Giustizia sociale e progresso morale

In our article we pursue an inquiry into social justice aimed at highlighting its socio-relational dimension and showing its relationship with moral progress. After an introductory section, aimed at putting our inquiry in context, the second section discusses the major theories of justice and shows that, contrary to a common understanding, they do not include only a distributive, but also a socio-relational dimension. The third section argues that the socio-relational dimension of justice relies upon a principle of respect, understood both as equal respect for persons as persons, and as respect for persons as particular individuals; the section also shows that such a twofold understanding of respect opens up new forms of inclusion and allows to expand the circle of moral consideration. The fourth section shows that the acknowledgement of the socio-relational dimension of justice and of the role of respect allows to better understand the conditions of moral progress and the role played by social agents of justice. The final section sketches some broader implications and concludes.