Life as a challenge
(Chapter 3: The liberal way of life - Ronald Dworkin on virtue)

"A more plausible way to account for Dworkin's ideas is to explain the relation between the good life and justice as theoretical rather than empirical. Now, I believe this is what Dworkin actually does. Dworkin claims that when we accept life as a challenge we will unavoidably realise that some set of resources is needed in order to meet the challenge we identify for ourselves. The life of a tennis player, a monk or a scientist requires certain economic resources without which these lives could not be realised. Access to certain resources is a prerequisite for any kind of life. This means, also, that it is necessary for everyone to face the question of what amount of resources is just for each to have [Dworkin, 1990, pp71f]. Questions of justice cannot be separated from questions of what makes life good and virtuous.

Yet this does not demonstrate that injustices are always detrimental to the lives of people. Perhaps injustices - just like other difficulties in life - are part of what individuals must deal with in order for their lives to evolve. This is in fact suggested by a recent writer. In this view, the individual grows even out of the struggle for justice.

"People grow in a society where they are faced with difficult and unjust challenges. These injustices cannot be handed over to the Welfare State. We cannot demand that injustices will never happen, because life is not just [Dick Erixon, 1999, p 56, my translation]."

The basic idea behind this objection is that a good life can only be the result of individual endeavous. People grow more when they overcome difficulties on their own than they would had these difficulties been removed by someone else (e g the state): "Quality and satisfaction in life cannot be given from one person to another. These are things individuals can achieve only on their own [Erixon, 1999, p 52]." A life without problems, without battles to fight, and with no difficulties to overcome, could never be a good life [see for instance Charles Murray, 1998, pp 32f]. Therefore, injustices should not be described as inimical to the good life; they are part of what makes the good life possible.

That the good life requires individual efforts and responsibility is in fact an important feature of Dworkin's ideal. Life is a challenge and success in life depends on the extent to which the individual manages to 'perform' it. The performance is, in turn, measured in relation to the challenges that are seen as important by the individual."