The Quest for Cosmic Justice

Thomas Sowell's "The Quest for Cosmic Justice" consists of four extensive essays. The first of these four gives its title to that of the book. The other three essays are: "The Mirage of Equality," "The Tyranny of Visions," and "The Quiet Repeal of the American Revolution." You may agree or disagree with the analyses that Sowell provides in these essays. But you will be unable to deny that Sowell provides a great deal of food for thought. These essays are Sowell at his best. They were originally put into book form in 1999. I recently had the opportunity to give them a second reading. I was impressed at how relevant they were for today.

This book shows Thomas Sowell's versatilty (for people who have read many of his books). In some of his works, he can be a philosopher (the current book being reviewed), but in others he writes in the same clear and interesting (yet still intellectually rigorous) way of "Freakonomics." It's a testament to the writer's raw intellectual capital that he can take a topic as obscure as this and make it fascinating (and he did).

1. This book is good as a stand-alone text, but for those of us who have read "Knowledge and Decisions" and "Intellectuals and Society," there is a good bit of overlap. Since the book was about different concepts of justice (and "Intellectuals and Society" was not), some of the ideas contained herein are also expanded more than they were in the aforementioned text.

2. The book is wonderfully brief, with only 183# pages of text-- but even then he says all that needs to be said.

3. Sowell has demonstrated that people with visions of the way that reality works choose those visions because they offer the believer some sort of self-aggrandizement. Somehow, when he said it in this book, it came across more clearly than other places in which I have read it.

4. There was some discussion in this text of freedom being defined as exemptions of government power. I've read that line of reasoning before but, again, somehow this book made that a bit clearer.

5. The density of "The Quest for Comsmic Justice" is moderate compared with some of his other works. It's not as dense as "Marxism" but more dense than, say, "Applied Economics."

This book is worth the second hand purchase price and the 4 afternoons that it took to read it.

"The Quest for Cosmic Justice" by Thomas Sowell consists of four essays. In addition to the lead essay, "The Quest for Cosmic Justice," the other essays are: "The Mirage of Equality," "The Tyranny of Visions," and "The Quiet Repeal of the American Revolution." These four essays are Sowell at his best. Whether you agree or disagree with his analyses and his conclusions, you will find more than enough food for thought.

These essays were put into book form in 1999, near the end of the Clinton Administration. What impressed me most as I reread these essays recently was that they are even more relevant today than they were fifteen years ago. Sowell should be must reading for our leaders, both in government and in academia.

For many, especially those on the ideological left, there is no loftier goal, nothing more important, than trying to promote social justice. The specifics of this concept are, in fact, not specific at all but instead vague and hazy. About the only thing we know about social justice is that it encapsulates some type of equality and that, despite its inchoate nature, it is the most important concept in the cornucopia of philosophical thought (or so the thinking among its proponents seems to go).

Thomas Sowell expands the concept of social justice to that of cosmic justice and, in doing so, produces one of his most important books. THE QUEST FOR COSMIC JUSTICE demonstrates that the conception of universal cosmic justice, in which everyone comes out more or less equally, is not merely one conception of justice that exists alongside more traditional conceptions. Rather, cosmic justice is antagonistic to more traditional concepts of justice and has the ability to undermine and destroy what many people would normally think of when they think of the term.

Traditional forms of justice deal with the rules by which people live in a society. A just society, therefore, is one in which the same rules apply to everyone, with equality of opportunity being the ideal. Yet this traditional form of justice has a cosmic flaw, specifically that some people are born into better positions than others and therefore an equal playing field is actually not fair to those born in deprivation.

Cosmic justice seeks to eradicate such intrinsic advantages and disadvantages by tilting the field in favor of some over others. It usually is not stated so baldly, but that is the gist of it. The problem, however, is that once this idea of justice takes hold, the government, by nature, has to play favorites. Further, the factors that produce any individual person, i.e. family status, maternal health, IQ, society in which one is born, etc. are so numerous and interact in so complex a way, that attempting to tilt the field here or there almost always leads to the folly of unintended negative consequences.

Indeed, in a rather striking admission, Sowell acknowledges that, given omnipotence, the cosmic justice conception of the universe might actually be better than a world governed by traditional notions of justice. Yet given that humans are not omnipotent, in fact are not only fallible but often malevolent, the negative consequences are simply so disastrous that living by the rules of traditional justice is by far the more preferred course.

Of course, such an admission by Sowell provides exactly the type of elbow room needed by the cosmic justice brigade to keep trying again and again. And as Sowell has made clear time and again, both in this book and elsewhere, those with a particular ideological vision, the exact type of person attracted to notions of cosmic justice in the first place, are simply unconcerned about the real world consequences of policies they favor. They view themselves as moral superiors and no amount of external failure of their policies, nor any amount of flat out cruelty towards others to advance their agenda, will shake that belief.

THE QUEST FOR COSMIC JUSTICE not only examines the concept of cosmic justice through an excellent comparison of it to more traditional forms of justice. It also goes further in demonstrating how the ideals of cosmic justice have already seeped into important areas of our society. The final chapter of the book, The Quiet Repeal of the American Revolution, is, even for Sowell, a breathtaking piece of writing on political philosophy. I have never read anything by Sowell that I think is a strike out. Yet even given his high slugging average, THE QUEST FOR COSMIC JUSTICE is hard hitting.

Other books by Sowell on ideology:
A Conflict of Visions: Idealogical Origins of Political Struggles and
The Vision of the Anointed Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy

Also relevant:
The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents--The Definitive Edition (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek) by Friedrich Hayek and
Law, Legislation and Liberty, Volume 2: The Mirage of Social Justice, also by Friedrich Hayek

Thomas Sowell's "The Quest for Cosmic Justice" contains four essays. In addition to the lead essay, "The Quest for Cosmic Justice," the other essays are: "The Mirage of Equality," "The Tyranny of Visions," and "The Quiet Repeal of the American Revolution." Having read several of Sowell's books over the years, I will say that these four essays are Sowell at his best. Whether you agree or disagree with his analyses and his conclusions, you will take away more than enough food for thought.

