ABSTRACT
One way of characterising the role of the good in distributive theory is to say that all of justice can be derived from one normative base. According to advocates of the mirrimal thesis, conceptions of the human good require further supplementation—presumably from deontic sources—if it is to provide grounds for social theory. Glaucon objects to Socrates’ thesis, believing justice merely to be an instrumental good. Mutual advantage theory provides what might be called a ‘contractarian’ account of morality and justice. This chapter discusses some ideas drawn from G. W. F. Hegel’s discussion of the Master/Slave dialectic in die Phenomenology of Spirit to generate an argument which purports to demonstrate how a concern for a person’s interests in subjectivity could generate a kingdom of ends and thus a concern for justice. Thus, the conception of the good is to be supplemented by an abstract account of how people are to be treated which is not derived from the human good.
