What is Justice? My philosophical ramblings...

Excerpts from Wikipedia:

Concept of Justice

Justice concerns itself with the proper ordering of things and persons within a society. As a concept it has been subject to philosophical, legal, and theological reflection and debate throughout our history. A number of important questions surrounding justice have been fiercely debated over the course of western history: What is justice? What does it demand of individuals and societies? What is the proper distribution of wealth and resources in society: equal, meritocratic, according to status, or some other arrangement? There are myriad possible answers to these questions from divergent perspectives on the political and philosophical spectrum.

Studies at Western Kentucky University in 2008 have indicated that reactions to fairness are "wired" into the brain and that, "Fairness is activating the same part of the brain that responds to food in rats... This is consistent with the notion that being treated fairly satisfies a basic need" [5]. Research conducted in 2003 at Emory University, Georgia, involving Capuchin Monkeys demonstrated that other cooperative animals also possess such a sense and that "inequality aversion may not be uniquely human."[6] indicating that ideas of fairness and justice may be instinctual in nature.

This semester I've read from authors with a wide range of perspectives and agendas. I think, for me it all hinged on Adrian Piper's "Ideology, Confrontation, and Political Self.Awareness: An Essay"

General concepts of "justice" indicate the human capacity or instinct to judge. While this is an important facet of humans as a species, when people forget that they are animals and don't pay respect to their own and others' individual instinctual needs for self-sustainability, we engage in the very behavior we preach to avoid. We assume we are right. Piper discusses many reasons why and how we justify arriving at this conclusion that we are right and someone else is wrong. I appreciated the fair and gentle accusations she made directly to (you) the reader. The presentation was perfect. We need not only judge ourselves as we judge others but judge the rule set we are judging from. 

I conclude that justice and empathy are the same beast just as are humans and animals. We are too tied to everything and everyone to think there is one objective justice or truth.

Justice comes from within the self first, and then in empathy and relationship to others. Empathy is most productively made through the active and open engagement of ideas with others. Reception is not just listening but imagining, reaching for that which is inside oneself and opening that to another. It takes a lot of trust, something as animals we don't do easily. Empathy is a constantly evolving thing. When people get lazy, they stagnate and empathy is no longer possible.

Though justice will always be a complicated issue. I for one will continue on the basis of empathy - because that's really as far as I can get by myself. But it's far enough to have not stopped yet...