"The Quest for Cosmic Justice" was published in 1999, near the end of the Clinton Administration. What impressed me most as I read through these essays again recently was that they are even more relevant today, given what is happening in the United States, than they were fourteen years ago. Sowell should be must reading for our leaders, both in government and in academia.

This terrific book is a collection of four essays that demonstrate the emptiness of those who would define equality in terms of outcomes. There are those who claim that those who are born with superior natural endowments owe a portion of their gift to those less able. The problem begins. Who defines what is superior? Who defines what is owed to whom? How much is owed? What is equal?

The four essays are: The Quest for Cosmic Justice, The Mirage of Equality, The Tyranny of Visions, and The Quest for Repeal of the American Revolution.

None of these argues for the huge disparities between the rich and poor as goods. Rather, it argues against some arbitrary elite imposing its vision of equality on everyone else. It was Milton Friedman who advocated the negative income tax. The poor would be provided for without the creation of a huge state bureaucracy with the attendant political machinations. However, it is the growth of the state and its control of the population that its proponents actually desire. They crave the power to decide and impose.

The last essay focuses on the way our Constitution is being subverted by those who take to themselves the right to be the conscience of others. Sowell quotes a speech by Lincoln that warns us against those who are not content to carry on what was built by others. They wish to take the law to themselves. The author notes that in the French Revolution a mission was appointed to go about the country righting wrongs and then offers a quote by Chief Justice Earl Warren not asking if something follows the Constitution, but whether it is just or right.

It isn't that these folks intend to directly overthrow the Constitution, it is that their disregard for laws (rules known in advance) or the processes laid out to change those laws in order to gratify their own attitudes and views is incompatible with the American system of government. And we are now reaping the whirlwind. Property laws have been weakened for more than a century were recently all but erased by a fiasco of a ruling by the Supreme Court.

My admiration for Thomas Sowell runs deep and I commend this book to everyone.

This is a thought-provoking book about the benefits of thorough and careful examination of the circumstances involved in change, before making the change. It is equivalent of many of the arguments in The Fifth Discipline, except applied to government rather than businesses.
The four essays in this book (The Quest for Social Justice, The Mirage of Equality, The Tyranny of Visions, and The Quiet Repeal of the American Revolution) share two common themes: That one must be careful in examining the facts before trying to change a situation, and that many unsuccessful social changes have followed ideas and idealism that was not based on factual inquiry.
The book succeeds in making both points effectively, and is quite persuasive in looking at the creeds of departed dictators (like Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin).
The book also engages the ongoing debate between conservatives and liberals in the United States about the role and ends of government. In this context, I found the argument persuasive that the debate has been too much about philosophies and too little about facts. What I found less persuasive was the critique of liberal ideas and idealism. At bottom, it seemed to me that liberals and conservatives are both about having societies that work better for the people in the societies. Given the same set of facts about what is working and what is not, I really wonder if the two ideologies would lead to different prescriptions in many cases. For example, with the apparent benefits of the Internet becoming more and more pervasive, conservatives and liberals seem only to differ on how much government should do to ensure computer access to the Internet. Both views seem happy with the Internet as unregulated and untaxed as possible.
Where any reader would agree is that the unintended consequences of very active government have frequently been harmful. We know so little about the ultimate effects of actions, that it is quite possible to create the opposite of our intent. For example, trying to create more equality sometimes has led to creating less. There is evidence to suggest that where formerly people stayed poor (as defined by being in the bottom 20 percent of the population) for relatively short periods of time, the advent of generous welfare benefits created a cycle of poverty by making welfare more comfortable. Currently, we are experimenting with the opposite. Only time will tell what the right answer is.
Ultimately, Sowell points out that there is a tension in the notion of equality that must be addressed in any society. Does that mean equal opportunity for people with unequal resources and skills, or does it mean equal outcomes regardless of starting point? Americans have always favored the former. Sowell points out that we have actually moved in some areas to places in between the two concepts (such as equal access to the public school classroom for students and to the workplace for those with various disabilities including mental illness and mental retardation), sometimes based on a too limited examination of the facts or misinterpretations of the circumstances. Whether or not this is a repeal of the American Revolution is something that reasonable people will differ on. That's where I think the argument doesn't quite work. Otherwise, I would have enthusiastically have given the book a five star rating.
Whatever your political philosophy, there is sound thinking in this book to help you improve your ideas about the role of government.
Donald Mitchell
Coauthor of The Irresistible Growth Enterprise and The 2,000 Percent Solution...

Dr. Sowell as usual explains his subject with electrifying clarity. He shows how many jurists have damaged our Constitution by practicing social work instead of law and in the process doing neither well. It has long been feared that that the jig is up once government finds it can "dispense" cosmic justice through taxation.

