Poster: What is justice?
A thought experiment to visualize ideas of justice and reflect on and discuss the causes of opposing positions.
Here is the PDF in DIN A 1 format (59.4 cm x 84.1 cm)
Didactic comment: The flute example is a thought experiment presented by Amartya Sen in his book The Idea of Justice. It is quite simple and can be played or negotiated as a simple thought experiment (i.e. in the imagination alone). The participants should simply imagine that they have a flute that they would like to give away. Three children could be considered: one who has no other toys, another who can play the flute very well and one who they know carved the flute. Who would they give the flute to in this situation? As a rule, the participants come up with different solutions and are very surprised that other participants have come up with different solutions. The favored solution depends deeply on the underlying idea of justice. What can become apparent here is that there is not ONE WAY OF justice, but different approaches based on different justifications. If you look at the conditions of production from a Marxist perspective, for example, you probably think it is crucial who made the flute. From a more egalitarian perspective, you make sure that all children have toys. From an Aristotelian perspective, on the other hand, we probably tend to want to put the flute to a meaningful use.
We love this task because it can open up a conversation about philosophically highly demanding questions using very simple means. It cannot be ruled out that completely different interpretations will become apparent.
What else do I need? The poster invites reflection and can suffice as an impulse in this form. In large groups, it can be useful to ask the participants to use sticky dots or markers to show which child they would choose - but this does not have to be the case.