Month: January 2023

Liberty, Equality and Fraternity Ernest Barker in his book, Principles of Social and Political Theory has discussed the relationship ‘between liberty, equality and fraternity or cooperation’. He treats these values as important and states that they are ‘recognised by organized system of human relations’ though they are present in at different times and different systems in different… Continue reading Justice as Synthesis of Political Values

Justice as end of exploitation In the eighteenth century, demand for justice on economic basis became an important thread in socialist thought in Europe. In fact, economic and social equality and justice became an important demand. The most scientific and vocal argument came from the Marxian school led by Marx and Engels. This is known… Continue reading Marxian Perspective

Justice as creation of the sovereign Thomas Hobbes, Jeremy Bentham and John Austin supported the legal concept of sovereignty. They argued for the supremacy of law emanating from the sovereign and held that the law was the sole source of rights, liberties and justice. As such, law becomes an instrument of justice. Hobbes’s social contract… Continue reading Legalist Perspective

Justice as the greatest net balance of satisfaction or happiness Jeremy Bentham—Happiness as Justice: Epicureans, during the Greek periods, had denied any moral and ideal content to justice that Plato advocated and were of the view that the state was not founded on something like justice of which Plato spoke. For them, justice was nothing in… Continue reading Utilitarian Perspective

Justice as triumph of theocratic principle St. Augustine—Conception of justice as Christian ideal: Travelling through various political upheavals but now not witnessed by Cicero or Seneca or such a statesman, Roman Empire in its monarchical form also had closed and gone by the fith century AD. With the decline of the Roman Empire, there came the… Continue reading Concept of Justice in the Medieval Period

In Cicero, we find a great Roman statesman and an eminent political thinker whose De Republica (the Republic or the Commonwealth, the ideal state) combines the ideals of Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Politics and is comparable to both. His other book, De Legibus (The Laws) provided the type of legal system that his ideal state would require. Cicero wrote when the republican constitution of Rome was under… Continue reading Marcus Tullius Cicero—Concept of Justice founded on natural law

Justice according to the natural law and right reason The Greek thinkers were oriented towards justice as a principle relevant to the social order. Plato argued for harmony of classes in accordance with station in life and Aristotle struggled for distributive justice. Their conception of justice was for a social order in the polis, the city-state.… Continue reading Concept of Justice During Roman Period

Greek political philosopher, Aristotle seeks to construct an ideal polity with a balanced class composition, which means a predominant middle class, neither extreme of poverty nor extreme of aristocracy. However, the problem of relative claims of classes to power in polity needs to be resolved and criteria to be found out for justifying relative claims.… Continue reading Aristotle—Concept of distributive justice

Plato—Concept of justice as moral conduct by individuals and social classes The principle of justice is the central argument in Greek political philosopher Plato’s Republic. According to Will Durant, Plato seeks ethical solution of an ethical problem. The ethical problem is what ‘is the crux of the theory of moral conduct. What is justice? Shall we seek… Continue reading Justice During the Greek Period: As a Virtue of the Social Order

Justice has been a widely debated throughout political history and has been understood differently. We may survey briefly some of the representative interpretations given by great political thinkers in different ages of political history.