Such is the the speed with which the modern media and academic establishments rewrite history, mostly to cover their own tracks, that whereas in the early 1980's Thomas Sowell was considered a dangerous Right-wing radical, whose open opposition to Marxism, Socialism and statism were quaint enough in their own right, but particularly bizarre coming from a black man, he now is considered to be a mere triumphalist, rehashing well-known truths, and unfairly mutilating the dead bodies of his vanquished ideological opponents. Thus, in the 1985 New York Times review of his book Marxism, Brigette Berger actually considered it an open question whether Sowell's negative view of Marxism would eventually prevail, but in the very brief Times review of Quest for Cosmic Justice, Allen Boyer dismisses Sowell's critique of egalitarianism for too often taking "soft shots at easy targets." I'm sure that Sowell is happy to hear that his views have triumphed so completely as to no longer need elucidation, but unfortunately a closer reading of the book reveals that many of his lessons have yet to be learned, especially by folks like the New York Times.
The book is divided up into four interrelated sections, apparently based on lectures that he's been giving throughout the years. In the title essay he discusses the quintessential difference between the Left and the Right : their differing views on "justice." The classical, or conservative, view of justice has been that justice requires society to provide and enforce a fair and impartial set of rules which treats everyone equally, but that subsequent inequalities in outcome are beyond the scope of societal concern. The modern, or liberal, ideal of justice--which as even been renamed "social justice" and which Sowell calls "cosmic justice"-focuses on equality of outcomes, instead of on fairness of the process. Affirmative Action is the most notorious product of this ideal, with its reliance on government intervention to pick and choose between job applicants and those seeking college admission, based on the criteria of proportions of representation by ethnicity in the given workplace or school.
It may well be, and Sowell concedes the point unnecessarily, that greater equality is a desirable social good. But as Sowell discusses here and in subsequent sections on "The Mirage of Equality" and "The Tyranny of Visions," it is beyond the capacity of government to achieve. For one thing the imposition of equality does not merely elevate those at the bottom of the scale; it necessarily imposes limitations on those at the top. Every time government favors one person it disfavors another. In addition, it requires government to make continual judgments and adjustments, a task for which it is ill-suited, in order to maintain the equality of results. As F. A. Hayek has written, these kinds of fine tuning decisions presuppose a level of knowledge which no human nor human institution has access to. It is only in the free market, where information flows freely, that we even begin to approach a level of efficient decision making.
One would think that by now, as Boyer suggests, this basic point would be beyond controversy. The massive 20th Century failures of every form of authoritarian and totalitarian government--dictatorship, fascism, communism, theocracy, socialism--should have finally laid to rest the notion that bureaucrats can effectively manage modern economies. Sadly, the delusion persists. Sowell calls the people who cling to these visions "the anointed," because what really persists is not just beliefs in certain ideologies but the belief of certain elites that they, because of their good intentions and imagined moral purity, should be allowed to exercise control over the rest of us :
Cosmic visions of society are not just visions about society. They are visions about those people who hold these visions and the role of such people in society, whether these people are deemed to be leaders of a master race, the vanguard of the proletariat, saviors of the planet, or to have some other similarly self-flattering role as an anointed visionary group "making a difference" in the unfolding of history. Heady cosmic visions which give the sense of being one of the anointed visionaries can hold tyrannical sway in disregard or defiance of facts.
Finally, in the last section, "The Quiet Repeal of the American Revolution," Sowell makes the case that the modern "Quest for Cosmic Justice" represents a fundamental betrayal of the nation's founding ideals. The American Revolution was unique in many respects, but mostly for its emphasis on "laws not men" :
Down through the centuries, people of the most diverse philosophic persuasions have proceeded as if what was needed was to replace false doctrines with true doctrines and false leaders with true leaders--the heathens with the faithful, capitalists with socialists, royalty with republicans, and so on. But, unlike the French revolution or the Bolshevik revolution, for example, the American revolution and its resulting constitution did not center on a change in the cast of characters in high places or on a change in their political language or immediate policy agenda. Its central concern was in establishing new processes by which whoever occupied the places of power could be restrained and replaced. In short, it did not pretend to have a doctrinal truth but instead implied a deep skepticism that anyone had either a monopoly on doctrinal truth or such moral or intellectual rectitude as to be exempt from constraints, condemnations, or dismissals from office by their fellow men.
What the American Constitution established was not simply a particular system but a process for changing systems, practices, and leaders, together with a method of constraining whoever or whatever was ascendant at any given time.
This returns us to where we began, with the conflict between process and results. Would that it were true that the argument was over and that the vision of process as paramount had triumphed. But we need look no further than the 2000 Presidential election to see that this is, sadly, not the case.
It has been common in the media to depict the confrontation between Al Gore and George W. Bush in post-election Florida as simply a contest between partisans willing to adopt any position which was politically expedient. This assessment badly misses the mark. The contest was really between those who believe in the process, in the rule of law, and those who believe in the fairness of results, in "cosmic justice." If you locked them up and administered truth serum, conservatives would admit that they didn't care if more people intended to vote for Gore, what matters is that under the rules of the game he lost; and liberals would acknowledge that they didn't care what the law said, they wanted the wishes of the majority to be vindicated, and they believe that they knew those wishes. Far from political posturing, these views go to the very core of what it means to be a conservative or a liberal.
In that case, happily, the defenders of the process won, but it was a damned near run thing. That is why books like this one, even though Sowell does not plow any new ground and even though many of his arguments will be familiar to many readers, are important. He is a very persuasive and readable writer, with a vital case to make : equality under law and equality of result are incompatible; we must choose one or the other, and the track record of egalitarianism is so abysmal that even if its goals are desirable in the abstract, the price to be paid in achieving them in the real world is too high.
GRADE : B+

I enjoyed this book very much. Dr. Sowell distills his career's expertise with cultures and global geography and economics to make a very clear and succinct case for the importance of discerning the difference between "cosmic (idealized, social) justice" and "traditional (Constitutional, Rule of Law) justice". His basic idea is that cosmic justice is elusive and unattainable (the self satisfaction from the good intentions being a good enough result for adherents), while traditional justice is more honest, non judgmental, and ultimately more practical and fair. It may not gain any converts, but it does help strengthen my (conservative) Classical Liberalist inclinations, against the steady onslaught of ever expanding Federal powers, feel-good so-called compassionate causes, and public political correctness.

