Justice is a collective name which can be divided into two broad perspectives. Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life In Philosophy, meta-ethics (sometimes called "analytic ethics" is the branch of Ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties Normative ethics is the branch of philosophical Ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when we think about the question “how ought one act Descriptive ethics, also known as comparative ethics is the study of people's beliefs about Morality. Consequentialism refers to those moral theories which hold that the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgment about that action Deontological ethics or deontology (from Greek grc δέον deon, "obligation duty" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Virtue theory is a branch of Moral philosophy that emphasizes character rather than rules or consequences as the key element of ethical thinking The ethics of care is a normative ethical theory; that is a theory about what makes actions right or wrong In Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy, the phrase good and evil refers to the location of objects desires and Behaviors on a two-way Morality (from the Latin la moralitas "manner character proper behavior" has three principal meanings Bioethics is the philosophical study of the ethical controversies brought about by advances in Biology and Medicine. Cyberethics is a branch of Ethics that studies ethical dilemma brought on by the emergence of digital technologies Medical ethics is primarily a field of Applied ethics, the study of Moral values and judgments as they apply to Medicine. Engineering ethics is the field of Applied ethics which examines and sets standards for Engineers ' obligations to the public, their clients employers and Environmental ethics is the part of Environmental philosophy which considers the ethical relationship between Human beings and the Natural environment Human rights refers to the "basic Rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled "Animal liberation" redirects here for other uses see Animal liberation (disambiguation. Legal ethics refers to an Ethical code governing the conduct of people engaged in the Practice of law. Media ethics is the subdivision of Applied ethics dealing with the specific ethical principles and standards of media, including Broadcast media, Film Business ethics is a form of Applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment Fundamental issues in marketing ethics Frameworks of analysis for marketing ethics Possible frameworks Value -oriented framework analyzing ethical Ethics is a branch of Philosophy dealing with right and wrong in human behavior Just War theory is a Doctrine of military ethics of Roman philosophical and Catholic origin studied by moral Theologians Ethicists and international Philosophic or ethic value is a property of objects, including Physical objects as well as Abstract objects (e Duty (from "due" that which is owing O Fr deu did past participle of devoir Lat Virtue ( Latin virtus; Greek) is moral Excellence. Personal virtues are characteristics valued as promoting individual Egalitarianism (derived from the French word égal, meaning equal) is a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals and have Freedom, or the idea of being free is a broad concept that Trust is a relationship of reliance A trusted party is presumed to seek to fulfill policies, ethical codes Law and their previous promises The question of free will Consent as a term of jurisprudence is a possible defence (an Excuse or justification against civil or criminal liability Moral responsibility can refer to two different but related things Confucius ( lit " Master Kung " September 28, 551 BC - 479 BC) was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher Life Mencius also known by his birth name Meng Ke or Ko, was born in the State of Zou (simp Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg Jeremy Bentham ( IPA: or) (15 February 1748&ndash6 June 1832 was an English Jurist, Philosopher, and legal and Social reformer John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 &ndash 8 May 1873 British Philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (ˈsœːɐn ˈkʰiɐ̯kəˌɡ̊ɒˀ in Danish Anglicized as;) Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist Richard Mervyn Hare ( 21 March 1919  &ndash 29 January 2002) was an English moral philosopher who held the post of White's John Rawls ( February 21, 1921  &ndash November 24, 2002) was an American Philosopher, a Professor of Robert Nozick ( November 16, 1938  &ndash January 23, 2002) was an American Philosopher and Pellegrino University This list of Ethics topics puts articles relevant to well-known ethical (right and wrong good and bad debates and decisions in one place - including practical problems long List of ethicists including religious or political figures recognized by those outside their tradition as having made major contributions to ideas about Ethics, or raised major Just behavior; a concern for genuine respect and treatment which is to be regarded as fair and equal. Respect is esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person a personal quality or ability or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability The Administration of Law; which ordains legislation composed by a judge or magistrate of a supreme court to a country or state, with objectives to protect the victims and pursue the perpetrators lawfully. A magistrate is a judicial officer In Common law systems a magistrate usually has limited authority to administer and enforce the Law. A supreme court, also called a court of last resort or high court, is in some Jurisdictions the highest judicial body within that jurisdiction's Victimology is the study of victimization including the relationships between victims and offenders the interactions between victims and the criminal justice system -- that is the police Prosperity and distribution of wealth towards the common people, is the most important aspect of justice which greatly contributes to the wellbeing of society. Wealth derives from the old English word "weal" which means "well-being Wealth derives from the old English word "weal" which means "well-being

