Films Of Moral Struggle: Critical Response

James Park
Professor High
Films of Moral Struggle
9/30
Critical Response 2
According to Aristotle, justice can be defined as lawfulness and fairness. On the other hand, injustice is defined as lawlessness and unfairness. Justice can be divided into two different categories, which are universal and particular. Universal justice is the state of a person who is generally lawful and fair. Particular justice deals with divisible goods such as honor, money, and safety, where one person’s gain results in a corresponding loss by an other.
There are two forms of particular justice: distributive and rectificatory. Distributive justice deals with the allocation of wealth among the members of a community. It makes sure that the quantities of good each

person receives is proportional to his merit and is geometrically proportional. This is socially just due to the fact that the virtuous person receives more than the unfair person. It can be safe to say that this justice is a mean preventing the immorality of giving more or less than a person deserves.

Rectificatory justice deals with and fixes the unequal distributions of gain and loss arithmetically between two individuals. This specific justice is used in cases of injustice involving voluntary actions such as trading or involuntary occurrences such as assault or theft. Like current day, the justice is served in court where the judge restores a mean between the gains and losses of both individuals. Reciprocal justice, on the other hand, does not fit either distributive or rectificatory justice. Aristotle distinguishes reciprocal justice by utilizing an example that shows that if someone has wounded an official, he ought not to be wounded only but punished also. Further, if an official were to inflict a wound on someone, he should not suffer the same injury in return. However, it is never stated that the official is not open to be reprimanded. This example shows that the Pythagorean conception of reciprocity, “an eye for an eye”, is excluded for the official is not wounded in return. If the official were to be injured in return and the non-official were to not be punished in addition, this would fall into the category of rectification. Rectification requires equal return to both parties and this example clearly shows that the official to not be struck back while

the non-official deserves to be injured and punished in addition. This example can not also be clarified as distributive justice for distributive justice is practiced in cases where there is no injustice. Reciprocal justice revolves around the differences of merits between the two parties involved, in contrast to rectificatory justice which treats everyone as equals. We can see rectificatory justice throughout the film The Road. Because of the new world’s lack of resources, it is safe to come to a conclusion that the world is changing. Mankind is dying out in response to the altered environment and rectificatory justice can be seen here. The earth treats all mankind equally and there is no injustice that the world inflicts upon the human beings that inhabit it. On the other hand, human beings have taken this world for granted and the world is making mankind reimburse for its arrogance. The final moments of the movie display that ethical behavior is still possible without resources when the son is recruited by a band of scavengers who have been following the father and son the whole movie, which supporters Christ’s parable and Hillel’s maxims. Another example that displays ethical behavior is the father’s loyalty for his son. The father lives by the motto “an eye for an eye” in accordance with his son, making whoever touches his son the next victim of the father’s retaliation.