The books ends with these words of summary;

"Much of the world today and down through centuries of history has suffered the terrible consequences of unbridled government power, the prime evil that the writers of the American Constitution sought to guard against. Judges who "interpret" constitutional safeguards out of existence for the sake of some ideological crusade, presidents who over-reach their authority for personal or political reasons, and a Congress whose powers are extended into matters that the constitution never empowered them to legislate about are all part of the quiet repeal of the American revolution."

Is what he's describing sound familiar to you? It sure sounds important and relevant to me.

Dr. Sowell examines the concept of "social justice" (or, on a larger scale, "cosmic justice") and proceeds to demonstrate its foolishness. This is done through showing the difference between "social justice" and "traditional justice." Only by precisely defining what is meant by justice can any progress be made in achieving justice. Sowell manages to do this with exceptional skill. "Traditional justice" basically means that all of us play by the same rules. "Social justice" entails tinkering with perceived inequalities to bring everyone to the same "starting point"--almost always done through government harming some at the expense of others. In this book, Sowell shows that this "Quest for Cosmic Justice" is a fool's errand and only serves to increase the power of central government at the expense of freedom.

Thomas Sowell writes four interrelated chapters describing the insidious erosion of Constitutionally protected freedoms due to legislative and judicial decisions which are based on momentary emotional impulse rather than well thought out, measured and tested ideas. Sowell demonstrates clearly how our current society has abdicated its responsibility to the U.S. Constitution and rather than adhering to its fundamentals and rubrics, which often requires emotional fortitude, this society frequently chooses the intellectually and emotionally lazy course.
I believe that this book well develops the process by which moral relativism and feel-good governmental sanctioned intrusion has enabled the masses to take the easy road of "cosmic justice" and makes it ever more difficult for hard working honest people to continue to have honesty, logic and ethics as their guiding principles. I highly reccommend this book to anyone who is struggling with an emotional bias towards government subsidies for the "needy" yet intellectually knows that this is wrong.

Thomas Sowell brilliantly exposes the die-hard previaling liberal egotism that retries the same old tired arguments in regards to equality, war, and other subjects of social interests. Thee are four chapters and within 200 pages, Sowell does what most authors do not - scholarly, yet succintly, refute the positions of liberal social groups bent on placing their vision on American society and eslewhere.
In the chapters, "The Quest for Cosmic Justice" and "The Mirage of Equality" he analyzes the liberal quests to redistrubute laws, income, etc to bring about a social policy that aids the so-called less prosper by violating the liberties of the wealthy. In fact, he demonstrates the fallacy of such notions and policies as well as their utter failures.
His third chapter, "The Tyranny of Vision" is in my view his best section of the book and warrants five stars in and of itself. He uses many of the pre-WW II pacifists arguments and shows where they failed then and contniue to fail now. He exposes the egoists claims for peace by liberals and how they often lead to more damage as evil enemies will use the weakness of pacifists to inflict more harm on the internal commuinity (not to mention their own people).
The last chapter is written well also, where he succesfully discusses the rule of law as it is superior than the search for cosmic justice as determined by a few. This book is a must read as it will help conservatiives better articulate the values they hold on to, the moderates understand the truth of of the left's extremem and illogical positions, and if a liberal reads this book, hopefully they'll comprehend why their quest is misguided and one could even argue - evil.

Thomas Sowell's "The Quest For Cosmic Justice" is a stab in the heart of left-wing politics. Early in his book, the author makes a clear distinction between traditional ideas of justice and what Mr. Sowell describes as "cosmic justice." Traditional justice is process-oriented. Everyone plays by the same rules and is judged by the same standards. It is a system that "flesh and bone" human beings can live under. Cosmic justice, on the other hand, means providing everyone with equal prospects of success. This concept of "fairness," as morally spurious as it is, becomes outright dangerous when it requires third parties to wield arbitrary power to override rules and control outcomes. These third parties - found in government, universities, the media, and the courts - see a nation desperately in need of cosmic justice. The gap between the rich and poor is supposedly growing, threatening our economic future. The so-called "earnings gap" between men and women is supposedly the child of a sexist society. Police brutality is becoming a high-tech version of lynching. And so on. Of course, many of these "problems" disappear when confronted with real-world experience and statistical evidence. Creating government "solutions" to these "problems" only entrusts more and more power in the hands of people further and further removed from the real world. To allow any government authority to determine how much money you receive for your work is not only a distortion of the economic process but is a dehumanizing attempt in reducing everyone to political clients. Government price controls on food, supposed to help the poor, have led to widespread hunger in countries around the world. Undermining law enforcement because of its perceived unfairness to minorities have led to high crime rates which hurt minorities most of all. The passion for equality - which somehow became twisted into racial preferences - has led to a divorce of performance and reward, which is to say a divorce between incentive and behavior - perhaps the most crucial foundation of Western civilization. Yet theories of cosmic justice and the public policy that springs from them are unlikely to be re-examined. Why should they be re-examined when they permit its advocates to feel morally superior to everyone else? Meanwhile, those who believe in systematic processes - the marketplace, traditional values, constitutional law (namely, most Americans) are suspected. Mr. Sowell's book is an excellent indictment of "cosmic justice" and an excellent defense of traditional ideas of process and the rule of law. Unfortunately, those who should read this book most will probably read it least.

In "The Quest for Cosmic Justice," Thomas Sowell expounds on his analysis in "The Vision of the Anointed" of the left-leaning ideological vision behind many legal and policy decisions made over the years. Sowell distinguishes "traditional justice" - based on established rules, laws and procedures - from "cosmic justice," which seeks to impose left-leaning "solutions" on society. The cosmic view of justice, as Sowell points out, is devoid of logic, abhorrent of emperical evidence and facts, and yet despite this those who espouse this view try to impose it on the rest of society, no matter what (or how dire) the consequences.
Dr. Sowell's erudition, attention to bare-bones analysis, common sense, and the truth make him one of America's most respected scholars. I feel that I am a more enlightened and intelligent citizen because of this and other Sowell publications.

