Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book introduces the reader to the social and behavioural foundations for a sense of justice' - the form of equilibrium which individuals and legal systems seek to achieve and maintain in a changing and complex world.
The contributors draw upon new discoveries and insights from the biologically-based behavioural sciences that are critical to a more informed understanding of legal phenomena, particularly those dealing with complex social and political relationships.
Synopsis
What does it mean to have a "sense of justice"? Why is clarity about the sense of justice a critical issue in contemporary legal theory? And, what contribution can be made by a naturalistic theory that is informed by research in the life sciences? The distinguished contributors to The Sense of Justice introduce scholars and advanced students to the social and behavioral foundations for the "sense of justice" -- a form of balance or equilibrium which both individuals and legal systems seek to achieve and maintain in a changing and complex world. With diverse disciplinary backgrounds, the contributors bring various viewpoints to bear on the prospect of a more coherent theory of human justice. The Sense of Justice draws upon new discoveries and insights from the biologically-based behavioral sciences that are critical for a more informed understanding of legal phenomena, especially those dealing with complex social and political relationships. Most appropriate for criminology, criminal justice, sociology, and political science professionals and students.
Table of Contents
The problem of justice in contemporary legal thought /Roger D. Masters -- Moralistic aggression, processing mechanisms, and the brain / Michael T. McGuire --Emotion and the costs of altruism--the economic foundations of the sense of justice / Robert Frank --Naturalistic approaches to justice in political philosophy and the life sciences / Roger D. Masters --An ethological perspective on law and biology /Margaret Gruter -- The sense of justice and the concept of cultural justice--legal anthropology /Wolfgang Fikentscher -- Traditional legal concepts from an evolutionary perspective / Peter Strahlendorf --Intuition, altruism, and spite--justice as justification / William H. Rodgers, Jr. -- Empirical evidence of the sense of justice on the basis of German Law / Herbert Helmrich -- The chimpanzee's sense of social regularity and its relation to the human sense of justice--moral development, resources, and emotions / Frans B.M. de Waal -- The child's development of the sense of justice / William R. Charlesworth -- The evolution of cultural norms /Lionel Tiger -- Toward a more coherent theory of justice / Roger D. Masters, with comments by Robert Cooter and E. Donald Elliott.