ABSTRACT
The claims of justice present special problems both for our logic of moral concepts and for the logic of moral principles. This chapter suggests however, that the claim of special provision for special need is simply a consequence of the equality principle, the claim of distributive justice. It proposes to consider first, whether the concept of desert can be analysed in terms of other concepts, and in particular whether it can be reduced to that of social utility. The chapter presents moral thinking recoils, as opponents of the retributive theory rightly insist, from justifying punishment by mere retaliation, but at the same time it does give an important place to justice in the idea of punishment. It is, however, an exaggeration to say, without qualification, that justice is a matter of going against nature.
