Research On Hayek’s Critical Theory Of Social Justice

Hayek’s attack on social justice consisted of three different but interrelated lines of criticism.First,“social justice”is meaningless in the spontaneous order.Second,“social justice” is not feasible in the market order.Third,the pursuit of “social justice” is irreconcilable with the protection of individual freedoms.This paper analyzes the theoretical basis of Hayek’s critical theory of social justice and divides it into three chapters.On the basis of showing Hayek’s line of criticism,this paper will prove that all three lines of criticism have failed to some extent.The introduction will explain the importance of Hayek’s critical theory of social justice and the current research on this theory.According to the understanding of Hayek’s critical theory of social justice,this paper will clarify the main work of this paper.Chapter one examines the theoretical basis of Hayek’s critical theory of social justice,which is mainly explained from the three aspects of Kantianism,limited rationality and individualism methodology.This chapter will illustrate the important role of these three basic theories in Hayek’s critical social theory.Chapter two examines the argument that “ social justice ” is meaningless in spontaneous order.This chapter starts from these two concepts of “social justice”and“ spontaneous order ”,re-examining Hayek’s argument that “ social justice ” is meaningless.Through discussion,this paper argues that,on the one hand,the results of spontaneous order are not completely unpredictable.On the other hand,Hayek confused justice as a state of affairs with justice as a response to a state of affairs.Chapter three investigates the argument that “social justice is not feasible in the market order ”.Combined with the characteristics of market order,this chapter reexamines the argument that social justice is not feasible in the market order.Hayek argued this view from two aspects: the difficulty of consensus in the market order would make allocation criteria difficult to determine;Social justice will eventually be exploited by interest groups and deviate from its principles.It is not impossible to achieve consensus on social justice standards in the market order,and once it is admitted that consensus is difficult to obtain in the market order,it will cause conflicts in its theory.Moreover,the argument that interest groups exploit social justice for their own benefit would challenge Hayek’s view of a guaranteed minimum income.Chapter four examines the argument that “‘social justice’ is incompatible with the protection of individual freedom ”.Starting from the basic point of Hayek’s view of freedom,this chapter reexamines his discourse on the irreconcilable relationship between social justice and the protection of individual freedom.Hayek demonstrated this view from three aspects: the pursuit of social justice on the means of coercion,and ultimately toward totalitarianism;The conflict between substantive justice and procedural justice;Achieving social justice will organize society.Through investigation,this paper argues that the realization of social justice can be achieved through indirect means,rather than necessarily the organization of the whole society;Market order also produces organization,which defeats one of Hayek’s aims in criticizing social justice.