Thinking, Saying, Doing in the World of Distributive Justice

An abiding concern in social science is to achieve consistency in theoretical and empirical accounts of what people think, what they say, and what they do. Strikingly, the study of distributive justice unites within it all three elements—thinking, saying, doing—granting them their own distinctive substantive importance and specifying their relations. This paper examines the ideas and insights of distributive justice, highlighting their special character as thinking, saying, and doing elements. The stage is set for the growth of knowledge, as theoretical analysis provides theoretical clarification and development and empirical analysis provides ever sharper tests of the propositions and predictions of justice theory.