This book is, while as well thought out, well-organized, and even-handed as one should expect from Mr. Sowell, a trifle. I can think of no reason why a reader, either familiar with Sowell's work, or new to it, would not be better off with "A Conflict of Visions" or "The Vision of the Anointed." Both cover more ground in more detail, and are hardly exhausting reads. Sowell is writing not about politics here, but ideas, and while he is relentlessly fair-minded and impersonal, he cannot avoid making points relevant to our current political scene. The Kirkus Review above is laughable for its pointedness, while decrying Sowell's work, which strives to be far more objective. If you're a "I care so much, and you don't" liberal, you won't like Sowell. No kidding. Otherwise, he'll have a lot of interesting ideas for you.

This book is good, not great. And the people who would get the most out of this book are those who are most unlikely to read it. If you are already familiar with Sowell, or read Forbes or The Wall Street Journal on a regular basis, then you are already familiar with most of the ideas and concepts in this book. Nonetheless, the book makes for an interesting read. Sowell persuasively points out that many of those seeking "justice" (cosmic or otherwise) frequently don't give a darn about the costs and benefits of their current flavor of justice on society. Sowell provides many examples, and gloomy predictions, about what happens when the liberal elite impose their visions on the rest of us. As an attorney who just graduated from NYU Law School, I couldn't agree more with Sowell's comments regarding how the rule of law is systematically undermined by our nation's elite law schools. Once the rule of law is gone, you decide justice given the judge's present whims, which is awful close to monarchy---which the liberal elite unfortunately fail to recognize. I was taught nothing but contempt for precedent and the rule of law at NYU, I'd even go so far as to say that most of my professors seemed to feel you should just examine each case from the perspective of who you feel is "disadvantaged" and rule for them. After three years of that attempted brainwashing, Sowell's book is like climbing out of a dark cave and realizing light still exists.

Thomas Sowell makes understanding the status quo play more like checkers than a game of chess. The Quest for Cosmic Justice is a book about the problems society faces and the outcomes that are created to address them. Sowell tackles some specific issues such as justice, equality, property rights, racism and other concerns.
Two of the major sticking points to me were the comparisons of approaches to peace between nations and the issues of equality after the civil rights movement of the early 60s. On the peace isse Sowell looks at the approach to peace that the "anti-war" point of view takes and contrasts that with the alternative approach to peace through superior weaponry as a deterrent against foreign enemies. On equality he weighs the calls for equality as an outcome and equality as a starting point.
I found this book to be very pleasing to the present political discourse as new Supreme Court decisions on Affirmative Action and US intervention of foreign nations as part of the War on Terrorism. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a critical view of "social justice" and how it fails to consider the negative impacts on society when its supporters are attemtping to remedy what they perceive as a present injustice.

What we have learned from experiments on children and animals is that just as chimpanzees we do have an innate sense of justice on the most basic level. If you give a chimp a lesser reward for doing the same exact thing as another one it can observe getting a greater reward for, it will refuse it and fly into a rage. Social complexity (groups of more then ~20 individuals) and culture not only obscure the distinctions but can pervert this sense of justice in a way that makes it work against some of its members and for the benefit of others. If you convince people one of them is a god king then it is only right that he be allowed to (or even helped) do whatever he likes with anything and anyone on this earth which belongs to him in its entirety anyway. Many revolutionaries were hesitant to do anything to king Louie as gods envoy on earth, but in the end his head came off like any other. If you convince people that the current hierarchical order is the right one, then they will have to accept its injustices as the inevitable lesser evil and learn how not to ignore them. If you convince people that someone is the enemy or the bad guy then you can do anything to him, no matter how foul and unjust and they will cheer. You can see why so much time is spent on the art or business of convincing. This book is but one such perversion, as is the american strain of libertarianism with its assumptions of meritocracy, rather than private tyranny in the absence of a central government. However small their stake, people are always tempted into docility as change can be dangerous and public as well as private organizations can be ruthless and inhumane to those who oppose them. It is easy to forget that it is better to risk dying on your feet than to live on your knees, even if you're kneeling on a pillow. You're going to die one day anyway.

This book unearths the flaws of cosmic justice and its negative consequences which moral demagouges fail to see. As I read the reviews I am reminded of Bob Berkowitz's scathing review where he lists a littany of stereotypes of traditional justice (e.g. destitute blacks, submissive women, etc.)
Sowell dispels these myths in a systematic fashion. Did you know that most of the 'rich' are over 50? This statistic is consistent over a finite timespan, which means that the rich had to be non-rich at one point in time. In fact, as time progresses the poor seldom stay poor. As time progresses, the poor gain experience, education etc. which makes them more likely to find better pay elsewhere. Only 3% of the poor actually remain poor after 20 years. But demagouges like Berkowitz never pay attention to these facts. Sowell's research is breathtaking, and his tone is always civil and scholarly, while maintaining pithy prose.
The biggest problem I have with this book is that Sowell concedes the moral ground to the comsic justice theorist (i.e the anointed) He states that in a perfect world, cosmic justice would be preferable. By giving the anointed the moral ground, his arguments denying for them the practical ground seem ruthless and cold. I know Sowell is an economist, not an ethicist, but in order to destroy all premises of comsic justice, he shouldve showed that cosmic justice indeed an immensly immoral stance.
Sowell is at his best in this book when he discusses the practical opportunity costs neglected by the anointed, but when he delves into the moral, or legal philosophy, his analysis becomes shallow and maintains a poor understanding of whoever he criticizes. I was especially vexed when he tried, in a couple of pages to refute A Theory oF Justice. Sowell is a brilliant economist, and he needs to stay there.

