"Just are the social institutions that are best for their participants"

a critical examination

Thomas Pogge

pp. 57-72

in: Herlinde Pauer Studer (ed), Norms, values, and society, Berlin, Springer, 1994

Abstract

We can see what happens in our social world as done by individual and collective agents and as consequences of what such agents do. We can also see these same events as effects of how our social world is structured — of our ground-rules, practices, or social institutions. These two ways of viewing lead to different descriptions and explanations of social phenomena. Here I will discuss how they can also lead to different moral assessments.