Variations of Justice

Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism, where punishment is forward-looking. Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall Utility, that is its contribution to happiness Consequentialism refers to those moral theories which hold that the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgment about that action Justified by the ability to achieve future social benefits resulting in crime reduction, the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome. "Social welfare" redirects here For other uses see Welfare A social welfare provision refers to any program which seeks to provide

Retributive justice regulates proportionate response to crime proven by lawful evidence, so that punishment is justly imposed and considered as morally-correct and fully deserved. Retribution also means prosperity, prosperity results in crime prevention.

The law of retaliation (lex talionis) is a military theory of retributive justice, which says that reciprocity should be equal to the wrong suffered; "life for life, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. The phrase " an eye for an eye " ( עין תחת עין) is a quotation from in which a person who has taken the eye of another in a fight is instructed to give "^[1]

Distributive justice is directed at the proper allocation of things - wealth, power, reward, respect - between different people. Distributive justice concerns what is just or right with respect to the allocation of goods in a society A number of important questions surrounding justice have been fiercely debated over the course of western history: What is justice? What does it demand of individuals and societies? What is the proper distribution of wealth and resources in society: equal, meritocratic, according to status, or some other arrangement?^[2] There is a myriad of possible answers to these questions from divergent perspectives on the political and philosophical spectrum. History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology Egalitarianism (derived from the French word égal, meaning equal) is a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals and have Meritocracy is a system of a government or another organization wherein Appointments are made and responsibilities are given based on demonstrated talent and Ability Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy or power provided by wealth

Oppressive Law exercises an authoritarian approach to legislation which is "totally unrelated to justice", a tyrannical interpretation of law is one in which the population lives under restriction from unlawful legislation. In modern usage a tyrant is a single ruler holding absolute power over a State or within an Organization.

Some theorists, such as the classical Greeks, conceive of justice as a virtue—a property of people, and only derivatively of their actions and the institutions they create. Virtue ( Latin virtus; Greek) is moral Excellence. Personal virtues are characteristics valued as promoting individual Others emphasize actions or institutions, and only derivatively the people who bring them about. The source of justice has variously been attributed to harmony, divine command, natural law, or human creation. In Western music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously and chords actual or implied in Music. Divine command theory is the meta-ethical view which claims that Ethical sentences express Propositions Those propositions are about the Natural law or the law of nature ( Latin: lex naturalis) is a theory that posits the existence of a law whose content is set by Nature and that Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus

The importance of justice

J. L. Urban, statue of Lady Justice at court building in Olomouc, Czech Republic

Justice by Luca Giordano

Justice concerns the proper ordering of things and persons within a society. "Lady Justice" or "Lord Justice" is also the title of judges on the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Olomouc (ˈolomoʊ̯ts ( local Haná dialect Olomóc or Holomóc, German Olmütz, Polish Ołomuniec, Latin The Czech Republic ( ˈt͡ʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka short form in Česko ˈt͡ʃɛskɔ also called Czechia, Luca Giordano ( October 18, 1634 &ndash January 12, 1705) was an eclectic peripatetic and influential Italian late Baroque For other uses of Object see Object. In Philosophy, an object is a thing an Entity, or a Being. The term person is used in Common sense to mean an individual Human being. A society is a Population of Humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive Culture and Institutions As a concept it has been subject to philosophical, legal, and theological reflection and debate throughout history. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society Theology is the study of a god or the gods from a religious perspective History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology According to most theories of justice, it is overwhelmingly important: John Rawls, for instance, claims that "Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. John Rawls ( February 21, 1921  &ndash November 24, 2002) was an American Philosopher, a Professor of "^[3]: Justice can be thought of as distinct from and more fundamental than benevolence, charity, mercy, generosity or compassion. In Christian Theology charity, or love ( Agapē) means an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others Mercy ( Middle English, from Anglo-French merci, from Medieval Latin merced-, merces, from Latin, "price Generosity is the habit of giving without coercion. Often equated with charity as a Virtue, generosity is widely accepted in society Compassion is a profound human Emotion prompted by the pain of others Research conducted in 2003 at Emory University, Georgia, involving Capuchin Monkeys demonstrated that other cooperative animals also possess such a sense and that "inequality aversion may not be uniquely human. Emory University is a Private university located in the metropolitan area of the city of Atlanta and in western unincorporated DeKalb County, Inequity aversion (IA is the preference for fairness and resistance to inequitable outcomes "^[4] indicating that ideas of fairness and justice are of an instinctual nature.