Brick by brick he dismantles the rhetoric of the American Left. This is possibly the greatest and most concise work of political and philosophical exposition I've read to date. But then again I'm sixteen so who knows how much else I'll find? I'm interested in reading more from this author and would definitely recommend this book.

It is a wonderful thing to see so many intelligent reviews and comments on this book. It shows that a lot of smart and reflective people are reading Sowell's work. Hallelujah! With intellectual finesse and admirable simplicity, THE QUEST FOR COSMIC JUSTICE affirms the equality of all people before the law (the traditional American system, despite that system's notable historic failures) and rejects the totalitarian and activist courts which would put desirable "results" above democratic and legal processes.
Hardly an apology for the haves over the have-nots, COSMIC JUSTICE shows that if we do not have fair law equally applicable to all, then we are all have-nots.

This book is terriffic. But it could easily be cast as a book which touches superficially on all his prior work. In this book, Sowell echoes themes which he has expounded upon more deeply and systematically in "The Vision of the Annointed" and "A Conflict of Visions," among others. And if you really want to get into the inner workings of Sowell's mind, I can only recommend "Knowledge and Decisions," which was published in 1980. "The Quest for Cosmic Justice" is good, to be sure - but it is only the beginning. There is a wealth of detail and intricacy that can be found in his other books which lay all the intellectual foundations for what we find in this most recent contribution by Sowell to issues of public policy.

Thomas Sowelll cuts through the politically corrcect BS of government attempts to achieve social justice. He exposes The Great Nonsequitor: 1. Something is wrong. 2) The government should correct it.

Masses of people, no matter how horrible or evil their actions look when observed from the outside, never act with great success unless they genuinely believe that they are right. They may be deluded and misled, but Nazis and Stalinists both believed in the justness of their actions at the time. Thus, it is much better to go inside the mind of your political opponents than it is to simply demonize theminside your own mind. It's better to know what you're up against, so you can kick the ideological suports out from under them.
Thomas Sowell gives us a good idea of *why* modern socialists feel the way they do, why they are willing to fight so hard to take from some, give to others, and make so many dependent upon their benevolence. He skillfully whittles the modern socialist notion of 'justice' to what it really is at its heart: a desire to feel like a 'goody guy,' a desire to right the wrongs of history, nature, and the universe itself.
This book provides countless examples of why grace from the liberals on high isn't needed in the first place. It also provides etrse, cogent arguments against the notion that 'justice',' as described by a socialist, is just at all.
If it has a flaw, I'd say it is that the book, while smooth and generally high-road in style, is a bit too combative in content to hand to a friend with socialist tendencies as a different perspective.

Economist Thomas Sowell's *Quest for Cosmic Justice* is a must-read for anyone (liberal or conservative) who is interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the basic assumptions of the modern liberal social-progressive movement. Sowell's clear, concise argument casts grave doubt on the possibility of successfully moving past our current model of justice, under which 'justice' is defined in terms of fair process, to a postmodern model of justice under which 'justice' is defined in terms of guaranteed outcome.
The "quest for cosmic justice," according to Sowell, is the unachievable desire to redefine human beings in such a way as to nullify virtually all natural advantages such as talent and intelligence (which are viewed as unjust inequalities), resulting in the complete and universal (albeit unnatural) "equalization" of persons.
The political implications of Sowell's argument are deep; he means to undermine the notion that a postmodernist re-definition of the term 'justice' could lead to a desirable re-organization of our current social, political and economic structures.
Thomas Sowell a syndicated black conservative columnist and is Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

I think this slender volume represents one of Dr. Sowell's finest works to date. It presents a concise discussion of his insights into many of the topics he has written on for many years. Economics, liberty, justice. Read this book and understand how "justice at all costs" is not justice at all. Dr. Sowell destroys all of the myths of the statists and "liberals" and shows how their ideology is undermining the principles on which out nation was founded.

I needed this book. As a "more-liberal-than-not," I always suspected something wrong with excessive social entitlement programs. As the other reviews here explain better, Sowell nails the problem by distinguishing between specific, and "cosmic," injustices and inequalities (the latter to try to make everything perfect for everyone, regardless of the social cost to others.)
And yet.....As a teacher of thinking, I smell a rodent, or rather a subtext underneath here. I hear ultimate overtones hinting at a basic foundation-stance which might be as excessive as the li-be-ral programs he reasonably critiques. Namely, a free-market purism which may be care-less? An ultimate type of conservatism which reveres 100% laissez-faire. Minimal governmental regulation hands-off to let Adam Smith's "invisible hand" work its--magic?--for profit. Which will surely trickle down, or if it doesn't--so what? Sowell touts private philanthropy to address even first-level social inequalities, involving survival and minimal life-quality? Whoa! Bet he likes rampant deregulation. Would he banish welfare (P.S.--I would! No welfare! Instead, workfare--do labor, get money, just like everyone else...)
I can't fault this book for its explicit message critiquing excessive justice-seeking. I only wish I knew the total philosophy (perhaps smokescreened with footwork here?) upon which the message depends. And the implications.
My points? To SOWELL: please DISCLOSE your ultimate standpoint, rockbottom values--so I can see their implications.....To MYSELF: guess I'll read his Knowledge and Decisions to learn more.....To "LIBERALS ETC.": wow, see his needed Strong Medicine to understand our mess better anyhow.....

