Abstract

This article offers a critical appreciation of a theory of justice puttoward by 0. Höffe. Höffe suggests that commutative justice forms the basis for every understanding of justice, not only in market relationships but also in the legal and social state. Beginning with Räffes' application of his theory to the health system, this article argues that Höffes' theory is not empirically sufficent; nor does it suffice in the discourse of Iegitimation for law and state. Distributive justice can only be excluded as the fundamental justice for legal and state function at the cost of participation and solidarity. The paradigm change for which Höffe calls cannot, therefore, count upon the support of Christian social ethics