Justice as harmony

Main article: Republic (dialogue)

In his dialogue Republic, Plato uses Socrates to argue for justice which covers both the just person and the just city-state. The Republic ( Greek: / Politeía, meaning "political system" Latin: Res Publica, meaning "public business" or Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece A city-state is a Region controlled exclusively by a City, usually having Sovereignty. Justice is a proper, harmonious relationship between the warring parts of the person or city. A person’s soul has three parts – spirit, resourcefulness and mindfulness. Similarly, a city has three parts – Socrates uses the parable of the chariot to illustrate his point: a chariot works as a whole because the two horses’ power is directed by the charioteer. Lovers of wisdom – philosophers, in one sense of the term – should rule because only they understand what is good. In Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy, the phrase good and evil refers to the location of objects desires and Behaviors on a two-way If one is ill, one goes to a doctor rather than a quack, because the doctor is expert in the subject of health. Similarly, one should trust one’s city to an expert in the subject of the good, not to a mere politician who tries to gain power by giving people what they want, rather than what’s good for them. A politician (from Greek " Polis " is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making through the influence of Politics or a person Socrates uses the parable of the ship to illustrate this point: the unjust city is like a ship in open ocean, crewed by a powerful but drunken captain (the common people), a group of untrustworthy advisors who try to manipulate the captain into giving them power over the ship’s course (the politicians), and a navigator (the philosopher) who is the only one who knows how to get the ship to port. A navigator is the person onboard a ship or aircraft responsible for its Navigation. For Socrates, the only way the ship will reach its destination – the good – is if the navigator takes charge. ^[5]

Justice as divine command

Main article: Divine command theory

Justice as a divine law is commanding , and indeed the whole of morality, is the authoritative command. Divine command theory is the meta-ethical view which claims that Ethical sentences express Propositions Those propositions are about the Killing is wrong and therefore must be punished and if not punished what should be done?. There is a famous paradox called the Euthyphro dilemma which essentially asks: is something right because God commands it, or does God command it because it's right? If the former, then justice is arbitrary; if the latter, then morality exists on a higher order than God, who becomes little more than a passer-on of moral knowledge. The Euthyphro dilemma is found in Plato's dialogue Euthyphro, in which Socrates asks Euthyphro "Is the pious ( τὸ ὅσιον Some Divine command advocates respond by pointing out that the dilemma is false: goodness is the very nature of God and is necessarily expressed in His commands.

Justice as natural law

Main article: Natural law

John Locke of the natural law believes that justice would become a natural law, it involves the system of punishments which are prone from choices. Natural law or the law of nature ( Latin: lex naturalis) is a theory that posits the existence of a law whose content is set by Nature and that In this, it is similar to the laws of physics: in the same way as the Third of Newton's laws of Motion requires that for every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction, justice requires according individuals or groups what they actually deserve, merit, or are entitled to. A physical law or scientific law is a Scientific generalization based on empirical Observations of physical behavior (i Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (ˈnjuːtən 4 January 1643 31 March 1727) Biography Early years See also Isaac Newton's early life and achievements Newton's laws of motion are three Physical laws which provide relationships between the Forces acting on a body and the motion of the Justice, on this account, is a universal and absolute concept: laws, principles, religions, etc. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos , are merely attempts to codify that concept, sometimes with results that entirely contradict the true nature of justice.

Justice as human creation

In contrast to the understandings canvassed so far, justice may be understood as a human creation, rather than a discovery of harmony, divine command, or natural law. This claim can be understood in a number of ways, with the fundamental division being between those who argue that justice is the creation of some humans, and those who argue that it is the creation of all humans.

