Zmiany sensu pojęcia „sprawiedliwości społecznej” w perspektywie celów państwa socjalnego

Since the 40’s of the nineteenth century the term “social justice” has played an increasing role in political reflection. The main subject of this paper is a meaning ascribed to the idea of “social justice” in the face of goals of welfare state. From this point of view very important are various senses of the notion. It can be distinguished in this area at least two related aspects. The first refers to characteristic of the justice itself. It can be described as a virtue, norm or right. The second one applies to the particular type of justice identified with social justice. In this respect relevant are: legal, distributive and retributive (or commutative) justice. Aside from that, social justice is also treated as an idea of equality or solidarity in social environment.