2012年10月2日星期二
The Definition of Justice
According to Aristotle, people actually speak of a partial justice when they talk about justice. One reason is that people pass judgment on themselves and cannot judge correctly in their own case. Justice includes both things equality and people equality. However, people always have disagreement on people equality. Another reason is that people consider they are speaking of absolute justice, but they are unware that what they are talking about is partial justice. The state is not only for alliance, security from injustice, exchange, mutual intercourse, but for a good life, a perfect and self-sufficing life. The law should not only be a surety which is powerless to guarantee a good life of people. Companionship is only the prerequisite of constituting a state. The state is the union of families in a perfect life where people who contribute most have a greater share and who contribute less in one respect, such as wealth, but have the same or greater freedom are inferior in the society. Aristotle maybe think that the purpose of taxing the rich heavily to help the poor is to make a well-being life in the whole society. He thinks that who contributes more needs to gain more in the political virtue. Some people think it is fair to heavily tax the rich just because they earn a lot. Some people think it is unfair for the rich to be taxed more in order to help the poor. All these ideas are based on the partial justice. There is a gap in the society and sometimes it is hard to treat everyone absolutely fairly, so the government has to interfere with the allocation of wealth.
订阅：
博文评论 (Atom)
omg!! I used the exactly same title with yours in my essay!!!!!
回复删除Because last time I only commented about the title... i come back to comment about your whole essay this time ;P
回复删除I'm so impressed about your ideas cuz every time you could relate the topic with perspectives from both personal angle and nationwide or worldwide horizon! That is awesome! I believe people like you will have a broad and generous mind about the whole word and your sights cast onto this world will bring you into a global-citizen level, which according to my seminar professor, is "very hard to achieve".
I think though in my essay I said I couldn't define the word "justice", I believe you can.
I think you have done a really good job to summarize the main idea. Indeed, people are week at judging when the thing involves themselves. I agree with you that all the ideas are based on the partial justice. I think your thought towards the nation and people is really clear and nice.
回复删除I don't agree with you in the point of Aristotle's response to the extra tax on rich people. He argues that the share of social treasure should be based on the contribution of virtue value. It can't be simply decided right or not to tax, since the standard varies between different people. Except that point, I like your post, because you excerpt the exact sentences from the long reading to illustrate your point.
回复删除Meng, I agree with you that "there is a gap in the society and sometimes it is hard to treat everyone absolutely fairly, so the government has to interfere with the allocation of wealth." People wonder why the government has to interfere with the economy at all, because our economy is supposed to based upon the concept of laissez-faire. However, if the government did not interfere at all, there would be rampant inequality and it would be left unmoderated. For example, monopolies would exist, minimum wage would not exist, and the government itself would be inefficient and powerless since people would not have to pay taxes. I think that people would want the government to interfere, to some degree, with the country's economy and regulate policies, so that the rich do not get richer and the poor get poorer. This ongoing struggle between the have and the have-nots is, as you point out, extremely relevant to the concept of justice itself, because a universal justice is hard to conceive of when people are born unequal due to their economic place in society.
回复删除Great post!