A summary of the argument in Peter Corning’s “The Fair Society: The Science of Human Nature and the Pursuit of Social Justice”

So, what’s wrong with promoting happiness? From a biological perspective, there could be a lot wrong with it.

Free market, “shareholder capitalism” is an economic system and a set of social values that has many virtues but also a dangerous defect that must be fixed.

Plato posed fundamental questions about our politics: What is social justice and why does it matter? Here’s a fresh answer.

Ayn Rand was an anti-democratic elitist who claimed that rich capitalists deserve their wealth and power and the poor are “moochers”. What’s wrong with this picture?

There have been many cynics who have denied the very idea of social justice, but the emerging science of human nature has shown that the cynics are wrong.

At heart, fairness is an aspect of our relationships with each other. It means striking a balance between often conflicting interests, and compromise is an indispensable solvent.

There is much scientific evidence for this distinctive human trait, which is reviewed in my book. A sense of fairness played an important role in our evolution as a species.

In the current national debate about inequality we must use the principle of fairness as the compass for resolving our differences.

The reason why there are so many conflicts about fairness is that it is not a formula, or a cookbook recipe.