; Girard ; RenĂ© ; Kant ; Immanuel
Just suffering : a theoretical engagement with the demands of justice. This thesis will engage with the relationship between justice and suffering in order to more clearly understand what being just entails and how we can theorise justice as demanding in a desirable way. Theorising this relationship will focus on the role of various conceptions of self and community to show how justice, as contextual and communal, can be demanding in a way that does not drive the self that suffers apart from those that benefit from justice. Methodologically the thesis will follow in the tradition of self-reflection in the way it was described by Alan Blum and Peter McHugh. This means that the thesis will try to understand justice and suffering by looking at the foundations of justice, or, put differently, by trying to theorise what it is that makes some instances of suffering just. To this end the argument will begin by outlining a concept of community and of justice to then begin looking at various arguments that relate justice with suffering, either explicitly or implicitly and describe this relationship as desirable. Understanding community in a way that is based on Jean-Luc Nancyâs idea of being-with-others the thesis already sets out a way of conceptualising a social actor that is essentially
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