If you're looking for commiserative rhetoric, you'll not find it in this book. Nor will you find endless chapters of redundant psychobabble. What you will find is a commonsense look at the failed attempts of the intelligentsia to manufacture justice. This book is short and to the point. Mr. Sowell has demonstrated that when truth is on you side, you don't need pages of grandiloquence to justify your reasoning. Mr. Sowell does an outstanding job of explaining why our Founders had it right and our attempts to improve on social justice misses the point. If you want to know how and why your rights and privileges are being swallowed, you need to read this book.

I needed this book. As a "more-liberal-than-not," I always suspected something wrong with excessive social entitlement programs. As the other reviews here explain better, Sowell nails the problem by distinguishing between specific, and "cosmic," injustices and inequalities (the latter to try to make everything perfect for everyone, regardless of the social cost to others.)
And yet.....As a teacher of thinking, I smell a rodent, or rather a subtext underneath here. I hear ultimate overtones hinting at a basic foundation-stance which might be as excessive as the li-be-ral programs he reasonably critiques. Namely, a free-market purism which may be care-less? An ultimate type of conservatism which reveres 100% laissez-faire. Minimal governmental regulation hands-off to let Adam Smith's "invisible hand" work its--magic?--for profit. Which will surely trickle down, or if it doesn't--so what? Sowell touts private philanthropy to address even first-level social inequalities, involving survival and minimal life-quality? Whoa! Bet he likes rampant deregulation. Would he banish welfare (P.S.--I would! No welfare! Instead, workfare--do labor, get money, just like everyone else...)
I can't fault this book for its explicit message critiquing excessive justice-seeking. I only wish I knew the total philosophy (perhaps smokescreened with footwork here?) upon which the message depends. And the implications.
My points? To SOWELL: please DISCLOSE your ultimate standpoint, rockbottom values--so I can see their implications.....To MYSELF: guess I'll read his Knowledge and Decisions to learn more.....To "LIBERALS ETC.": wow, see his needed Strong Medicine to understand our mess better anyhow.....

Those familiar with some philosophy and knowledgeable to economics will enjoy this book. This book I found, not only interesting explores the concept of 'justice' as we see it and 'justice' as it is.
Economic theory is very omnipresent in this work, but more than creating his own economic theorems, Sowell goes out and obliterates every factual basis for economic leftism, totally proving it doesn't work.
All in all, the book is good for everyone except the novice to politics, who probably won't understand some of the bigger pictures involved.

This book is great in helping me pinpoint feelings I have always had in my heart. I am aware of inequalities in society -even have been the recipient of some of them -but I have never been over anxious to have them legislated away, or really had a vocalization on why that didn't even seem fair or right to me. Thomas Sowell is a great teacher and has put words to something I already knew for myself. This is a great book that will help anyone's resolve that wants to help others yet remain true to eternal principles.

Woe to those who willingly ignore and reject this brilliant prose. Anyone concerned with a tiny group of intellectual elites searching for the "better way" must read and heed. Mr. Sowell lays out in simple context how the continuing social experimentation on our country's laws and culture will finally reduce this great nation to one of consumate misery; all in the name of "Cosmic Justice."

In The Quest For Cosmic Justice, Thomas Sowell reminds us that our federal government expands its control over (read, "investment in") our personal lives supported by a Supreme Court that bends the Constitution as politically correct doctrine demands - all to rescue the disadvanted fomr the inherent unfairness of capitalism. In the process, and unfortunately little noticed, the rule of law is abandoned and individual liberty is sacrificed on the alter of social engineering without a clue as to the cancer slowly eating away at our precious freedoms. Welcome to the socialist state, everyone.

This book should be required reading for all well-intentioned people, especially so-called liberals. Thomas Sowel's clarity of thought combined with concrete examples are breathtaking. I am now reading it for the third time and intend to give copies to all my friends.

Thomas Sowell just gets better and better. His lucid, unpretentious prose makes this profound examination of the central political problem of our time a compelling read. I stayed up all night to finish it.

Now that the complete purge of clear thinking among our academic elite is near complete, it may surprise a few to learn that some American intellectuals haven't lost their courage--nor their willingness to challenge the untested but assumed notions of the academy. Sowell singlehandedly revives my faith in America's intellectuals. All political theorists must now contend with Sowell's book; and doubtless they will be overmatched.

Those familiar with some philosophy and knowledgeable to economics will enjoy this book. This book I found, not only interesting explores the concept of 'justice' as we see it and 'justice' as it is.
Economic theory is very omnipresent in this work, but more than creating his own economic theorems, Sowell goes out and obliterates every factual basis for economic leftism, totally proving it doesn't work.
All in all, the book is good for everyone except the novice to politics, who probably won't understand some of the bigger pictures involved.

This book is great in helping me pinpoint feelings I have always had in my heart. I am aware of inequalities in society -even have been the recipient of some of them -but I have never been over anxious to have them legislated away, or really had a vocalization on why that didn't even seem fair or right to me. Thomas Sowell is a great teacher and has put words to something I already knew for myself. This is a great book that will help anyone's resolve that wants to help others yet remain true to eternal principles.

Woe to those who willingly ignore and reject this brilliant prose. Anyone concerned with a tiny group of intellectual elites searching for the "better way" must read and heed. Mr. Sowell lays out in simple context how the continuing social experimentation on our country's laws and culture will finally reduce this great nation to one of consumate misery; all in the name of "Cosmic Justice."

In The Quest For Cosmic Justice, Thomas Sowell reminds us that our federal government expands its control over (read, "investment in") our personal lives supported by a Supreme Court that bends the Constitution as politically correct doctrine demands - all to rescue the disadvanted fomr the inherent unfairness of capitalism. In the process, and unfortunately little noticed, the rule of law is abandoned and individual liberty is sacrificed on the alter of social engineering without a clue as to the cancer slowly eating away at our precious freedoms. Welcome to the socialist state, everyone.

