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… is from page 173 of Thomas Sowell’s brilliant 1987 book, A Conflict of Visions [2]:
Justice thus derived its importance from the need to preserve society – not society its raison d’être from a need to produce justice.
DBx: Yes.
Justice is not a free-floating, abstract, brooding omnipresence in the sky (as Justice Holmes might have put it). Rather, justice is practical. Justice consists of adherence to those rules – informal as well as formal – that best preserve and promote social cooperation.