Francisco Suarez and Hugo Grotius on distributive justice and imperfect rights

• Olsthoorn, J. ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Amsterdam

     University of Amsterdam

     Países Bajos

     
• Localización: History of political thought, ISSN 0143-781X, Vol. 41, Nº 1, 2020, págs. 96-119
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This paper argues that Francesco Suarez (1548-1617) and Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) grappled with the same conundrum: how to incorporate a conception of 'subjective' rights as moral powers into the received Aristotelian typology of justice; and, this having been achieved, how to understand the difference between various types of justice? Both thinkers maintained innovatively that distributive justice essentially differs from other forms of justice in exclusively governing 'imperfect' rights-- while disagreeing over the meaning of the latter notion. My analysis suggests that the widespread early modern association and even identification of distributive justice with imperfect duties like charity and liberality is best regarded as inspired by Grotius' conceptual innovations.