A vital and under appreciated dimension of social interaction is the way individuals justify their actions to others, instinctively drawing on their experience to appeal to principles they hope will command respect. Individuals, however, often misread situations, and many disagreements can be explained by people appealing, knowingly and unknowingly, to different principles. "On Justification" is the first English translation of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thevenot's ambitious theoretical examination of these phenomena, a book that has already had a huge impact on French sociology and is likely to have a similar influence in the English-speaking world. In this foundational work of post-Bourdieu sociology, the authors examine a wide range of situations where people justify their actions. The authors argue that justifications fall into six main logics exemplified by six authors: civic (Rousseau), market (Adam Smith), industrial (Saint-Simon), domestic (Bossuet), inspiration (Augustine), and fame (Hobbes). The authors show how these justifications conflict, as people compete to legitimize their views of a situation.
"On Justification" is likely to spark important debates across the social sciences.
- ISBN10 069111837X
- ISBN13 9780691118376
- Publish Date 16 April 2006
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 23 July 2013
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Princeton University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 400
- Language English
- URL https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8182.html