Horace W. Brock’s 1979 essay, “A Game Theoretic Account of Social Justice,” offers a profound reinterpretation of distributive justice by integrating two foundational norms: allocation by need and allocation by contribution. This review re-examines Brock’s work in the context of contemporary ethical and policy challenges. We explore how his bifurcated model, using game-theoretic tools like the Nash Bargaining Solution and the Shapley Value, can be adapted to address modern dilemmas in economic inequality, climate justice, algorithmic decision-making, and participatory governance. By bridging philosophical rigor with mathematical precision, Brock’s theory continues to offer a valuable lens for conceptualizing justice in our globalized, data-driven society.
