ABSTRACT
James P.Sterba’s latest book on justice, Justice for Here and Now, represents a significant improvement over his earlier book, How to Make People Just. Always eager to respond to his critics, Sterba has addressed virtually every concern that was raised against his previous efforts to provide a theory of justice broad enough to accommodate all rational persons happily. More than any other philosopher I know, Sterba strives to practice what he preaches; namely, “a peacemaking way of doing philosophy.”1 He assesses his opponents’ arguments fairly; he tries to understand positions with which he is unfamiliar or with which he disagrees; he tries to undo his own objections to others’ arguments; and he willingly modifies or abandons his own views whenever other persons’ views appear more compelling.2 Nevertheless, despite the fact that Sterba’s position on justice is in principle always open to revision, it has remained essentially the same over the years.
