This course is about political philosophy in general and the conception of justice in particular. The most prominent issues in political philosophy are ethical and political controversies as there are various theories proposed throughout history to solve them. In ethical and political theories, nothing is more important than the explication of justice. I have to admit that the conception of Justice is extremely complicated that it becomes a subject of philosophy since its beginning in the world of ancient Greece.

The reasons for justice as a virtue have the following three characteristics:
1. it is the only virtue which needs the others to admit its validity. There's no conception of justice to be defined by any person alone.
2. It is a perennial issue in political philosophy. The debates about justice have lasted more than 2500 years.
3. it has been an issue in philosophy without a definite solution or even an improvement.

These three characteristics will be major parts of this course. When the course proceeds, our attention will be focused on correspondence to them. The first point Is about me and others, i.e., how to construct an adequate idea of justice Intersubjectively. A great deal of our practice in ethical and political problems originate from the difficulty of dealing with a fair conception of justice agreed not merely by myself but also the others.

The second point in the course concentrates on the fact that the discussion of the conception of justice containing various theories invented by different philosophers throughout the long period of time. In order to have a clear picture of what justice is, we will deal with them by selecting the most represented theories in the course.

The third point referring to the truth that ethical and political issues are not matters of improvement but the works of the combination of theory and practice, depending on different periods. The theoretical parts talk about the universal value of justice and the practical parts of practical situations. The value and situations always form a mutually modified combination in which the conception of justice has been through a lot of adaptations.

In order to cope with the above-mentions three characteristics of justice, Michael Sandel’s renowned book Justice: What is the Right Thing to Do will be the major text of the course. This book stresses very much on the explication of various theories of justice by referring to many practical examples. These examples are employed as tools to understand that justice being a special conception it cannot be used for the sole purpose of solving the problem. Sandel has gone through utilitarianism, deontology theory, the Rawlsian idea of justice and Aristotle. All these theories tell us one thing that justice is a conception which is so complicated that even reputational philosophers’ theories will not be able to fully substantiate its meaning and utility. We will go through all these theories and at the final part of it we will attempt to offer our solution concerning these issues.