Material Desire and Social Justice: A Comparative Ethical Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.67148/fahss-2026-257Keywords:
Material Desire; Social Justice; Ethics; Kantian Deontology; Utilitarianism; Zhuangzi; Environmental EthicsAbstract
Material desire is a persistent yet ethically ambivalent dimension of human life. Rather than simply treating it as either a moral obstacle or a legitimate pursuit, this paper situates material desire within a set of competing ethical frameworks and examines the conditions under which it may be justified in relation to social justice. Kantian ethics subjects desire to universal moral constraints, whereas utilitarianism evaluates it in terms of aggregate welfare. By contrast, Zhuangzi’s thought shifts the discussion by questioning the expansion of desire itself. When environmental ethics is taken into account, the implications of material desire extend beyond social distribution to ecological limits. In this sense, material desire cannot be assessed solely within human-centered frameworks. The argument advanced here is that material desire becomes ethically defensible only when it is simultaneously constrained, socially situated, and ecologically moderated.
References
[1] Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Harvard University Press.
[2] Sandel, M. (2009). Justice: What’s the right thing to do? Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
[3] Kant, I. (1997). Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals. Cambridge University Press.
[4] Mill, J. S. (2001). Utilitarianism. Hackett Publishing.
[5] Schlosberg, D. (2007). Defining environmental justice. Oxford University Press.
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