Quest for Cosmic Justice, the Paperback – 5 Feb. 2002

Considering this book was first published in 1999 it just shows how far ahead of his time Thomas Sowell is, laying out clearly with at least 15 years before anyone else all the contradictions and problems posed by what we call today 'Social Justice' or as he called it back then 'Cosmic Justice'. From affirmative action to reparations and then on the role of activist members of the judiciary in furthering the myths of 'diversity'n 'redistribution' etc., Sowell demonstrates with hard facts that Cosmic Justice is not only impossible to achieve but also comes with costs (financial and social) that are never taken into the consideration by posturing wannabe intellectuals and that discrimination/ bias *cannot* be inferred by statistical inequalities. Definitely recommend reading this book.

Must read

I found that the book is not up to the quality of other books by this author. I have read all of his works and am not willing to purchase more that restate the obvious

Sheds a lot of light on recent cultural and political challenges

Tricky read ! but I like it becuase it doesnt stop me learning the further processing of belief...

I have just received this but found the physical book to be of very low quality and certainly not worth the £10 cost. It looks a fake that was run off on a printer using cheap paper. Avoid it!

Interesting. His book on the Anointed is better. But still worth a read.

Thomas Sowell is brilliant. He makes his points in an understandable, reasonable manner and it's obvious he has a lot of knowledge as well as common sense. I recommend anything he has written, or any yt videos.

Mais do pensamento objetivo e claro de Thomas Sowell, um brilhante estatístico e debatedor, que prima pela objetividade e clareza além, é claro, de priorizar fatos e não sentimentos. Excelente livro.

Astounding in its relevance to the times today. He read the signs early and this book greatly illuminates the dark hours of the present and thise ahead of us.

Have you notice a redefinition of “justice” today among those who are advocates of Social Justice? Even if you think this doesn’t interests you it is definitely affecting you and costing you directly and indirectly today by the actions of its advocate. These ideas though are nothing new and over the decades of ministry in college campuses I see these ideas discussed in Academia is now being yelled out aloud literally and the consequences being reaped on the streets of America in 2020. This book was originally published in 1999 but reading this in 2020 I was blown away how relevant it is twenty one years later. The observations that the author made and also his refutations is very powerful and I love how factual and data driven the author is. This is probably the most important book I read in 2020 and I’m surprised why more people don’t know about this book. Out of the six books I have read from author Thomas Sowell this to me is one of the best book I have read from him and it is not only compelling but reading this book is a training session of how to think soundly in the realm of social sciences, economics and discussions about what is justice.The book consists of four chapters and each chapters are gold. Chapter one titled “The Quest for Cosmic Justice.” What Sowell calls “Cosmic Justice” is what today people all “Social Justice” and his analysis of this mindset is dead on. Sowell notes how cosmic justice requires more knowledge than traditional justice with the assumed ability of its advocate or practicioner to be able to compare windfall gains and loss in people’s life, the relative advantage and disadvantages individuals had even though it changes over the years, etc. Not only is cosmic justice advocates arrogant enough to figure out things despite cross-currents of people and influences that are not easily entangled these people also knowingly or unknowingly increases the risk of error of their computation of justice and injustice. When cosmic justice agendas are pursued advocates never take into account costs to third parties not involved and their suffering are either disregarded and/or dismissed. Chapter two looks at the topic of equality and it is one of the most detailed and nuanced discussion about equality and inequality I have ever read. Sowell is not writing this chapter because he likes inequality but here he’s trying to make a discussion between just and unjust inequality along with a critique of assumptions those who support social justice make about what equality looks like or the interpretation of inequality as always being unjust or their incorrect attempt to attribute the culpable fault of why there are inequality. Chapter three is titled “The Tyranny of Visions” and talks about how visionary elites who think they are better and more virtuous than others yet when they have agendas that does not account for the data and reality can bring about much evil and suffering even though the elites feel good just by holding to their ideas. This is a very good chapter that presents the case of study of how pacifisms have the unintended consequences of incentivizing the fascists to bring about a world war. Churchill has once said that World War Two is one of the most horrific war that could have been prevented. The final chapter discuss about cosmic justice in the American context of how the quest for cosmic justice is eroding the American founding principles. I thought he made a good point here that America’s revolution is unique than most of the revolutions in history for being about the procedure of check and balances in government and how to peacefully hand over the government to the next incoming power than being about injustice or quest for justice per se. Yet social justice agendas are tearing down the American experiment; while Sowell focuses on the American context I think the point he makes here is also relevant for any society in which social justice tears down the fabric of society and also how advocates can have sincere desire yet can bring about horrific unintended consequences.There was so much I learn from this book and I spent a long time reading each page. That’s because the book was packed with so much information and economic thinking that seems counter-intuitive at times until one thinks through it carefully. There’s a lot of things I never thought of before that Sowell got me thinking about in this work. For instance in talking about inequality he talks about Primogeniture which is the practice of leaving an estate to the eldest son. We would consider that unfair with our modern sensibilities but he argues that we should look at it more closely. With the reality of scarce resource there is a reason why Primogeniture was implemented in certain societies. The purpose was to keep estate intact for generations and we see even in modern economic studies that when land gets broken up in small chunks sometimes it does not produce the amount of productivity than if it was intact. Thus we see starvation when government implemented redistribution and land giveaways program. Yet to balance this inequality there is the reciprocal expectation that eldest son has the duty to guide and watch over younger siblings, etc. Insightful! There’s so many of these insights in the book. I highly recommend this book!

Thomas Sowell proves in this book once again, that his knowledge extends far beyond economics. Starting with an initial investigation into the idea of justice, Sowell slowly builds a case against the concepts of "social justice" and "equality". Obviously drawing from his original field of expertise, Sowell shows how good intentions give rise to unintended and often unseen consequences, which almost necessarily have to end in more limited individual liberties. Sowell does this in his usual, academic manner, while ensuring that every reader is able to follow his thinking. And even though the conclusions and consequences, which arise from Sowells logic, cleary assign blame, he nevertheless manages to stay non-accusatory. Clearly a must read for those who wish to expand their understanding of the world, as long as one is willing to part with dearly held delusions.