No Justice without Disability

Begon, Jessica

Abstract

Principles of justice should not be developed without incorporating the perspectives of oppressed groups. The reason for this is twofold. First, failing to do so will tend to lead to inadequate principles of justice. Second, even when principles of justice can be shown to apply to the concerns of the marginalised, ignoring them in the development of these principles itself constitutes a special kind of injustice - an epistemic injustice. My focus will be on disability and impairment, rather than the more commonly used examples of gender and race. Ultimately, I argue that we cannot finalise our principles of justice before they have been tested in a reflective equilibrium considering actual instances of injustice, and the views, voices, and theories of those subject to them.

Citation

Begon, J. (2025). No Justice without Disability. In H. Hänel, & J. Müller (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Non-Ideal Theory. Routledge

• Online Publication Date: Oct 15, 2024
• Publication Date: 2025
• Deposit Date: Jul 25, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 16, 2026
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Series Title: Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy
• Book Title: The Routledge Handbook of Non-Ideal Theory
• Chapter Number: 8
• ISBN: 9781032324319
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2612942
• Publisher URL: https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Non-Ideal-Theory/Hanel-Muller/p/book/9781032324319
• Contract Date: Oct 15, 2024