Justice

Injustice anywhere is a threat to

justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King Jr.
 What is Justice
 Moral principle that determines what is just, equitable, and morally
right based on ethical, political, environmental, and religious beliefs
and values.
◦ Just: guided by truth, reason, and fairness

 Promoting welfare, virtue, and freedom

 Keeping intact the foundations of our democracy including upholding

the law

 Securing natural rights

 According to Merriam Webster

Justice is the use of law and being fair
Sandel’s Theories of Justice
Michael Sandel is a professor of history and philosophy at Harvard University. He is
one of the most prominent thinkers and writers on the idea of justice today.

Justice

Maximizing Respecting
Promoting Virtue
Welfare Freedom
 Maximizing Welfare
 Improving standard of living for society as a whole

 Bringing the “greatest happiness for the greatest number” of

people = UTILITARIAN

 This means that a persons theory of justice is based on

promoting prosperity or spurring economic growth, to seek the
greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

 Examples: Social Security, healthcare (Medicare and Medicaid),

public schools, criminal justice system with prisons
 Respecting Freedom
 This means that you have respect for individual rights and
universal human rights. E.g. the Bill of Rights
◦ Emphasis on respect for individual rights
 Laissez-faire camp (free-market libertarians)
 Policies that respect voluntary choices so minimal government
intervention in individual lives and choices.

 Fairness camp (egalitarian theorists)

 Policies that give everyone a fair chance at success so government
passes laws that ensure everyone has equal opportunity.
 Promoting Virtue
 This means that you look at justice by affirming certain virtues
and conceptions of the ‘good life’.

 These virtues must be defined by society by drawing from

moral or religious ideals.

“A just society affirms certain virtues”

◦ Policies and laws are made based on those virtues.

Other Philosophers
Aristotle- justice means giving people
what they deserve.

John Rawls – a fair society respects each

person’s freedom to decide what is virtue.
Justice involves REAL issues that deal with the
equality and fair treatment of humanity and the
environment.

Justice also involves the laws in a country or

nation, and the arrangement of how a
government will protect it’s values and maintain
order while preserving the rights of the people.
Essential Questions:

How is justice defined?

Can a free society ensure both justice and
liberty?
Should justice be our first priority?
 Task: The First Word
1. Work on the concept of justice to be
written vertically down the side of a
page.
2. In small groups, generate a short phrase
or sentence that begins with each letter of
the word and offers important or key
characteristics about the topic.
3. Illustrate your “first words” for posting
around the classroom.
Sun is the star at the center of the solar system.
Orbits are the paths that planets take around the sun.
Lunar eclipses occur when the Moon is blocked by the Earth.
Asteroids are big rocks that orbit the sun.
Rings--- the planet Saturn has them.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun.
You can see some planets with your naked eye.
Some other planets are: Earth,Venus,Mars,Jupiter and Neptune
The Earth is the only planet with life on it.
Every year, the Earth orbits the Sun once.
Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun.
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