What Does Human Justice And Injustice Look Like?

People all the time get confused on what piety and justice means, and what the difference between the two are. Justice

In The Republic, the great philosopher Plato attempts to reveal through the character and dialogues of Socrates that justice is better when it is the good for which men must strive for, regardless of whether they could be unjust and still be rewarded. His method is to use dialectic, the asking and answering of questions. This method leads the audience from one point to another, supposedly with indisputable logic by obtaining agreement to each point before going on to the next, therefore, building an argument.

In Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just, Tim Keller uses the bible as a focal point in connection to social justice. Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Acts, and the Gospel were all used to associate Jesus’ teachings to today’s world. He does this to prove the importance of social justice. He uses several instances in today’s world and how society needs to do better for our neighbors. Keller shows the importance of social justice by not only using Jesus’ sacrifice, but he also shares the struggles that the poverty stricken and marginalized go through. In the end, Keller calls for all Christians and non-believers to look within themselves and do what is right to provide social justice for all.

The question of what is truly the nature of justice remains an unanswered question as noted by Bertrand Russell in ‘The History of Western Philosophy’ wherein he notes that Socrates was unable to provide a convincing rebuttal of Glaucon’s arguments on justice, and neither have all the social philosophers since, been able to do. Amartya Sen, in his book ‘The Idea of Justice’, has

Imagine having someone to be there for you. Imagine having someone that would stand up for you even if that meant they got hurt in doing so. Now, imagine having someone that did everything to please you but in the end you returned nothing. In the story of The Kite Runner, that is exactly what had played out until one day Amir received a phone call. Injustice is a situation in which the rights of a person or a group of people are ignored.

just.” In this verse, the Apostle Paul tells the people that doing a wrong to make a right is an

The term justice is used in some of America's most treasured and valued documents, from the Pledge of Allegiance, to the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence. Everyone wants to be treated justly whether it's in the courtroom or the local bar. Most people would feel confident giving a definition for justice, but would it be a definition we could universally agree to? Given that justice is a very common term, and something we all want, it's important to have a precise definition. For hundreds of years philosophers have argued, debated, and fought over this topic. Justice can clearly be defined as the intention to conform to truth and fairness. This is true justice.

If justice depends on culture, and let’s say there is no such thing as universal justice, how would it be determine something unjust happened? In order to use cultural relativity to determine what is just, a culture in necessary. Culture is not a priori and therefore justice cannot be a priori. By stating that justice “will survive the fabric of the world itself” and that it “existed before the world", the word survive implies that even after all life on earth is gone, there will still be the notion of justice. Furthermore, if justice “existed before the world”, when was “before the world”?

Though the concept of social injustice is universal in nature, the experience varies with each person. Factors like a person’ race, or gender can further influence the severity of the injustice; victims caught in the overlap between discriminations often go unrecognized by the law and society. Many people recognize the names Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice as African Americans who were murdered by local police. But names like Michelle Cusseaux, Tanish Anderson, and Meagan Hockaday often receive less feedback even though they are also murdered African Americans. The only distinction between the sets of names is gender. Even within racial injustice, discrimination is present between genders as some cases get national

However, the prophets define righteousness as the way that God acted in the world. (i.e.: Jer 9:23-24). Justice is described in how people were to live in the world in relation to each other and to other people. Justice in this sense does not carry the legal meaning sometimes attached to it. It is not making sure that everyone gets exactly what they deserve based on law. There is some dimension of that in other traditions where justice is what God brings to those who violate his torah. But in the prophet’s justice it means to practice grace and mercy towards those who have no power to serve it for themselves. It means to protect and defend those who are helpless and powerless.

Another interesting example of injustice against a group of people is the Cambodian genocide. The hardships and the pains that the Cambodian people went through during the mass genocide of the people of Cambodia were horrible and was largely overlooked by the rest of the world. The heart wrenching story of how over 20 percent of the entire nation’s population was wiped out in a blink of the eye by Pol Pot. His rule over the country influenced a horrid regime of terrible tragedies and it was only noticed and talked about more than ten years after the fact. The biggest relation of this piece of terrible tragedy to injustice had to do with how the media didn’t even acknowledge the event until ten years after it had happened and that the UN still has not officially recognized the event as genocide. As a result other events around the world have not been called genocide and don’t get the support they need.

Over the decades, the concept of justice has been continually evolving. This is occurring based upon different moral or legal interpretations. Evidence of this can be seen with observations from Burke (2011) who said, "Few things are of more importance to a society than its concept of justice. This is because it is justice that provides criterion for the legitimate use of force. In the name of justice people are detained, arrested, handcuffed, put on trial and punished. This concept is used to provide every society with some kind of social order. Over the last 200 years, a revolution has taken place with these principles. Our idea of it is what we employ, when dealing with ordinary individuals in daily life including: making agreements, paying bills, resolving disputes and putting criminals in jail. This is a concept that is as old as recorded history and it is familiar to people everywhere. What makes it so unique is that these ideas are constantly changing which focuses on society as a whole and how people are interacting with each other. " (Burke)

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines injustice as the “violation of right or the rights of others: unfairness” (“Injustice”). This violation of rights is present daily in our social life. We see this major problem happening every day and everywhere to people who are

“Justice is the art that gives each man what is good for his soul”. This statement is implies that justice is goodness and doing what’s right. This also implies that being a good person and doing good actions will in turn benefit the people by improving their Lives. Justice is good because it sets a standard of goodness that people in society would have to uphold and follow. Therefore this would lead to an environment of positivity and goodness for individuals. The Mariam-Webster dictionary gives the world one definition that states “Justice is the maintenance and administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of confliction claims”. However According to book one of The Republic by Plato, Justice is conveyed as a very complex topic that cannot be defined by a single definition. The topic of justice is discussed and broken down by Socrates, who asks the question “what is justice?” , he seeks out a definition from the company around him and through different given definitions of Justice, Socrates proves that there is no one definition for justice because there are many contradictions and exceptions that have to be considered in certain situations. In this essay I will discuss how justice relates to goodness and how it can be “the art that gives each man what is good for his soul” by using the Socrates’ discussion on the various definitions of justice from book one in The Republic by Plato.

Justice can be defined as, valuing the diversity and challenging the injustice in society while human rights refer to, benefits an individual enjoys by virtual of being a human being. Justice is said to exist when all citizens share a general humanity and, therefore, experience equitable treatment, fair community resource sharing and human right support. According to justice citizens are not supposed to be discriminated, nor their well being or welfare prejudiced or constrained on the lines of gender, religion, age, belief, race, political affiliation and even sexuality.