Justice Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Natural law== {{Main|Natural law}}{{Expand section|date=October 2020}} [[File:Iustitia van Heemskerck.png|thumb|''[[Justitia]]'' by [[Maarten van Heemskerk]], 1556. Justitia carries symbolic items such as: a sword, [[Weighing scale#Balance|scales]] and a blindfold<ref>Cuban ''Law's Blindfold'', 23.</ref>]]For advocates of the theory that justice is part of natural law (e.g., [[John Locke]]), justice inheres in the nature of man.<ref>See {{Cite book |year=1698 |title=Two Treatises of Government: In The Former the False Principles and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer and His Followers, are Detected and Overthrown. The Latter is An Essay Concerning the True Original Extent and End of Civil Government |edition=3 |publisher=Awnsham and John Churchill |publication-date=1698 |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7kwUAAAAQAAJ&q=editions%3Aq2cKQ3eYrMIC&pg=PP7 |access-date=20 November 2014}} via Google Books</ref> ===Despotism and skepticism=== In ''Republic'' by [[Plato]], the character [[Thrasymachus]] argues that justice is the interest of the strong β merely a name for what the powerful or cunning ruler has imposed on the people. {{further|The Republic (Plato)}} ===Mutual agreement=== {{Main|Social contract}} Advocates of the social contract say that justice is derived from the mutual agreement of everyone; or, in many versions, from what they would agree to under ''hypothetical'' conditions including equality and absence of bias. This account is considered further below, under '[[Justice as Fairness]]'. The absence of bias refers to an equal ground for all people involved in a disagreement (or trial in some cases).{{citation needed|date=February 2018}} ===Subordinate value=== According to utilitarian thinkers including [[John Stuart Mill]], justice is not as fundamental as we often think. 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 [[Quality of life|welfare]] caused). So, the proper principles of justice are those that tend to have the best consequences. These rules may turn out to be familiar ones such as keeping [[contract]]s; but equally, they may not, depending on the facts about real consequences. 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, or the feeling of self-defense and our ability to put ourselves imaginatively in another's place, sympathy. So, when we see someone harmed, we project ourselves into their situation and feel a desire to retaliate on their behalf. If this process is the source of our feelings about justice, that ought to undermine our confidence in them.<ref>John Stuart Mill, ''Utilitarianism'' in ''On Liberty and Other Essays'' ed. John Gray (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), Chapter 5.</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page