LESSON 6: Justice and Fairness

Mill understands justice as a respect for rights directed toward

society’s pursuit for the greatest happiness of the greatest number. For him,
rights are a valid claim on society and are justified by utility. This means that
society is made happier if its citizens are able to live their lives knowing that
their interests are protected and that society (as a whole) defends it. We are
treated justly when our legal and moral rights are respected.
Justice was the ideal of perfection in human relationships. It connoted
correspondence (in sync) of rights and duties. To both Plato and Aristotle,
justice meant goodness as well as willingness to obey laws.
In his search of a perfect society, Plato believed justice to be the
remedy for curing these evils.
This discourse about justice began at the time when the Athenian
democracy was on the verge of ruin and was ultimately responsible for
Socrates's death.
(The Greek philosopher Socrates (469–399 B.C.) was convicted of
impiety (Socrates has been convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens and
introducing strange gods) by the Athenian courts; rather than renounce his
beliefs, he died willingly, discoursing on the immortality of the soul before
drinking poisonous hemlock.
Plato, one of Socrates students attacked the amateur meddlesomeness
and excessive individualism became main targets of Plato's attack. This
attack came in the form of the construction of an ideal society in which
justice reigned supreme, since
Plato criticized the conventional theories of justice presented
differently by Cephalus, Polymarchus, Thrasymachus and Glaucon.
Cephalus who was a representative of traditional morality of the
ancient trading class established the traditional theory of justice. According
to him 'justice consists in speaking the truth and paying one's debt. Thus,
Cephalus identifies justice with right conduct. Cephalus was criticised on the
ground that there may be cases in which this formula may involve the
violation of the spirit of right and his formula does not admit of being taken
as a sound universal principle of life. It is not right to restore deadly weapons
to a man after he has gone mad.
Socrates describes how “everyone would surely say that if a man takes
weapons from a friend when the latter is of sound mind, and the friend
demands them back when he is mad, one shouldn’t give back such things,
and the man who gave them back would not be just
Polemarchus also holds the same view of justice but with a little
alteration. According to him "justice seems to consist in giving what is proper
to him". The simple implication of this conception of justice may be that
"justice is doing good to friends and harm to enemies." And the contention of
Polemarchus was condemned by Plato on the ground that it was only easy to
speak of giving good to friend and evil to enemies. But if the friends only a
friend in seeming, and an enemy in reality, then what will happen? Then
under such circumstances whether we should rigidly follow the definition and
do him good or we may use discretion and do him evil? But to do evil to
anybody, including one's enemy was inconsistent with the most elementary
conception of morality. Thus, this conception of justice regulated the
relations between individuals on individualistic principles and ignores the
society as a whole.
Thrasymachus who represented the new and critical view, propounded
the radical theory of justice. He defines justice as "the interest of the
stronger". In the other words, might is right. For while, every man acts for
himself and tries to get what he can, the strongest is sure to get what he
wants and as in a state the Government is the strongest, it will try to get and
it will get, whatever it wants for itself. Thus, for Thrasymachus justice means
personal interest of the ruling group in any state or we can further define it
as "another's good". Laws are made by the ruling party in its own interest.
At this juncture the new point of view is stated by Glaucon and he put
Forward a form of what was later to be known as a social contract theory,
arguing we are only moral because, it pays us or we have to be. Glaucon
describes the historical evolution of the society where justice as a necessity
had become the shield of the weaker. In the primitive stage of society
without law and government, man was free to do whatever he likes. So the
stronger few enjoyed the life at the sufferance of the weaker many.
Plato prove that justice does not depend upon a chance, convention or
upon external force. It is the right condition of the human soul by the very
nature of man when seen in the fullness of his environment.
Plato gives us his own theory of justice according to which, individually,
justice is a 'human virtue' that makes a person self-consistent and good;
socially, justice is a social consciousness that makes a society internally
harmonious and good. According to Plato, justice is a sort of specialization.
It is simply the will to fulfill the duties of one's station and not to
meddle with the duties of another station, and its habitation is, therefore, in
the mind of every citizen who does his duties in his appointed place. It is the
original principle, laid down at the foundation of the State, "that one man
should practice one thing only and that the thing to which his nature was
best adopted".
Justice, therefore, is the citizen sense of duties. “Justice in the life and
conduct of the State is possible only if it first resides in the hearts and souls
of the citizens.”

PLATO’S THEORY OF JUSTICE

Plato of Athens born of a noble family, about 427, was a pupil of

Socrates and the oldest Greek Philosopher. The chief source of inspiration for
Plato was Socrates. One of the most important questions of Socrates, was
about the nature of justice.

After Socrates, “Plato, also regarded justice as the true principle of

social life. And he has named his most important work. Republic, as a
discussion on justice.

“Well then, tell me, I said, whether I am right or not, you remember the
original principle which we were always laying down at the foundation of the
state, that one man should practice one thing only, the thing to which his
nature was best adapted; now justice is this principle or a part of it. Yes, we
often said that one man should do one thing only.” (Plato)
In his theory of Ethics, Plato held that the soul is in essence rational
and immortal. The world of true beings, the world of ideas, is the source of
all its goodness.

The body is material and is the ground of all-evil. It is only a temporary

prison house. Release from the body and contemplation of the beautiful
ream of ideas, is the ultimate goal of life.

The embodied soul is wise if reason rules all its impulses. It is brave if
its spirited part aids and obeys the rational part, temperate, if both spirit and
appetite obey the dictates of reason, and just. If all the three parts perform
their respective functions in unison. The idea of this life is achieved when a
man is wise, brave, temperate, and just.

The highest good of life is the harmony of the soul which is attained by
the exercise of all the four virtues, wisdom, courage, temperance, and
justice, under the guidance of reason. The greatest happiness attends the
life that achieves the highest good and contemplates the highest ideas.
(Sharif,2001)