On Jun 28, 2009, at 9:30 PM, ravi wrote:
> ...I am saying that at the outset there are no things other than
> special conceptions of justice. You have your ideas of justice.
> Khamenei has his. Bush has his. So on. How do we develop some
> universal norms against which these can be evaluated?...
This is so wrong. There is a universal conception of justice, shared by Ravi, Doug, Khamenei, Bush, and just about everyone else. If Ravi had profited at all from the former lives spent as an inhabitant of Plato's beard he would be able to see that the wildly discrepant verbal formulae each one uses to define the word "justice" mask an underlying recognition of the same idea of justice. And why would it be so visible? Just think--suppose Ravi (or Doug or Khamenei or Bush or Hitler) is standing on the street watching as a peaceful political protest march is passing by. Suddenly the cops, accompanied by thugs from a paramilitary "militia," burst on the scene, beating and arresting demonstrators.** Ravi (or Doug or Khamenei or Bush or Hitler) is beaten, arrested, tortured, convicted, and imprisoned for terrorism. Is there anyone who would doubt that each of these gentlemen could with total precision claim to have been a victim of *injustice*? And could explain to the satisfaction of all why their treatment was unjust? So, since injustice as such can be only the privation of justice, the recognition and understanding of injustice common to Ravi and Doug and Khamenei and Bush and Hitler and everyone else indicates conclusively that all share a common--though nonverbal--understanding and recognition of the idea of justice.
Shane Mage
> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos
**people may define injustice in many fanciful ways. But they can recognize injustice when it impacts them in some immediate way. As the Old Man said, "everybody reacts differently when tickled with a feather, but everybody reacts the same when prodded by a red-hot poker."