Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-64p75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-04T09:26:53.446Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Love and Justice: a Paradox?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Anca Gheaus
Anca Gheaus*
Affiliation:
Law Department, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
*
E-mail: agheaus@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Three claims about love and justice cannot be simultaneously true and therefore entail a paradox: (1) Love is a matter of justice. (2) There cannot be a duty to love. (3) All matters of justice are matters of duty. The first claim is more controversial. To defend it, I show why the extent to which we enjoy the good of love is relevant to distributive justice. To defend (2) I explain the empirical, conceptual and axiological arguments in its favour. Although (3) is the most generally endorsed claim of the three, I conclude we should reject it in order to avoid the paradox.

Keywords

Distributive justicelovecaremetric of justiceduty to lovefeasibility

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 47 , Issue 6 , 2017 , pp. 739 - 759
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Anderson, Elizabeth. 1999. “What is the Point of Equality?” Ethics 109: 287–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Joel, and Honneth, Axel. 2005. “Autonomy, Vulnerability, Recognition, and Justice.” In Autonomy and the Challenges to Liberalism. New Essays, edited by Christman, John and Anderson, Joel, 127–149. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benjamin, Jessica. 1988. The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism und the Problem of Domination. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Brake, Elizabeth. 2011. “Is Divorce Promise-Breaking?” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 14: 23–39. 10.1007/s10677-009-9217-zCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brighouse, Harry, and Swift, Adam. 2014. Family Values. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 10.1515/9781400852543Google Scholar
Cohen, G. A. 2009. Rescuing Justice and Equality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cowden, Mhairi. 2012. “What’s Love Got to Do With It? Why a Child Does not Have a Right to be Loved” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 15 (3): 325–345. 10.1080/13698230.2011.572426CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feinberg, Joel. 1973. Social Philosophy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Ferracioli, Luara. 2014. “The State’s Duty to Ensure that Children Are Loved.” Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy 8 (2).Google Scholar
Frankfurt, Harry. 1999. Necessity, Volition and Love. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gheaus, Anca. 2009. “How Much of What Matters can We Refistribute?” Love, Justice and Luck, Hypatia 24 (4): 68–90.Google Scholar
Gheaus, Anca. 2013. “The Feasibility Constraint on The Concept of Justice.” The Philosophical Quarterly 63 (252): 445–464. 10.1111/phiq.2013.63.issue-252CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Held, Virginia. 1993. Feminist Morality: Transforming Culture, Society and Politics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hollway, Wendy. 2006. The Subject of Care. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Honneth, Axel. 1992. The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1964. Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals. Translated by Paton, H. J.. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1996. Kant: The Metaphysics of Morals. Translated by Gregor, Mary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511809644CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landau, Iddo. 2004. “An Argument for Marriage.” Philosophy 79: 475–481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lanzenby, Hugh. 2010. “One Kiss to Many? Giving, Luck Egalitarianism and Other-affecting Choice.” Journal of Political Philosophy 18 (3): 271–286.Google Scholar
Liao, Matthew. 2006. “The Right of Children to Be Loved.” Journal of Political Philosophy 14 (4): 420–440. 10.1111/jopp.2006.14.issue-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liao, Matthew. 2015. The Right to Be Loved. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190234836.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynch, Kathleen, Baker, John, Lyons, Maureen, Baker, and Lyons, . 2009. Affective Equality: Love, Care and Injustice. Basingstone: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/9780230245082CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha. 2006. Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality and Species Membership. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Nyholm, Sven. 2015. “Love Troubles: Human Attachment and Biomedical Enhancements.” Journal of Applied Philosophy 32 (2): 190–202. 10.1111/japp.2015.32.issue-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettit, Philip. 2015. The Robust Demands of the Good. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198732600.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rainbolt, George. 2016. “S. Matthew Liao The Right to Be Loved.” Notre Dame Philosophical Review. https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/64561-the-right-to-be-loved/.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1972. A Theory of Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Richards, Norvin. 2010. The Ethics of Parenthood. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731749.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruddick, Sara. 1989. Maternal Thinking. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Scheffler, Samuel. 2003. “What is Egalitarianism?” Philosophy and Public Affairs 31: 5–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singer, Irving. 1994. The Pursuit of Love. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Stocker, Michael. 1976. “The Schizophrenia of Modern Ethical Theories.” The Journal of Philosophy 73: 453–466. 10.2307/2025782CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Parijs, Philippe. 1995. Real Freedom for All: What (If Anything) Can Justify Capitalism? Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Velleman, J. David. 1999. “Love as a Moral Emotion.” Ethics 109: 338–374. 10.1086/233898CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiggins, David. 1998. Needs, Values, Truth. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Williams, Bernard. 1981. Persons, Character and Morality in Moral Luck. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wolff, Jonathan, and de-Shalit, Avner. 2007. Disadvantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199278268.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 1988. “Five Faces of Oppression.” The Philosophical Forum XIX 4: 270–290.Google Scholar