kenneth.mackendrick at utoronto.ca wrote:
> On Fri, 13 Oct 2000 16:27:11 +0200 (SAST) Peter van Heusden <pvh at egenetics.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Possibly. I am not really convinced that the concept of 'justice' is
> ultimately a useful one on which to base a society. What does a just society
> look like?
Justice is emergent from a social order characterized by mutually dependent but mutually antagonistic interests. Where there is (objective) antagonism but no mutual dependence, some equivalent of genocide (or driving out) of one or more parties results. This is exhibited by what happened in the Great Plains a couple of thousand years ago when the climate changed and there was insufficient rain to suppport the preceding (peaceful) neolithic village society.
When there is mutual dependence but no objective antagonism you have various forms of pre-class societies or communism. The situation in the Great Plains *before* the climate change.
Carrol