The problem of ‘justice’ and ‘injustice’ has always been widely and ardently discussed in the public sphere. A professionalized type of discussions, such as amongst philosophers, lawyers, experts on political issues, etc. seems very technical, complicated and frequently misunderstood for the members of the public. One of the reasons is that this notion (‘justice’) is a very general idea having very different meanings and, additionally, it evokes high emotions in those who have experienced themselves some kind of injustice. For example, for some, ‘justice’ means ‘revenge’ (as it was according to the Hammurabi Law and still is in many cultures and in some kinds of individual approaches), which for others means hardly anything more than ‘a barbarian type of practicing injustice.’
The present Webinar is propose to clarify some misunderstandings about this term and to see it in various perspectives, the point of departure being a Western philosophical reflection about ‘justice.’ Also, we want to indicate some areas of ordinary life where thinking about justice and injustice has much application though not very many people, at first sight at least, would connect these areas of life with the problem of justice and injustice, for example access to education and to the mass media.
We have invited a guest to our meeting, a respected American female scholar, Shannon Sullivan (Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at North Caroline University, Charlotte, USA) who has dedicated a part of her job to thinking (and writing) about sundry aspects of the problem of ‘justice’ and ‘injustice.’ For example, she has written works on racial problems: Living Across and Through Skins: Transactional Bodies, Pragmatism and Feminism (2001), Revealing Whiteness: The Unconscious Habits of Racial Privilege(2006), and Good White People: The Problem with Middle Class White Anti-racism (2014).
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