@Eudaimon,
---------- Post added at 09:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:46 PM ----------
Eudaimon;65241 wrote:I am sorry, it is difficult for me to understand thy doctrine on justice. Try to make more strict definitions.
In response to your inquiry I'll present a value-dimensional analysis. To understand more about the basic dimensions of value, I refer you to an essay I wrote with Wade Harvey enetitled LIVING THE GOOD LIFE;
http://tinyurl.com/24swmd
Formal Axiology (founded by the phihosopher Robert S. Hartman) has something to say about the concept "Justice" that may be helpful. What do you think: does the applications of the tools of the science of values, when applied to this concept elucidate the subject?
I shall define JUSTICE as meaning: "the restoration and maintenance of a balance."
There are at least four modes of justice, on a continuum from worst to best; this analysis says that justice is a matter of degree rather than just "black or white."
These dimensions are: Transposed Justice (fragmented value), which is Retribution or Retaliation, an "eye for an eye," which - as Gandhi told us - eventually "renders everybody blind."
Next, there is -- when the Systemic Value dimension is applied to "justice" -- Equality or Equal treatment under law. "Every one is entitled to his day in court," "All are equal in the eyes of the law."
[And Law itself can be analyzed by the axiological dimensions into (S):Statute Law, (E):Common Law, and (I):Moral Law, each one worth more than the last.]
And then there is Compensation or Equity: one doesn't trade an apple for an automobile, quid quo pro, a judge taking into consideration the circumstances of the perpetrator's life, etc. This is the result of Extrinsic Value being applied to "justice."
When Intrinsic Value is applied, we get: Rehabilitation or Reconciliation. An illustration of this form of justice may be what was the practice in some African tribe when a murderer's dispensation was that he had to enter into the extended family of his victim, and assume all the responsibilities of the one he is replacing, and in this way he paid his debt to the community.
Recently, in the Western World we find that the practice of "creative sentencing" on the part of some jurists often contributes to rehabilitation of offenders.
This is a formal axiological analysis of Justice.
If you want more details about what is known as value science (a body of knowledge about values), see Appendix One, pages 73-80, in my major book, ETHICS: A College Course
http://tinyurl.com/2mj5b3
This manual is more technical and thus harder to read than the earlier reference cited above at the end of the first paragraph of this post. You may look up Professor Hartman's bio in Wikipedia if you want to know more about my teacher and mentor.