Justice as Attunement : Transforming Constitutions in Law, Literature, Economics and the Rest of Life

Justice as Attunement demonstrates that to engage in the activity of attunement to the meaning of a text is to learn to do justice to ourselves and to others. This book highlights the transforming constitutions across the range of human relations and the place of justice as relevant to one and all: for, as Richard Dawson suggests, the root of justice is intertwined with constituting appropriate selves and relations.

A thoroughly-researched, interdisciplinary study, Justice as Attunement is an invaluable resource for any student or scholar of Law, Literature, Economics, and Philosophy, and indeed expertly illuminates the many useful and fascinating connections between these subjects.

The meaning of an expression resides not in the expression itself but in the experience of a person’s engagement with it. Meaning will be different not only to different people but also to the same person at different times. This book offers a way of attending to these different meanings. This way (or method) is a version of a trans-cultural activity that Richard Dawson calls attunement. The activity of attunement involves a movement of self-adjustment to a language, which a person transforms in her or his use of it. Consciously performing the activity can enable understanding of the processes by which we constitute ourselves and others when we use a language. This directly connects to the topic justice, which is concerned with constituting appropriate selves and relations.

Justice as Attunement engages with a wide range of texts – legal, literary, economic, philosophical, among others – and illuminates many useful and fascinating connections between them. There is a sense in which this book transcends disciplinary boundaries, for, in addition to students and scholars of law, literature, economics, and philosophy, it is written to a general reader who is interested in reflecting on and doing justice to their experiences in life.