ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at justice from the point of view of planning, but planning from the point of view of justice. It argues for a conception of justice which demands that planners work actively to achieve a better deal for the poor and vulnerable than the market provides. The chapter explores two opposing philosophies of justice which yield different answers – those of Rawls and of Nozick. Needless to say, a great deal has been written since Rawls and Nozick produced their seminal works but, in order to explore the foundations of the debates in sufficient depth, the discussion of subsequent work will have to be curtailed. Rawls's theory is to some degree a pluralist theory which contains a solution to the problem of pluralism. The conclusion towards which the debate seems to be driving is that pluralism, even in philosophical conceptions of justice, is the proper condition of a free society.
