The Importance Of A Just Society

Hammurabi’s code is believed to be the first form of written law. It consists of a set of 282 laws written by Hammurabi, the king of Babylon circa 1792 BCE, that established a written social contract amongst the people of Babylonia. It was written on a stone stele that stands more than eight feet tall and weighs over 4 tons (doc A). According to the stele, Hammurabi was instructed to create the code by Shamash, the god of justice (doc B). However, it introduces conflicting ideas about justice that are arguable to this day. Were his rules unethical or his punishments too severe? Hammurabi’s code may be seen as unfair by today’s standards, but in solving matters that involve family, property, and health issues of his time, Hammurabi’s code was just because it utilizes negative reinforcement to implement positive results in society.

A life for a life. King Hammurabi became the ruler of Babylon in 1792. Hammurabi had created 292 laws. He had a total of 3,500 lines of writing, covering both sides of the steele. I am going to be discussing, Is hammurabi's code just? Before we answer the question I will tell you what “just” means. Just simply means “fair”. I believe that hammurabi’s code was just. In this essay, I will be discussing hammurabi’s code being just. I will be giving reasons for hammurabi’s code being just.

* Hammurabi produced the law codes called “Code of Hammurabi” in order to acquire order and welfare. As Hammurabi state in his prologue, “Right and Justice I established in the land, for the good of the people.” (prologue, Hammurabi’s Code)

Although comparing one society to another does not require them to be different in government or human behavior, it does necessarily weight one’s faults against its victories to render it better or worse than the other. This comparative structure, found between Thomas More’s two books of Utopia, poses the country of Utopia opposite the broader communities of world civilization. Despite the comparison of Utopia as distinct from and morally better than widespread society, in truth Utopia is, at best, an extension.

The essence of the Hammurabi code of law is ‘an eye for an eye’. It is commonly known as the strictest and harshest code of law in history. Retaliatory justice, in which the response to a crime is a proportionate punishment inflicted without the purpose of rehabilitation, is the form of justice that is explained in the Code. It was written under the reign of Hammurabi who became the sixth king of the Amorite First Dynasty of Babylon after assuming the throne from his father. He attained almost all of ancient Mesopotamia on his conquest to expand his kingdom. Thus, he created a code of law to unify the provinces he attained, to maintain law and order and to prevent vendetta and blood feuds . He aimed to clearly describe the crime

Throughout time many civilizations and societies have come and gone. Every one of them was unique in their own way and had a different way of governing themselves. In this paper, I will be focusing on Hammurabi’s Code. Hammurabi’s Code is a series of laws that governed the Babylonian society back, when they were created, in 1780 BCE. The code was wrote by Hammurabi himself, back when he ruled the Empire of Babylon. The text itself explains why the code was created and why Hammurabi was chosen to write the code. The code then lists, in an organized fashion, all the rules that the society is to follow and what the punishments are if the rules are broken. Every rule is very specific about what is to happen if the rule has to be enforced. Hammurabi’s Code gives us an idea of how the justice system worked in the Babylonian society, how men and women in the society were treated, and how the religion was followed.

Nearly 4,000 years ago, a man named Hammurabi became king of babylonia. He ruled for 42 years. During that time, he became the ruler of much of Mesopotamia, which had an estimated population of 1,000,000 people or more. In his 38th year, Hammurabi made a set of 282 laws called a code that he had engraved on a stone stele. He did this to bring order and fairness to all. There has been some debate about the justness of this code. In my opinion, Hammurabi’s code was not just because of it’s family law, property law, and personal injury law.

The Mesopotamian society existed in 3500 B.C., in what is today modern Iraq. This society created the first legal codes in human history; these codes created laws, but also were filled with inequality and social division. For example, the fine for rape in the Code of Ur-Nammu was only a mere five shekels. This small fine is insulting to women and would be unacceptable today. An example for inter-social class fairness, however is in Hammurabi’s Code. Law 200 states that if a man knocked out the tooth of another man of the same social standing, he should have his tooth knocked out as well. This legal code also had difficulties with proving crimes occurred, law number one in Hammurabi’s code is a prime example, it states that if one were to accuse a crime, had no evidence, he shall be put to death. The Mesopotamians added a lot to human history, but were discriminable against women, had an abundance of social class fairness, and had dilemmas prosecuting crimes.

Numerous laws in Hammurabi’s Code ensured the protection of the civilization by preventing future conflicts

Plus, this document shows how human organizations have adapted and evolved to create the modern society. In the modern world, a person’s punishment for breaking a Hammurabi Law is jail time or a lifetime’s duty, whereas Hammurabi’s punishment may be a sentence to death. The evolution of penalty allows room for a question: What happened to society throughout thousands of years to allow such change for a person’s consequence in accordance with the

The law codes of the United States are based on the Ten Commandments and various standards that humanity has conceived throughout history. However, before Moses climbed Mount Sinai and “the Lord descended upon it with fire”, the First Babylonian Empire in ancient Mesopotamia was ruled by Hammurabi, who developed the earliest known law code in world history (Exodus 19:2-25; class discussion, 08/29/17). Hammurabi’s Law Code, as it is known today, could be thought of as an early interpretation of morality. Despite the good moral intentions of the law code, these laws are strict, cruel, and, in some cases, unusual. With over two hundred laws, divine right, the act of revenge, and inequality of punishment between classes took up a large amount of this ancient Babylonian law code.

A few thousand years ago, three sets of laws were composed that show remarkable similarities in their instructions on how to live a moral and righteous life. Although they were written hundreds of miles apart from each other, and in totally different cultures and civilizations, the Edicts of Ashoka, the Bible, and Hammurabi’s Code all elucidate the moral principles of self-control, justice, and abstention from harming living beings.

To live in a place, where equality, peace, security and dignity are guaranteed is a good fortune to those who found a just society. Though it is not an easy task to establish a just society, but it is not an impossible idea. A just society requires a society of law abiding citizens who work together for the betterment of the society, where laws are human rights informed and social policies are effective.

In this paper, I am going to argue that living a just life is more worthwhile than living an unjust life. I will do this with evidence provided from the text. The argument in question is why (given the advantages of living an unjust life) would anyone want to live a just life. This very question was a major debate that carried on during most of the text of The Republic of Plato. Throughout the text we see Socrates, Thrasymachus, Adeimantus and Glaucon take on this challenge. They thoroughly go through what they feel is just, and unjust. They also outline the benefits of living both types of ways. They take the various ideals discussed and pick them apart in every which way possible. There is no point of view that is brushed under the rug. After seeing the stance of several of the characters in this book, I see myself siding with Socrates on many levels. This challenge is taken on heavily and incorporated in many of the other concepts discussed within Socrates’ circle.

In literature, the existence of utopias shows that the society’s main role can be achieved, at the cost of people’s freedom. Deterrence theory tells that a person is a rational actor of free will (qtd. Pratt, 2011). When a person’s free will is taken away, an authority institution can avoid this will be corrupted by random factors. For example, in “From the New World” by Yusuke Kishi, people