The Love

and Justice
Framework
 Teacher A
teaches her students
less than the number
of hours expected each
week.
 Teacher B
teaches his students
exactly in the number
of hours expected per
week.
 Teacher C
teaches her students as
expected and tutors
them outside her
teaching hours.
 A B C
Who among the
3 teachers do –
•an act of
injustice?
•an act of
justice?
•an act of love?
Discussion
The Principle of Love
 ἔρως (érōs)
Eros
- is physical love or
sexual desire. Eros is
the type of love that
involves passion, lust,
and/or romance.
 ϕιλία (philía)
Philia
- is affectionate
love. Philia is the type
of love that involves
friendship.
 ἀγάπη (agápē)
Agape
- is often defined
as unconditional,
sacrificial love.
Agape is the love
principle preached by
Jesus Christ.
Agape is “willing the
good of another”
Joseph Francis Fletcher
(1905-1991)
• Agapeic love is absolute
norm, the absolute
framework for the
determination of the
right thing to do or
wrong to avoid.
• In moral reasoning , it is
asked, is it an act of
loving?
 Fr. Bernard Haring

•Advocate of ethics of
personalism
•“the heart of moral life is
charity to one’s
neighbor.”
Justice and Fairness:
Promoting the Common
Good as a Moral Framework
A. Social Justice

Social justice
is equal access
to wealth,
opportunities,
and privileges
within society.
In ordinary political discourse, the “common good” refers to
those facilities-whether material, cultural or institutional-that
the members of the community provide to all members in
order to fulfill a relational obligation they all have to care for
certain interest that they have in common.
 Some canonical examples of the common good
in a modern liberal democracy include:

• The Road System

• Public Parks
• Police Protection
and Public Safety
 Some canonical examples of the common good
in a modern liberal democracy include:

• Courts and the Judicial System

• Public Schools
 Some canonical examples of the common good
in a modern liberal democracy include:

• Museum and
Cultural
Institutions
• Public
Transportation
• Civil Liberties
(freedom of speech and the
freedom of association)
 Some canonical examples of the common good
in a modern liberal democracy include:

• The system of
Property
• Clean Air and Clean
Water
• National Defense
Plato - justice means
giving what is due by
doing one’s own function.
•Craftsmen
•Soldiers
•Rulers/Guardians
Craftsmen should be
temperant in all aspects of
their lives, temperant in
acquiring, using and
keeping their wealth;
temperant in their
ambition.
A soldier is just when he
does his job, providing
security to the people with
courage.
A guardian is a philosopher
king. He possesses all the
virtues of temperance, courage
and wisdom. He has the duty of
wisely studying and identifying
solutions to the problems of
peace and order, equitable
distribution of wealth, etc.
B. Justice as the Minimum
Demand for Love

Willian Luijpen, referred

to justice as “the
minimum demand of
love.” To do justice is
already an act of love,
the minimum demand
of love.
C. Distributive Justice

- Is justice that is concerned

with the distribution or
allotment of goods, duties
and privileges in concert
with merits of individuals,
and the best interest of
society.
The following have features of
distributive justice.
• Egalitarianism
• Capitalist and free market system
• Socialists
• Taxation
• Protection and preservation of public welfare
• Property for public use
1. Egalitarianism – is
the doctrine of political
and social equality.
“No person shall be
deprived of life, liberty,
or property without
due process of law;
nor shall any person
be denied the equal
protection of the law”.
2. Capitalist and Free
Market System - let
the law of demand and
supply follow its course.
This lets any excess of
demand be regulated by
the limits of supply, and
lets any excess of supply
be regulated by the
limits of demand.
3. Socialist – follow the
rule, “from each according
to his ability, to each
according to his needs”
4. Taxation – is
government’s getting a
part of what its people
earn in order to have
money to spend for
public services,
operating and
maintaining public
places or properties for
people’s use.
5. Protection and
Preservation of Public
Welfare – the
government has
constitution-granted
power to govern, to make,
adopt and enforce laws
for the protection and
preservation of public
health, justice, morals,
order, safety and security
and welfare.
6. Property for Public
Use – then government
has a constitution-
granted power to take
private property for
public use with just
compensation. Citizen’s
ownership of property
is not absolute.
 Justice as moral framework,
be it social or distributive justice,
states that whatever promotes
justice is the
morally right thing to do.
The Better Moral Framework:
Garner and Rosen’s Synthesis
The rightness or wrongness of
action and the goodness or
badness of character or trait is a
function of (meaning it depends
on) not only the end, object, or
consequences of applying a rule
(rule utilitarianism) or doing an
act (act utilitarianism), but also
other bases like one’s sense of
duty and good will (rule or act
deontology).
 Key Takeaways:
• That which is ethical is that which is just and loving.
• Justice is the minimum of love. Love is more than justice. In
concrete terms, justice is giving the other what is due while love
is giving the other more than what is due.
• Social justice is promotion of the common good. It is giving
everyone equal access to wealth, opportunities, and privileges
in society.
• Distributive justice, as the term implies has something to do
with the distribution or allotment of goods, duties, and
privileges in concert with the merits of individuals and the best
interest of society.
• The following are anchored on distributive justice:
- Egalitarianism – every one is entitled to due process of law
and equal protection of the law.
- Capitalist and free-market systems- let the law of demand and
supply follow its course. Excess of demand is regulated by the
limits of supply, and excess of supply is regulated by the limits
of demand. This means no artificial control or regulations. Its
is supposed to arrive naturally at its own equilibrium.
- Socialism – this requires collective ownership of the means of
production, distribution and exchange with the aim of
operating for use rather than for profit. Socialism can be
explained with this statement: “from each according to his
ability, to each according to his needs”.
- Taxation – it is government’s getting a part of what its people earn
in order to have money to spend for public services. It is practically
demanding from tax payers a minimum of justice, to make the
enjoyment of the wealth at least more equitable. Progressive is a
system where the average tax rate increases as the taxable amount
increases.
- Protection and Preservation of Public Welfare - the government has
power granted by the constitution to govern, to make, adopt, and
enforce laws for the protection and preservation of public health,
justice, morals, order, safety and security, and welfare.
- Property for Public Use – the government has a constitution-
granted power to take private property for public use with just
compensation.