Search

What is it to justify a decision or an action or a law or a policy? Is it the same as to justify an inference or a belief? Is it analogous? Is legal justification the same as political justification, and are both the same as moral justification? I shall try in this paper to differentiate and to characterize legal and political justification and to show their possible relation to moral justification. I begin by assuming a conception of justification that I take to be capable of including many of its possible forms. To justify a position or an action is to give reasons for its acceptance or performance which a reasonable person ought to find persuasive. The reasons must not be part of the position or action itself. (If a person is asked, "Why are you voting for this resolution," an answer such as, "Because I am raising my arm," would not be justificatory.) An adequate justification will provide adequate grounds for acceptance of the position justified. To claim that something is justifiable is to claim that, given sufficient inquiry, it would eventually be found to be justified.2