LESSON 6

THE LOVE AND JUSTICE

FRAMEWORK
 The Principles of Love

 There are three well-known concepts of love originating from the Greeks, namely, agape
or charity, erotic or passionate sexual encounter, and philia , the affection between
friends. Love as a moral framework is the agapeic. Agape is the love principle preached
by Jesus Christ. What Christ did as narrated in the New Testament are all acts of love.
Feeding the hungry, giving drinks to the thirsty, healing the sick, rendering service to
those in need. In general, as St. Thomas defined it, agape is "willing the good of another."
It is the act of sharing, or giving more than what is just because justice is just the
minimum of love. In the language of contemporary thinkers, this is love as "affirmation of
the other's being," "being-with-others," "being conscious of the other's presence.”
In Joseph Fletcher's situation ethics, 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, the advocate of ethics of
personalism , was also quoted as saying,"(t)he 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. Hence, promotion of
social justice is equivalent to promotion of the common good. It may also be said that promotion of the
common good is promotion of social justice. The common good is explained as follows:
In ordinary political discourse, the "common good" refers to those facilities whether material, cultural or
institutional-that the members of a community provide to all members in order to fulfill a relational
obligation they all have to care for certain interests 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; courts and the judicial system; public schools, museums and cultural institutions, public
transportation: civil liberties, such as the freedom of speech and the freedom of association; the system of
property: clean air and clean water; and national defense. The term itself may refer either to the interests that
members have in common or to the facilities that serve common interests. For example, people may say, "the
new public library will serve the common good" or "the public library is part of the common good."
 In other words, it may be said that when the government improves public property and services, and
develops the natural resources, it simultaneously promotes equal access to wealth, opportunities and
privileges within society. Farm to market roads, expressways, railways, etc. will allow every individual the
opportunities to bring their products to the market. Free public schools will allow all children the
opportunity to go to school. This means social justice.
 Plato, justice means giving what is due by doing one's own function. In Plato's Republic, there are three classes of
people, namely, the craftsmen, soldiers and rulers or guardian. The virtues expected to be inherent in each class are
correspondingly temperance, courage and wisdom. Each member of its class must acquire and maintain the virtue in their
class, Craftsmen should be temperant in all aspects of their lives, temperant in acquiring, using and keeping their wealth;
temperant in their ambition. If they become ambitious and hypocritical by aspiring to become soldiers and pretending to
be soldiers, injustice anses because they won't be able to secure the country. A policeman is just when he does his job,
providing security of his people with courage. He becomes unjust when instead of patrolling the streets to drive bad
elements, he is going around soliciting tongs. When he does not do his job by sleeping while on duty, then a lot people
will suffer from the unrestrained criminalities. 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. If he is not temperant, i.e. he is number one in graft and corruption, if he
is a coward and has no will power, or political will to introduce what is best for the people, and if he is not a wise
president, then injustice results and the people suffer.
B. Justice as the Minimum Demand of Love
 William Luijpen, referred to justice as "the minimum demand of love." To do justice is
already an act of love, the minimum demand of love. Which means that love is more, gives
more than what is just. Mathematically, if love is 100 percent of being for others, then justice
may just be only 10 percent. A just employer pays the minimum wage to employees, a loving
employer, pays more than the minimum wage, even when it hurts. If there are two people lost
in the cold and one has two jackets and the other has none, justice demands that one should
share the other his other jacket, the least that he can do, but that is just the minimum demand
of love.
 C. Distributive Justice

Distributive justice is "justice that is concerned with the distribution or allotment of

goods, duties, and privileges in concert with the merits of individuals, and the best
interests of society."
 Features Of Distributive Justice

 a) 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." This is
not equalization in terms of quantity; it is equalization in terms of entitlement to due process of law and equal
protection of the law.
 b) Capitalist and free-market systems let the law of demand and supply follow its course. Ideally it is a self-
regulation process. It 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. This means no artificial control or regulations. It is supposed to
arrive naturally at its own equilibrium. Free market is supposed to be an equalizer. During waiting time for
natural course of things, public necessities or utilities may demand immediate intervention which should be
more of an exception than the rule.
 c) Socialists follow the rule, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." This requires
collective ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange with the aim of operating for use
rather than for profit. Possible downside of this system is there is no motivation for expansion and growth.

 d) Taxation is government's getting a part of what its people earn in order have money to spend for public
services, operating and maintaining public places or properties, for people's use. It is practically demanding
from taxpayers a minimum of justice, to make the enjoyment of the wealth at least more equitable although not
equalizer. It is a government interference with private property. more or less compelling people to give a share
from the fruits of their labor, a way of compelling diffusion of wealth.
 e) 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. The Constitution also gives a government the right to take private property for public
use under the doctrine of eminent domain.
 f) Property for Public Use The government has a Constitution- granted power to take private property for public
use with just compensation. Citizen's ownership of property is not absolute. For the sake of the public, the
government exercises this power to equitably distribute opportunity for the use enjoyment of wealth or property.

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

 Richard T. Garner and Bernard Rosen (1967) tried to identify the most acceptable criterion of the rightness or
wrongness of action, the goodness or badness of character or of personal life. For these authors, the best
framework is a synthesis of the teleological and deontological framework. 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). This means one arrives at an assessment of
the rightness or wrongness of an act, goodness or badness of a character or trait by considering not only the
consequences (affecting not only the self but also others) of applying a rule or doing an act, but also considering
other factors like the situation or conditions involved.
PRESENTER:

CUTE BOY BAYOT

RITCHIE BASTIAN