ABSTRACT
There is no point in multiplying illustrations indefinitely, but the authors should like to comment briefly on one other area of moral concern—the problem of distributive justice. Western philosophy has developed the general conception of formulae of social justice on the one hand and of social obligation and responsibility on the other, which partly express and partly idealize or criticize segments of prevailing distributive patterns. In other societies too, the social demand for a distribution of food and other material necessities sufficient for survival requires not only distribution patterns but also related principles of justice and obligation. These attitudes are not necessarily formulated in sharply economic terms; the underlying need that is to be met may not be consciously paramount at all. Feudal ideals of contentment in one's station, the varying rationalizations of slave states, and other more modern concepts of justice, have their analogues in parallel situations in other parts of the world.
