Justice as Fittingness

In this text, the author puts forward an original theory of the nature of justice. He maintains that injustice is to be understood as a form of unfitting treatment - typically the treatment of people as less than they are. Justice is therefore closely related to unjustified contempt and disrespect, and ultimately to desert. He offers a closely argued discussion of what is at issue when people take differing views on what justice requires. He demonstrates that the language of desert provides a suitable idiom in which to address substantive questions of justice, and shows why acting justly may require respect for differing entitlement, contributions, and needs.;In the course of the book many important issues in moral and political philosophy are illuminated. Cupit offers a fresh account of the nature of the obligation to keep a promise, explains how requests can generate reasons for action, and suggests a radically new approach to solving the problem of political obligation.