Coetzee and Dostoyevsky: Self-Policing and Justice

As citizens of Earth, we are required to live by certain rules designated to maintain order through out society, but we know them as laws. With such a complex idea there has to be a companionship by which officials dictate who breaks these rules and how they are punished. Thus the justice system was born. The concept of justice is a byproduct of the system but is just as important. Individuals must know and understand judgment to know whether or not justice is being served. These ideas coincide so profoundly that you need both to make sound decisions. The novels Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee and Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky examine the individual’s responsibility to the justice system and how it affects the group as a whole. Through the fates of Lurie and Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky and Coetzee make self-policing the most important factor in societal justice.

Encyclopedia Britannica Defines Justice as the concept of a proper proportion between a person’s deserts (what is merited) and the good and bad things that befall or are allotted to him or her. There is a duality to the idea of justice because it acts as a reward and a deterrent. It makes sure the people who abide by rules get treated “justly” but also insures an example out of the people who break laws so that the amount of law-breakers dissipates. Judgment’s importance stems from its dual-concept base. Britannica defines it in terms of law and thought. Judgment in all legal systems is a decision of a court adjudicating the rights of the parties to a legal action before it. The Encyclopedia explains judgment in thought using multiple components:

“A simple form of realistic thinking—i.e., thinking that is oriented toward the external environment—underlies the ab...

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...s, and hard decisions but in the end self-policing asserts its importance.

Crime and Punishment takes us in the puzzle centered on Raskolnikov, a young man in old Russia who commits murder and then after a lot of lies and deceit finally pays for his wrongdoings.

Works Cited

Juul S (2010) Solidarity and social cohesion in late modernity: a question of recognition, justice

and judgment in situation.

European Journal of Social Theory

13(2): 253–69.

"judgment." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 04 May. 2014. .

"thought." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 04 May. 2014. .