Justice as Fairness

tragedies affect innocent victims. In that realm, justice is an illusion rarely served throughout life. People who deserve consequences for their wrongdoings live carelessly and unaffected; generous and decent people experience unnecessary consequences. In short, life is unfair and justice doesn’t actually exist in our world. Thus bears the questions, is justice really served; what is the definition of justice; what are the ethics behind justice. Different philosophers and authors have argued…

We as people expect to be treated justly and with fairness. There are many principles that are found within the principle of distributive justice. One of those principles, it the principle of equality. In this case all benefits of healthcare are to be distributed equally among individuals. It can be argued that distributing healthcare equally among…

each have different views of justice. The goal of this paper is to describe the ideas of justice in these three pieces of writing and to decide which piece Antigone fits with the best. In Nicomachean Ethics the meaning of justice could either be fairness or lawfulness. This conclusion can be drawn because Aristotle states injustice as unfairness and lawlessness. Laws attempt to encourage people to be virtuous, so the just person, who is lawful, will be virtuous. Justice and virtue are different…

Justice can be defined in many different ways. Sandle defines justice in three categories, maximizing welfare, freedom with respect for individual rights and virtue. He explains maximizing welfare with the utilitarian approach as the greatest happiness for the greatest number, if an action will produce the most happiness for the bigger number of people it will be just. Next, he looks at freedom, which the idea that justice means respecting certain universal human rights and lastly, virtue which…

Plato and Machiavelli disagree about the circumstances which justify a lie. Plato believes that political leaders must lie if that is necessary to pursue justice and thereby lead the city well. Machiavelli also believes that lying is a method of establishing political order but, unlike Plato, believes that lying should be used as a method to maintain power for power’s sake – not for some greater purpose. Although in most circumstances Machiavelli and Plato disagree, occasionally, they agree. For…

of the Republic, Socrates offers a response to Glaucon 's question, “What is justice?” Socrates states his answer through various forms of metaphors and images. To the naked eye, his response is rather contradictory and baffling. Yet, through thorough reading, discussion, and bearing a perplexed eagerness to explore such classic ambiguity, one can only then begin to understand Socrates claim as to what consists of justice. Socrates himself identifies that his outlook is, indeed, much or…

The moral justification for legal punishment finds itself in philosophy through two theories that contrast each other in their complex and thought-provoking ideas: the retributivist theory of punishment (RTP) and the utilitarian theory of punishment (UTP). The RTP focuses on the individual and the crime to justify its proportional punishment. On the other hand, the UTP suggests that maximizing happiness in society is the main goal. The importance of defining legal punishment from just punishment…

A significance of the above is that legal justice is not absolute justice but is the kind of justice appropriate to the activity of doing law (Beever, Allan, 2004). Aristotle upholds that legal justice displays certain insufficiencies from the standpoint of absolute justice. One reason for this is that, “all law is universal, and there are some things about which it is not possible to pronounce rightly in…

verdict is wrought by truth, fairness, and reason, the men of this jury had settled for a false certainty. In both stories the writers cast a light upon the many flaws of a jury as it reflects American society, also…

For centuries thinkers have been searching for the correct account of what justice is. Many philosophers theorized that justice is whatever the ruler of any political system says it is. Is it because they are in power they dictate what is just and unjust. A few great thinkers who support this claim are Thrasymachus an aspiring tyrant who wishes to have absolute rule, The Athenian generals negotiating with Melian oligarchs, and Machiavelli a renaissance politician. Critics of this claim include…