On Justification: Economies of Worth Luc Boltanski & Laurent Thevenot A vital and underappreciated dimension of social interaction is the way individuals justify their actions to others, instinctively drawing on their experience to appeal to principles they hope will command respect. Individuals, however, often misread situations, and many disagreements can be explained by people appealing, knowingly and unknowingly, to different principles. On Justification is the first English translation of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thevenot's ambitious theoretical examination of these phenomena, a book that has already had a huge impact on French sociology and is likely to have a similar influence in the English-speaking world ……………… The authors argue that justifications fall into six main logics exemplified by six authors: civic (Rosseau), market (Adam Smith), industrial (Saint-Simon), domestic (Bossuet), inspiration (Augustine), and fame (Hobbs). The authors show how these justifications conflict, as people compete to legitimize their views of a situation. ……………… Luc Boltanski is Professor at L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Laurent Thevenot is Director of L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales