Greg Butler asks:
>"What is it about 'social justice' that requires the distinction from plain
old justice? And, since plain old justice *wasn't* mentioned, does that
mean 'social justice' is more important than normal justice?"
Mr. Butler has asked a very good question that deserves a very good and
therefore a detailed answer.
The current civil legal system (and/or justice system) is theoretically
based primarily on the perception or goal of individual equity in
jurisprudence and protecting the rights of the individual. NOTE: As with all
political systems, it is understood (apriori) that it is flawed.
An exception -- limited though it is -- are class actions designed to obtain
equity resolutions for groups injured by an individual's wrongs. (In this
regard a corporation is considered an individual for purposes of tort
litigation.)
My concern, in this limited instance, is the hopeful expansion of the
legal -- and social paradigm -- to include the understanding that true
equity resolutions necessary for the creation of an ideal social order are
best focused on relieving (or eliminating) a society of as many of the
inequities that exist among its members as may be possible.
In the broader sense my argumentum philisophicus is that as learning and
understanding increase on a broader and broader scale with a presumed and
accompanied increase in the ability to engage in continuous critical
thinking and reasoning, actions determined by the superficiality of opinion
based on emotion (rather than reason) will decline in equal geometric
proportion.
I trust that this response will produce a serious constructive dialogue on
the improvement of the human condition.
Happy New Year to one and all,
AMG
>> ----------
>> From: Abraham Moses Genen[SMTP:futurist@frontiernet.net]
>> Reply To: extropians@extropy.com
>> Sent: Monday, December 29, 1997 6:05 PM
>> To: extropians@extropy.com
>> Subject: Re: The Violence Solution
>>
>>
>> Allow me to suggest, however, that continuous improvement in the
>> martial
>> arts or any other form of physical self-defence might be best deferred
>> in
>> advance of first achieving the ability to engage in continuous
>> critical
>> reasoning and the ability to make broad based value judgements that
>> are
>> wholly concerned with reason, social justice, equity and devoid of
>> selfishness, passion and unneeded emotion.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>