ABSTRACT
This chapter develops the idea of a communicative position in which humans exercise the right to reflect and deliberate on their plans in life and the terms of their coexistence. It introduces the capabilities approach, pioneered by Amartya Sen and Martha C. Nussbaum, as a complement and corrective to John Rawls’ account of those principles of coexistence that people would choose in the original position. The chapter lays out two principles of communication and justice, reworking Rawls’ two principles of justice as fairness. It elaborates on human communication as, at once, a condition and a constituent of justice. Restating Aristotle’s figure of potentiality and actuality, capabilities scholars have taken steps toward resolving the ambiguity inherent in Rawls’ original position. Humans have the capability of transcending themselves, less by reverting to an imagined zero of civilization than through diverse cognitive and communicative practices actualizing the future.