Justice as authoritative command

Injustice by Giotto di Bondone

According to thinkers including Thomas Hobbes, justice is created by public, enforceable, authoritative rules, and injustice is whatever those rules forbid, regardless of their relation to morality. Thomas Hobbes (born 5 April 1588died 4 December 1679 was an English philosopher, whose famous 1651 book Leviathan established the foundation Norms are sentences or sentence meanings with practical i e action-oriented (rather than descriptive explanatory or expressive import the most common of which Justice is created, not merely described or approximated, by the command of an absolute sovereign power. A Gold Sovereign is a Gold coin first issued in 1489 for Henry VII of England and still in production as of 2008 This position has some similarities with divine command theory (see above), with the difference that the state (or other authority) replaces God. A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population.

Justice as trickery

In Republic, the character Thrasymachus argues that justice is the interest of the strong: merely a name for whatever the powerful or cunning ruler has managed to impose on the people, to his or her own advantage. Thrasymachus (Θρασύμαχος (ca 459-400 BCE was a Sophist of Ancient Greece best known as a character in Plato 's Republic Nietzsche, in contrast, argues that justice is part of the slave-morality of the weak many, rooted in their resentment of the strong few, and intended to keep the noble man down. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist In Human, All Too Human he states that, "there is no eternal justice. Human All Too Human ( Menschliches Allzumenschliches) subtitled A Book for Free Spirits ( Ein Buch für freie Geister) is a book by 19th century philosopher "

Further information: Republic (dialogue), Master-slave morality

Justice as mutual agreement

Main article: Social contract

According to thinkers in the social contract tradition, justice is derived from the mutual agreement of everyone concerned; or, in many versions, from what they would agree to under hypothetical conditions including equality and absence of bias. The Republic ( Greek: / Politeía, meaning "political system" Latin: Res Publica, meaning "public business" or Master-slave morality is a central theme of Friedrich Nietzsche 's works in particular the first essay of On the Genealogy of Morality. Social contract describes a broad class of republican theories whose subjects are implied agreements by which people form Nations and maintain a Social order This account is considered further below, under ‘Justice as fairness’.

Justice as a subordinate value

According to utilitarian thinkers including John Stuart Mill, justice is not as fundamental as we often think. John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 &ndash 8 May 1873 British Philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential Rather, it is derived from the more basic standard of rightness, consequentialism: what is right is what has the best consequences (usually measured by the total or average welfare caused). Consequentialism refers to those moral theories which hold that the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgment about that action Quality of life is the degree of well-being felt by an individual or group of people So, the proper principles of justice are those which tend to have the best consequences. These rules may turn out to be familiar ones such as keeping contracts; but equally, they may not, depending on the facts about real consequences. A contract is an exchange of promises between two or more parties to do or refrain from doing an act which is enforceable in a court of law Either way, what is important is those consequences, and justice is important, if at all, only as derived from that fundamental standard. Mill tries to explain our mistaken belief that justice is overwhelmingly important by arguing that it derives from two natural human tendencies: our desire to retaliate against those who hurt us, and our ability to put ourselves imaginatively in another’s place. So, when we see someone harmed, we project ourselves into her situation and feel a desire to retaliate on her behalf. If this process is the source of our feelings about justice, that ought to undermine our confidence in them. ^[6]

Further information: Utilitarianism, Utilitarianism (book), John Stuart Mill

Theories of distributive justice

Allegory or The Triumph of Justice by Hans von Aachen

Theories of distributive justice need to answer three questions:

1. What goods are to be distributed? Is it to be wealth, power, respect, some combination of these things?
2. Between what entities are they to be distributed? Humans (dead, living, future), sentient beings, the members of a single society, nations?
3. What is the proper distribution? Equal, meritocratic, according to social status, according to need?

Distributive justice theorists generally do not answer questions of who has the right to enforce a particular favored distribution. Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall Utility, that is its contribution to happiness John Stuart Mill 's book Utilitarianism is a philosophical defense of Utilitarianism in Ethics. John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 &ndash 8 May 1873 British Philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential Hans von Aachen (1552 Cologne - March 4, 1615, Prague) was a German mannerist painter. Wealth derives from the old English word "weal" which means "well-being Political power ( Imperium in Latin is a type of power held by a group in a Society which allows administration of some or all of Respect is esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person a personal quality or ability or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability Sentience is the ability to feel or perceive subjectively. It is an important concept in the philosophy of Animal rights, in buddhist philosophy and in A nation is a Human Cultural and Social Community. In as much as most members never meet each other yet feel a common bond it may be considered Meritocracy is a system of a government or another organization wherein Appointments are made and responsibilities are given based on demonstrated talent and Ability In Sociology or Anthropology, social status is the honor or prestige attached to one's position in Society (one's Social position) A human need can be defined either psychologically or objectively

This section describes some widely-held theories of distributive justice, and their attempts to answer these questions.

