Justice and the Social Economist: An Instrumentalist Interpretation

Justice has, of late, re-emerged as an important area of professional concern for all economists. However, in that justice is a fundamentally normative, value-laden concept it proves troublesome to those who aspire to the strictures of "positive science". This puts social economists in a position of distinct advantage in the consideration of justice issues for they are avowedly normative in their approach. The intention in this essay, implicit in the title, is to make some contribution to the explicit articulation of the justice criteria ensconced in the instrumentalist theory of value, and to suggest the affinity of this view with social economics.