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Review of "Justice and Its Surroundings"
By Tom G. Palmer
Introduction
Justice and Its Surroundings
Anthony de Jasay
Indianapolis, Ind.: Liberty Fund, 2002, 351 pp.
Justice and Its Surroundings is a brilliant work. It is also at times a difficult and a challenging work; the argument sometimes requires substantial effort to follow and it often challenges one to rethink long-settled matters. It is well worth the effort.
The book starts with a simple claim: "A thing is what it is, and not something else" (p. vii). Making distinctions is the starting point of wisdom; it helps to avoid confusion and all of the negative effects of confusion. According to Jasay, "by promoting clear thought . . . one would be doing a greater service to the good society than by promoting good principles" (p. vii). Jasay devotes his formidable intellect to achieving that goal with regard to justice and the various other topics that "surround" it, such as order, freedom, distribution, agreement, property, choice, and so forth. In his effort to clarify issues of justice rather than to propagate good principles, Jasay subjects to critical scrutiny the principles and proposals of many with whom he is otherwise in substantial agreement, including classical liberals such as F. A. Hayek and Robert Nozick. They are spared no more than are welfare-state "liberals" and socialists such as John Rawls, Brian Barry, Thomas Scanlon, and David Miller.
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