Egalitarianism

Main article: Egalitarianism

According to the egalitarian, goods should be distributed equally. Egalitarianism (derived from the French word égal, meaning equal) is a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals and have This basic view can be elaborated in many different ways, according to what goods are to be distributed – wealth, respect, opportunity – and what they are to be distributed equally between – individuals, families, nations, races, species. Commonly-held egalitarian positions include demands for equality of opportunity and for equality of outcome. Equal opportunity is a term which has differing definitions and there is no consensus as to the precise meaning Equality of outcome or equality of condition is a form of Egalitarianism which seeks to reduce or eliminate differences in material condition between individuals or

Giving people what they deserve

In one sense, all theories of distributive justice claim that everyone should get what he or she deserves. Where they diverge is in disagreeing about the basis of desert. The main distinction is between, on one hand, theories which argue that the basis of just desert is something held equally by everyone and therefore derive egalitarian accounts of distributive justice; and, on the other hand, theories which argue that the basis of just desert is unequally distributed on the basis of, for instance, hard work, and therefore derive accounts of distributive justice according to which some should have more than others. This section deals with some popular theories of the second type.

According to meritocratic theories, goods, especially wealth and social status, should be distributed to match individual merit, which is usually understood as some combination of talent and hard work. According to needs-based theories, goods, especially such basic goods as food, shelter and medical care, should be distributed to meet individuals’ basic needs for them. The basic needs approach is one of the major approaches to the measurement of Absolute poverty. Marxism can be regarded as a needs-based theory on some readings of Marx’s slogan, ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs’. Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ^[7] According to contribution-based theories, goods should be distributed to match an individual's contribution to the overall social good.

Further information: Meritocracy, Need, From each according to his ability, to each according to his need

Fairness

Main article: A Theory of Justice

In his A Theory of Justice, John Rawls used a social contract argument to show that justice, and especially distributive justice, is a form of fairness: an impartial distribution of goods. Meritocracy is a system of a government or another organization wherein Appointments are made and responsibilities are given based on demonstrated talent and Ability A human need can be defined either psychologically or objectively From each according to his ability to each according to his need (or needs) is a Slogan popularized by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique A Theory of Justice is a widely-read book of political and Moral philosophy by John Rawls. John Rawls ( February 21, 1921  &ndash November 24, 2002) was an American Philosopher, a Professor of Social contract describes a broad class of republican theories whose subjects are implied agreements by which people form Nations and maintain a Social order Rawls asks us to imagine ourselves behind a veil of ignorance which denies us all knowledge of our personalities, social statuses, moral characters, wealth, talents and life plans, and then asks what theory of justice we would choose to govern our society when the veil is lifted, if we wanted to do the best that we could for ourselves. We don’t know who in particular we are, and therefore can’t bias the decision in our own favour. So, the decision-in-ignorance models fairness, because it excludes selfish bias. Bias is a term used to describe a Tendency or Preference towards a particular perspective, Ideology or result especially when the tendency interferes Rawls argues that each of us would reject the utilitarian theory of justice that we should maximize welfare (see below) because of the risk that we might turn out to be someone whose own good is sacrificed for greater benefits for others. Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall Utility, that is its contribution to happiness Instead, we would endorse Rawls’s two principles of justice:

1. Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all.

2. Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both

a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged, consistent with the just savings principle, and

b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity. ^[8]

This imagined choice justifies these principles as the principles of justice for us, because we would agree to them in a fair decision procedure. Rawls’s theory distinguishes two kinds of goods – (1) liberties and (2) social and economic goods, i. Political freedom is the absence of interference with the sovereignty of an individual by the use of coercion or aggression e. wealth, income and power – and applies different distributions to them – equality between citizens for (1), equality unless inequality improves the position of the worst off for (2).

