Systemic Domination and Practice-Dependence

The proposed paper argues that so far all practice-dependent approaches to the grounding of justice have fallen prey to one of two objections, firstly the circularity-objection and secondly, the conservatism-objection. The circularity-objection has mainly been raised against coercion-based practice-dependent approaches to justice - it holds that coercion-based theories can only identify such practices as "grounds" which show that moral rights have been violated, but that in such cases it is actually the moral rights grounding justice and not the practices which violate them. The conservatism-objection can be issued against all practice-dependent approaches, which have grounded justice in an "interpretation" of existing social practices. The paper develops and argues for a version of practice-dependence that can eschew both objections: Systemic and structural forms of domination can be shown to ground justice, without falling prey to either objection.