Philippine Democracy Online

by Aimee Mesiona ADDU Graduate Student                                                        Justice by holdings is a response to the concept of distributive justice. Nozick argues that “distributive” justice seems to assume that there should be some agent greater than the individuals within society that decides how primary goods should be allocated among its citizens. In a truly democratic situation, the reality is that individuals have control over varied resources, and it is through voluntary acts and exchanges of goods that new holdings arise. Every person is entitled to decide for himself which goods to keep, to acquire or to exchange. One can do whatever he or she wants to do with his or her possessions.

by Aimee Mesiona ADDU Graduate Student                                 The two principles of justice are the two fundamental philosophies that would constitute justice as fairness. According to Rawls, these are the two basic principles of a fair conception of justice that we would come up with as result of employing the veil of ignorance in the original position. These two principles should be the core rules that regulate how the basic institutional arrangements and agreements of society will distribute what he calls social primary goods, most essential of which are people’s rights, liberties, powers, opportunities, income and wealth.