Investigation of the applicability of Michael J. Sandel's Economic Justice Theory in modern society

No matter which religion, nationality, faith or doctrine people belong to, the need for justice is one of the most vital and indispensable needs of any person. Due to this feature, the principle of justice has gained a universal character and has been the subject of endless doctrines and theories about its content and how to achieve it throughout history. Many philosophers and thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle in Ancient Greece, Ulpian and Augustinus in the Roman period, Thomas Hobbes in the Middle Ages, Farabi and Ibn Miskeveyh in the Islamic world, Immanuel Kant, John Locke, Jeremy Bentham and John S. Mill in the Close Age and finally in the present time John Rawls and Sandel etc. have all worked on the principle of justice and have developed detailed and comprehensive teachings. However, it is a fact that almost all of them think quite differently about the definition, basis and source of justice. Naturally, each thinker has acted with a different incentive and motivation. While some of them attach importance to prosperity and wealth as they view justice embraced in prosperity, while others regard it as embraced in freedom and others as in virtue. In this study, firstly, after briefly focusing on the definition, types and scope of justice, its historical background will be examined and in this context, the theories of justice in Ancient Greek and Islamic world will be mentioned. Later, theories developed about the subject by the thinkers of the Middle Ages will be reviewed and finally Sandel's approaches will be discussed.