Having the right history

Robert Nozick’s influential critique of Rawls argues that distributive justice is not a matter of the whole distribution matching an ideal pattern, but of each individual entitlement having the right kind of history. Robert Nozick ( November 16, 1938  &ndash January 23, 2002) was an American Philosopher and Pellegrino University It is just that a person has some good (especially, some property right) if and only if he or she came to have it by a history made up entirely of events of two kinds:

1. Property is any physical or virtual entity that is owned by an individual Just acquisition, especially by working on unowned things; and

2. Just transfer, that is free gift, sale or other agreement, but not theft. In Criminal law, theft (also known as stealing or filching) is the illegal taking of another person's Property without that person's freely-given

If the chain of events leading up to the person having something meets this criterion, then he or she is entitled to it: it is just that he or she possesses it, and what anyone else has, or does not have, or needs, is irrelevant.

On the basis of this theory of distributive justice, Nozick argues that all attempts to redistribute goods according to an ideal pattern, without the consent of their owners, are theft. In particular, redistributive taxation is theft.

Further information: Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Libertarianism

Welfare-maximization

Main article: Utilitarianism

According to the utilitarian, justice requires the maximization of the total or average welfare across all relevant individuals. Anarchy State and Utopia is a work of Political philosophy written by Robert Nozick in 1974. Libertarianism is a term used by a broad spectrum of political philosophies which prioritize individual Liberty and seek to minimize or even abolish the Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall Utility, that is its contribution to happiness This may require sacrifice of some for the good of others, so long as everyone’s good is taken impartially into account. Utilitarianism, in general, argues that the standard of justification for actions, institutions, or the whole world, is impartial welfare consequentialism, and only indirectly, if at all, to do with rights, property, need, or any other non-utilitarian criterion. Human rights refers to the "basic Rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled Property is any physical or virtual entity that is owned by an individual A human need can be defined either psychologically or objectively These other criteria might be indirectly important, to the extent that human welfare involves them. But even then, such demands as human rights would only be elements in the calculation of overall welfare, not uncrossable barriers to action.

Theories of retributive justice

Theories of retributive justice are concerned with punishment for wrongdoing, and need to answer three questions:

1. why punish?
2. who should be punished?
3. what punishment should they receive?

This section considers the two major accounts of retributive justice, and their answers to these questions. Punishment is the practice of imposing something unpleasant or aversive on a person or animal usually in response to disobedient or morally wrong behavior Utilitarian theories look forward to the future consequences of punishment, while retributive theories look back to particular acts of wrongdoing, and attempt to balance them with deserved punishment.

Utilitarianism

According to the utilitarian, as already noted, justice requires the maximization of the total or average welfare across all relevant individuals. Punishment is bad treatment of someone, and therefore can’t be good in itself, for the utilitarian. But punishment might be a necessary sacrifice which maximizes the overall good in the long term, in one or more of three ways:

1. Deterrence. This article refers to deterrent theories of punishment For other uses see Deterrence (disambiguation. The credible threat of punishment might lead people to make different choices; well-designed threats might lead people to make choices which maximize welfare. Coercion (co-er-shion is the practice of compelling a person or manipulating them to behave in an involuntary way (whether through action or inaction by use of threats
2. Rehabilitation. Rehabilitation means To restore to useful life as through therapy and education or To restore to good condition operation or capacity. Punishment might make bad people into better ones. For the utilitarian, all that ‘bad person’ can mean is ‘person who’s likely to cause bad things (like suffering) ’. So, utilitarianism could recommend punishment which changes someone such that he or she is less likely to cause bad things.
3. Security. Security is the condition of being protected against danger loss and criminals Perhaps there are people who are irredeemable causers of bad things. If so, imprisoning them might maximize welfare by limiting their opportunities to cause harm. A prison, penitentiary, or correctional facility is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned and usually deprived of a range of

So, the reason for punishment is the maximization of welfare, and punishment should be of whomever, and of whatever form and severity, are needed to meet that goal. Worryingly, this may sometimes justify punishing the innocent, or inflicting disproportionately severe punishments, when that will have the best consequences overall (perhaps executing a few suspected shoplifters live on television would be an effective deterrent to shoplifting, for instance). Shoplifting (also known as retail theft, or shrinkage within the retail industry is Theft of goods from a Retail establishment by an ostensible It also suggests that punishment might turn out never to be right, depending on the facts about what actual consequences it has. ^[9]

