IV. Social Philosophy
A. Justice (from Utilitarianism)
Of all the rules governing morality that are grounded upon the Principle of Utility, the requirements of justice are the most fundamental because they are essential to preserving peace and preventing harm among persons. In its most basis senses, justice forbids (1) the wrongful exercise of power over another person, and (2) the withholding of what is rightfully due a person. The requirements of justice establish various protections for the individual such as moral or legal rights to personal liberty and property, guarantees of impartial and equal treatment before the law, prohibitions against undeserved or disproportionate punishments, and condemnation of breaches of faith, whether of friendship or of promise.
Justice as a moral sentiment develops from an initial, natural tendency to retaliate against harm to ourselves that is generalized through the enormous human capacity (a) to include all human beings with the range of our sympathy and (b) to use our intelligence so as to recognize a threat to the security of society as a threat to ourselves. Justice becomes a moral sentiment only “when moralized by the social feeling” in such a way that we act consciously in “directions conformable to the general good.”
“It is common enough certainly though the reverse of commendable to feel resentment merely because we have suffered pain; but a person whose resentment is really a moral feeling, that is, who considers whether an act is blamable before he allows himself to resent it such a person, though he may not say expressly to himself that he is standing up for the interest of society, certainly does not feel that he is asserting a rule which is for the benefit of others as well as for his own. If he is not feeling this, if he is regarding the act solely as it affects him individually, he is not consciously just; he is not concerning himself about the justice of his actions.” (From Utilitarianism)
