A Brief Lesson About Social Justice
"Justice is the virtue of judging men's character and conduct objectively." Leonard Peikoff
"A bare fact, or a state of affairs which nobody can change, may be good or bad, but not just or unjust." Friedrich Hayek
"A bare fact, or a state of affairs which nobody can change, may be good or bad, but not just or unjust." Friedrich Hayek
Someone said that if you want to corrupt a word and render it nearly meaningless just add the word, “social” in front of it.
Here is part one...I like the way it starts out: Empty. Meaningless. Thoughtless. Vacuous. Naïve. Hollow. Shameful. Fraudulent. Primitive thinking. Demagogy. Cheap journalism. Irresponsible. A grave threat. Destructive of the values of civilization.
Part one: https://centerforindividualism.org/th...
What one "deserves" is a subjective judgement call (made by a fallible human being). If you accept that definition, you are giving in to moral relativity. I accept no such notion. Reality is absolute and so are its standards. In order to be considered "just", our actions must match reality - not just what we want reality to be. I consider Piekoff's definition to be severely flawed.
"All" is an overly broad word and I imply no such thing, but certain realities must be recognized. The first and foremost is that our "judgment" is only as good as our knowledge and adherence to reality. In some cases, we may know enough to make an objective comparison or conclusion. But reality doesn't respect our judgment call on the matter. Furthermore, we must also recognize that inherent biases and emotions are also a major part of how we look at things which can distort our ability to be objective - sometimes significantly so.
Here's a good joke+illustration I heard:
A school took a dozen math nerds and a dozen football players and put them on the 50-yard line of a football field. They put two dozen cheerleaders on the goal line. Then they told the math nerds and football players that they could advance in stages toward the cheerleaders, but only half the distance each time. The math nerds then walked off the field, quickly computing that they would never actually reach the goal line. The football players took the steps and quickly narrowed down the distance until they could get down to business. :)
"making all virtue relative."
Human beings are "relatively" honest according to their dedication to the virtue of honesty. The virtue is the standard, however, not the person. There is also the dimension of time to consider. A person may be 100% dedicated to honesty at any given point in time, but have they been so dedicated their entire lives so as to meet the ultimate standard? Not likely. Is that person "honest" then compared to the absolute virtue of Honesty?
"My usage of this phrase..."
As per my comments, if justice is an objective virtue, it can not be dependent on subjective interpretation. As quoted above, the supplied definition falls directly into this conflict - regardless whom it was written by.