Retributivism

Main article: Retributive justice

The retributivist will think the utilitarian's argument disastrously mistaken. Retributive justice is a Theory of Justice that considers that proportionate punishment is a morally acceptable response to Crime, with If someone does something wrong, we must respond to it, and to him or her, as an individual, not as a part of a calculation of overall welfare. As commonly used, individual refers to a Person or to any specific object in a collection To do otherwise is to disrespect him or her as an individual human being. If the crime had victims, it is to disrespect them, too. Wrongdoing must be balanced or made good in some way, and so the criminal deserves to be punished. Retributivism emphasizes retribution – payback – rather than maximization of welfare. Like the theory of distributive justice as giving everyone what he or she deserves (see above), it links justice with desert. It says that all guilty people, and only guilty people, deserve appropriate punishment. This matches some strong intuitions about just punishment: that it should be proportional to the crime, and that it should be of only and all of the guilty. Intuition is apparent ability to acquire knowledge without a clear inference or the use of reason However, it is sometimes argued that retributivism is merely revenge in disguise. Revenge (also vengeance, retribution, or vendetta amongst others consists primarily of retaliation against a person or group in response ^[10] Despite this criticism, there are numerous differences between retribution and revenge: the former is impartial, has a scale of appropriateness and corrects a moral wrong, whereas the latter is personal, unlimited in scale, and often corrects a slight.

Further information: Deontological ethics

Institutions

The Justices of the United States Supreme Court with President George W. Bush, October 2005

Main article: Law

In an imperfect world, institutions are required to instantiate ideals of justice, however imperfectly. Deontological ethics or deontology (from Greek grc δέον deon, "obligation duty" and grc -λογία -logia) is an The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. George Walker Bush ( born July 6 1946 is the forty-third and current President of the United States. Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society These institutions may be justified by their approximate instantiation of justice, or they may be deeply unjust when compared with ideal standards — consider the institution of slavery. As a social-economic system slavery is a legal institution under which a Person (called "a slave" is compelled to work for another Justice is an ideal which the world fails to live up to, sometimes despite good intentions, sometimes disastrously. The question of institutive justice raises issues of legitimacy, procedure, codification and interpretation, which are considered by legal theorists and by philosophers of law. In Law, codification is the process of collecting and restating the law of a Jurisdiction in certain areas usually by subject forming a Legal code. Jurisprudence is the Theory and Philosophy of Law. Scholars of jurisprudence or legal philosophers hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature

Another definition of justice is an independent investigation of truth. In a court room, lawyers, the judge and the jury are supposed to be independently investigating the truth of an alleged crime. In physics, a group of physicists examine data and theoretical concepts to consult on what might be the truth or reality of a phenomenon.

See also

References

Bibliography and further reading

• Barzilai Gad, Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003).
• Brian Barry, Theories of Justice (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989).
• Harry Brighouse, Justice (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004).
• Anthony Duff & David Garland eds, A Reader on Punishment (Oxford: OUP, 1994).
• Colin Farrelly, An Introduction to Contemporary Political Theory (London: Sage, 2004).
• David Gauthier, Morals By Agreement (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986).
• Robert E. Goodin & Philip Pettit eds, Contemporary Political Philosophy: An anthology (2nd edition, Malden Mass. : Blackwell, 2006), Part III.
• Ted Honderich, Punishment: The supposed justifications (London: Hutchinson & Co. , 1969).
• Will Kymlicka, Contemporary Political Philosophy: An introduction (2nd edition, Oxford: OUP, 2002).
• Nicola Lacey, State Punishment (London: Routledge, 1988).
• John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism in On Liberty and Other Essays ed. John Gray (Oxford: OUP, 1991).
• Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (Oxford: Blackwell, 1974).
• Plato, Republic trans. Robin Waterfield (Oxford: OUP, 1994).
• John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (revised edition, Oxford: OUP, 1999).
• David Schmidtz, Elements of Justice (New York: CUP, 2006).
• Peter Singer ed. , A Companion to Ethics (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993), Part IV.
• C. L. Ten, Crime, Guilt, and Punishment: A philosophical introduction (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987).

External links

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entries:
  • Distributive justice, by Julian Lamont.
  • Justice as a virtue, by Michael Slote.
  • Punishment, by Hugo Adam Bedau. Hugo Adam Bedau (born 23 September 1926 is the Austin B Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at Tufts University, and is best known
• Video:Balkan Justice