In the United States, "justice" is a term that is often thrown nearby without much conception given to its meaning. Every day, millions of children report the Pledge of Allegiance, which they conclude with the words "with liberty and justice for all". In front of many of our courtrooms, Lady Justice looms tall with a blindfold on and the scales of justice in her hands. But what is justice? This article will attempt to sass that question.
Justice is a conception which has been argued about by philosophers since the starting of history. In his book "The Republic", Plato conceptualizes justice as a harmonious association in the middle of the assorted parts of a city or nation. A just city would have a nice balance in the middle of the ruling class, the warrior class, and the working class. Each would be treated fairly for the betterment of the allinclusive society. Similarly, a just man would harmoniously balance the conflicting desires within himself so that he is a fair, good, and happy man.
The conception of justice has all the time been closely tied to the idea of fairness, and it has all the time been linked with the idea of rationality. Every person wants to live in a society which is fair. When a case goes before the consummate Court, the judges (or justices) are anticipated to rationally deliberate long and hard about the fairest policy of action.
The opposite of a just society would be a tyrannical society. This would be a society that is ruled by the whims of a single man or a small group of men who make decisions based on their own self-interest rather than the interest of the society as a whole. Interestingly, Plato conception that the only way for a truly just society to exist would be to have a "philosopher king", a wise man who determined made decisions based on the interests of the society at large. He didn't think that a democracy by majority rule was very productive at manufacture the right decisions.
Justice and personal virtue (or morality) are two closely related, but distinct ideas. Justice could be conception of as the morality that we agree upon as a society and make into laws. Of course, there are endless debates about what these laws should be, and they are constantly changing. One of the most paramount moral philosophers, Immanuel Kant, sums it up by saying:
"The duty of virtue is essentially fine from the duty of justice in this respect; that it is morally potential to be externally compelled to the latter, whereas the previous rests on free self-constraint only."
By externally compelled, Kant means that the laws of our society can strength us to act in a more or less just manner. The government has the power to punish or imprison us if we do not succeed these laws. However, Kant doesn't think that merely following laws makes man a virtuous person. That takes harder work, and is based on our own personal principles of morality.