This book should be required reading for all well-intentioned people, especially so-called liberals. Thomas Sowel's clarity of thought combined with concrete examples are breathtaking. I am now reading it for the third time and intend to give copies to all my friends.

Thomas Sowell just gets better and better. His lucid, unpretentious prose makes this profound examination of the central political problem of our time a compelling read. I stayed up all night to finish it.

Now that the complete purge of clear thinking among our academic elite is near complete, it may surprise a few to learn that some American intellectuals haven't lost their courage--nor their willingness to challenge the untested but assumed notions of the academy. Sowell singlehandedly revives my faith in America's intellectuals. All political theorists must now contend with Sowell's book; and doubtless they will be overmatched.

I have noticed that every single Kirkus Review I have read on the store is extremely biased and almost always negative. Why do I picture a bunch of academic liberals lashing out at a world that wants nothing to do with them? Who are these Kirkus people anyway and why does anyone care about their whiney opinions? I think the store would do their site a favor by ditching the Kirkus Reviews until they can hire some critics that are a little more objective or can at least do a better job of disguising their political beliefs.

A tour de force expose of 20th century liberalism's phony claims to being more caring and compassionate than anyone. His expose clearly shows how damaging and destructive liberalism's programs have been when backed up by the coercive force of government. He exposes liberal's self-anointed visions through self-exaltation as being a classic definition of insanity.
Will it get through to the non-reading public majority we can only hope.

Sowell's eloquence has again produced another critical exposure of the "anointed" in the world's political and social arena. Sowell's logic and analysis is brilliant. Rather than exposing the anointed as wrong, Sowell points out the costs and consequences of those who pursue policies of universal justice. this book is for anyone looking for challenges to the conventional wisdom in public policy today.

Very interesting and easy to understand. Everyone should read this book- it allows you to look at fallacies of the idea of cosmic justice. Liberal leaning people should give it an honest chance i beleive if they are honest with themselves then they will have a lot to think about.

This book offers the promise of critique and an understanding of justice. It delivers pablum, misguided thetoric, weak journalism, and doctrine. The argument: if a nebulous, straw man, concept, e.g., "cosmic justice", can't be measured, it must be useless for policy analysis. A conventional concept, however poorly framed, e.g. "traditional justice", however, serves a a most useful policy guide, as any social change will be complex and likely very costly. All current policies are thus optimal because their modification will necessarily involve unknowable (at best), and largely prohibitive (at worst), distributive economic costs. QED. The lesson: leave things as they are. One dare not tinker with economic "laws" that distribute most of the pie to those who already have more than they can reasonably eat. Let the cheated, the screwed, the marginalized, the displaced, the ono-unionized, the sick the powerless, the poor any the hungry dine on the postulates of
classical economics and private philanthropy. This book could have provided insight, but that requires thoughtful analysis, meaningful conceptualization, and adequate data. Sowell's polemic provides but a 214 page free market apology. In the world of social/economic analysis all concepts must be operationalized, "cosmic" or otherwise. Failure to do so clearly is but a dim wittted attempt to transform perplexing ethical issues into methodological problems--where the "bottom line" is the sole arbiter of truth because it happens to be readily measurable. Don't waste your time or money on this book unless you also believe that opportunity cost is a nebulous concept, or you think that someone who has read a bit of Milton Friedman, and perhaps a tad of Karl Popper, qualifies as a luminary. Alas, the Free Press has irretrievably declined from the scholarly publishing house that it once was. A pity.

I like Thomas Sowell. I like his thinking. I agree with much of what he asserts. What I dont like is how he writes. The man needs some serious help expressing his ideas.

The nucleus-kernal of this book is: Liberals are stupid. I agree. The assertion is self-evident. And Sowell discusses all the ways liberals are stupid.

Another reviewer notes that the people who will benefit from reading this book, wont.

Thomas Sowell, the black Republican, has finally shown his true colors. Never interested in the advancement of his people, always interested in keeping the status quo and the diffrence for the haves and have nots, Sowell shows little interest for the cause of social justice and offers no solutions, only complains and whines on behalf of white men, who have had every advantage from day one, to succeed in America.
Critcising left wing ideas, which admittedly are not always correct, is not the answer to these problems. And although, not every single leftist idea under the sun is perfect, it is a far better alternative to what the GOP and the conservatives are proposing, big tax cuts to the wealthy, big loopholes for the corporations, foreign policy not geared on human rights or democracy as Venezuela has proven, but interested in purporting governments that bow to American political, and business interets. Alas, this is the staple of his book and of conservatism in general. Naysayers to the ideas of those who wish to bring resolution to the causes of social justice. But what of Sowell's ideas and solutions? He offers none

Thomas Sowell's libertarian-conservative platform on race, culture, economics and politics is well known and he is an eloquent spokesman for his point of view; but his neo-Randian take on the essence of things is as dogmatic and one-dimensional as any 1920s Marxist-Leninist commissar. Though he would deny it he is an ideologue posing as an anti-ideologue, part and parcel of the entire capital-L movement as understood in postwar America.

In relation to this book he attempts to deconstruct the notion of social justice in true Randian form. "Altruism" - ie, state help to victims of Hurricane Harvey - only hurts society and the recipients in the long run, for such assistance embraces their destitution instead of letting them buy a hammer and nails and two-by-fours at Lowe's to reconstruct their lives as self-directed freemen. A caricature of his philosophy? No more so than the straw man arguments rife in this book. If all justice is social, as he states, then there is no divide between equity before the law and equity in goods, unless there are some who are indeed born to too big (or too white) to fail or jail. For it seems that if social justice brings injustice for others, so does his form of freedom bring marketplace tyranny to those who cannot pay, at $8.00/hour, their choice of attorney. (Unless said counsel is an altruist willing to work pro-bono to see justice prevail.)