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Greek Justice History

Decent Essays

“We have experienced all too personally a new kind of warfare, and in the process of us exacting this justice—I say justice; I did not say revenge—we will protect the constitutional rights of all people; we will respect them.” (Cong.Rec., 9/12/01) As the 14th anniversary of 9/11 approached it allowed for greater reflection on the meaning behind justice in the United States of America. This become a dark day in our history, but we came out stronger as a nation. As a teacher I had the privilege of teaching a group of 3rd graders about the meaning behind 9/11 and the events that lead to many acts of selflessness and heroism. The number one question I was asked by these very curious students was “all those people died when this happened, what prevents this from happening again?” Sadly, I could not find the right answer for them, for I too found myself questioning whether justice was served. In the modern society to which we live, the definition of justice is always evolving, especially from its original meaning during Plato and Aristotle's time. This evolution creates different meaning for different people. …show more content…

Justice within Platonic society was considered a principle of specialization. This specialization made it so that each person needed to fulfill the societal role to which he was born to and was not to interfere in any other business. This created a line between justice for the rich verses justice for the poor. Aristotle discusses the difference in an oligarchy which the rich are sovereign and a democracy where the free are sovereign and the reality that “the former are many, the latter few: many are free, few are rich” (p. 245, 1290a

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