Human Rights as a Foundation to Economic and Social Justice: An Introduction to a Course of Lessons
Achille Agnati
This introduction to a series of lessons on «Economic and Social Justice» reverses current and traditional ways of treating the subject, because (as the title states), it starts from human being and not from justice. Indeed, these lessons pivot around human rights which are, here, synonymous of irreducible common and individual needs for a good life. With a critical knowledge, they also examine some contributions of contemporary theories on economic and social justice (Rawls, Sen, Nozick, Harsanyi, Höffe, Varian). The course, at the end, finds the roots of human rights in liberty, welfare and democracy, which are proof that such rights are founded in economic and social justice.