Social justice is generally assumed to be necessary for any progressive society. However, it is unclear how to define justice, and many philosophers have been working on the problem since ancient times. The current paper reviews some essential ideas of justice and reflects on how these ideas are relevant to modern American society. It will be shown that these ideas may be of help in addressing some social issues.
Plato considers justice a general virtue and a knowledge of what is good. According to his philosophy, this knowledge should be discovered by a thorough philosophical work (Santas 28). Therefore, these are philosophers who know true justice, and they should judge if some action is just. Montaigne is known for his skeptical position towards common ideas, such as justice. He claimed that it was nearly impossible to comprehend true justice, and he especially emphasized that the contemporary concept had lost its ground. According to both Montaigne and Plato, the notion of justice can be attributed to all humans with one critical condition. The philosophers point out that one must go through an involving thinking process to become aware of the virtue of justice.
John Stuart Mill developed another significant philosophy of justice. He is known for working on the idea of utilitarianism, which states that justice is determined by the good of the majority (Mill 66). This theory requires rational consideration when making an indeed just action. Moreover, it demands to refuse the influence of emotions when making a decision. This theory can be criticized for the cruel consequences that it may cause because it accepts violence if the latter leads to the happiness of the majority.
Utilitarianism got much attention and was developed in different versions. The core principle of utilitarianism was maximizing utility, but it was speculative what utility was. For Mary Wollstonecraft, utility is happiness, and she was investigating the ways to achieve happiness meant for everybody. In her famous work, The Vindications: The Rights of Men and The Rights of Woman, she claims that it is gender equity that is the premise of true happiness (Wollstonecraft 360). Her idea was that when there is gender discrimination, it is impossible to reach a happy state of the whole society. In other words, the absence of slavery of any kind is for a just society.
The latter theory is consistent with the philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. He is well-known for fighting for civil rights in the US when social justice was relevant only for white people. He insists that social justice should not discriminate against people, and in particular, there must not be any discrimination on the basis of race (King 119). Therefore, in the works of Wollstonecraft and King, the problem of justice was developed within a particular problem of the US society, whereas earlier papers addressed the general idea of justice.
The relation between justice and law has been one of the most controversial topics in the philosophy of justice. Although it is generally assumed that law follows justice, the philosophers were challenging this statement. Montaigne emphasized that laws are not necessarily consistent with justice. Instead, lawmakers usually have to violate it in the name of political interests (Dionne 1). Plato also was against politicians as rulers of the Politeia because only philosophers are aware of what justice is (Santas 29). Furthermore, later philosophers, Mill, Wollstonecraft, and King, criticized the unjust government’s policy. Therefore, the debates about justice in policy have always been vivid, and the question demands thorough consideration.
Contemporary American society faces several social problems, and people have to figure out the most optimal response to these obstacles. They may accept their individual notion of justice, which will lead their actions, but this notion should avoid radical egoism. The reason why egoism is not an option has been shown in the reviewed works. Egoistic philosophy leads to discrimination and other kinds of social injustice. Instead, true justice can be understood and accepted by everyone. Moreover, it is not necessarily determined by law, but rather it is discovered by each individual in the course of analyzing the world.
To illustrate how individuals work on the just decisions and actions that can happen, one can think of the problem of income inequality. This problem reflects the unjust state of affairs in society because an unreasonable salary policy most probably causes inequality in external resources. Income inequality is likely to lead to discrimination of different kinds. Therefore, it contradicts the philosophy of Mill, Wollstonecraft, and King.
The companies’ directors may consider revision of the current distribution of salaries. The government’s representatives may provide not only comparable incomes but also facilitate the creation of job positions that have more or less equal responsibilities so that equal salary is reasonable. Moreover, people should be aware that income cannot be a criterion for social comparison. For this, they need to pay attention to proper education on social justice.
To conclude, the idea of justice has been a problematic philosophical concept for centuries. Plato and Montaigne insisted on individual work of mind in order to discover justice. Mill, Wollstonecraft, and King contributed to the understanding of concepts of social justice and highlighted that discrimination prevented the development of society. Although many philosophers developed crucial principles of social justice, contemporary society has to face unjust actions. In particular, in the US, there is a problem of significantly unequal income, and one should be educated enough to address the problem wisely and to follow true justice.
Works Cited
Dionne, Valérie M. Oxford Handbooks Online Montaigne on Justice and Law. 2017, pp. 1–27.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. “Nonviolence and Racial Justice.” The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Volume IV: Symbol of the Movement, 1957-1958, edited by Clayborne Carson, Susan Carson, Adrienne Clay, Virginia Shadron, and Kieran Taylor, University of California Press at Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2000, pp. 118-122.
Mill, John Stuart. Utilitarianism. Parker, Son, and Bourn, 1863.
Santas, Gerasimos. “How Plato Reasoned About Justice In His Politeia.” Politeia, vol. 1, no. 2, 2019, pp. 27–44.
Wollstonecraft, Mary. The Vindications: The Rights of Men and The Rights of Woman. Broadview Press, 1997.