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Social justice is how justice is served throughout a society as a whole or to it's classes. Various unique ideas on creating a just society have been established throughout history. Two of the more well-known concepts are those of Locke and Marx. While both have their ideas for a "Just State", they are both very different within their aspects.
John Locke's views on social justice and a just state began with his belief that all humans are governed by what he calls "natural laws" and are protected by their "inalienable personal rights." Our inalienable rights are life, liberty, health, and property. They are considered inalienable rights because they are God-given, and ideally, no other human could ever have the right to remove or threaten the existence of them.
One of Locke's more important concepts is that of the "right to property". He elaborated much farther than the idea of one's possession of material objects. His idea of one's right to property centers on our right to our own bodys. This includes the very important idea that we can all live our lives freely with the right to pursue happiness.
Locke describes the state of nature as being one where all men are free to perform their own actions, and everyone is equal. No one person has more power or jurisdiction than another, and it is reciprocated. This means that if one person has the power to do something to or make a legal decision regarding a second, that person has the same power over the first person. In this state of nature as described by Locke, the people are governed by what he calls natural laws. As Locke states in The Second Treatise of Civil Government, “…and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and indep...
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...children due to poverty and disease, was a factor in fueling his drive towards creating a just society.
Marx argued that the class system created a feudal society. "The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society." The proletariat made up a greater percentage of the population, and as Marx saw it, made them greater in strength. This, combined with the threat of their economic stability, gives them an advantage in forming a revolt against the bourgeoisie. As Marx saw it, eliminating the class system entirely over time would be the key point in creating a just society. In his ideal society, there would be economic equality, and no class division. People would be able to do what they wanted, therefore there would be no desire to exploit.
John Locke strongly believed in more rights for the people and was against oppression. In his book, Second Treatise on Civil Government, Locke stated, “(W)e must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose [manage] of their possessions. . .” (Document A). Locke means every man is naturally equal, no one was created better and he has certain guaranteed rights. This helps society because it would deny a monarch to strip a person of their guaranteed rights and it would make the monarch less powerful and his/her power would be given to the people.
John Locke was an English philosopher who lived during 1632-1704. In political theory he was equally influential. Contradicting Hobbes, Locke maintained that the original state of nature was happy and characterized by reason and tolerance; all human beings were equal and free to pursue "life, health, liberty, and possessions." The state formed by the social contract was guided by the natural law, which guaranteed those inalienable rights. He set down the policy of checks and balances later followed in the U.S. Constitution; formulated the doctrine that revolution in some circumstances is not only a right but an obligation; and argued for broad religious freedom.
According to John Locke everyone has natural rights. John Locke came up with natural rights, by thinking about what they could be for a long and vigorous time. Locke said that natural rights are “life, health, liberty, and possessions” (9). Life is something that no one can take away from anyone. Locke said, “no ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possession” (9). Life is not an absolute right. An example of this is if there was a train full of ten thousand people about to hit a rock, and you are by the switch that could save the ten thousand people, but if you use the switch you are killing a twelve-year-old girl on the other track. Liberty is doing what ever someone wants to do, and they can’t be punished for
According to Liberalism, people should be granted liberty and equality. This political view is one in which it believes in free and fair elections, a Bill of Rights, and most importantly, civil rights. The foundation of the Liberalist political view can be traced all the way back to the 17th century when philosopher John Locke introduced the philosophy of people having natural rights. Locke’s philosophy included what is known as the Law of Nature in which he states that people use reason to pursue their own self-interest and that they are born with an innate sense of right and wrong. Locke also introduced the idea of State of Nature in which people live within reason without a government. Locke believed that in an absolute State of Nature, people could live together in a rational matter. For example, there would be a rational limitation on property. This means that people would only use as much land as they needed in order to survive. Of all the ideas Locke introduced, his most important one would be that people are born with natural rights. These natural rights Locke is referring to are the right to life, liberty, and property....
1. First of all, John Locke reminds the reader from where the right of political power comes from. He expands the idea by saying, “we must consider what estate all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit.” Locke believes in equality among all people. Since every creature on earth was created by God, no one has advantages over another. He makes a strong suggestion by saying, “that creatures of the same species and rank, should also be equal one amongst another, without subordination or subjection, unless the lord and master of them all should, by any manifest declaration of his will, set one above another, and confer on him, by an evident and clear appointment, an undoubted right to dominion and sovereignty.” For people to confirm the state of Nature, a law is set that obliges people to follow and consult it. The Law of Nature brings many things that need to be followed by each person. Locke describes the law’s consequences if not obeyed by saying, “the execution of the law of Nature is in that state put into every man’s hands, whereby every one has a right to punish the transgressors of that law to such a degree as may hinder its violation.” Every law is fair and equal to every person. As you have equal rights, you may also be punished equally if you don’t obey it.
Locke believed that people created governments by freely consenting to those governments and that governments should serve citizens, not hold them in subjection.1
What John Locke was concerned about was the lack of limitations on the sovereign authority. During Locke’s time the world was surrounded by the monarch’s constitutional violations of liberty toward the end of the seventeenth century. He believed that people in their natural state enjoy certain natural, inalienable rights, particularly those to life, liberty and property. Locke described a kind of social contract whereby any number of people, who are able to abide by the majority rule, unanimously unite to affect their common purposes. The...
Locke states that in order for a civil society to be established, the individuals must forfeit some of their rights that they have in the state of nature. This needs to be done so everyone can live together in peace.
Karl Marx, a German philosopher, saw this inequality growing between what he called "the bourgeoisie" and "the proletariat" classes. The bourgeoisie was the middle/upper class which was growing in due to the industrial revolution, and the proletariats were the working class, the poor. These two classes set themselves apart by many different factors. Marx saw five big problems that set the proletariat and the bourgeoisie aside from each other. These five problems were: The dominance of the bourgeoisie over the proletariat, the ownership of private property, the set-up of the family, the level of education, and their influence in government. Marx, in The Communist Manifesto, exposes these five factors which the bourgeoisie had against the communist, and deals with each one fairly. As for the proletariat class, Marx proposes a different economic system where inequality between social classes would not exist.
Karl Marx noted that society was highly stratified in that most of the individuals in society, those who worked the hardest, were also the ones who received the least from the benefits of their labor. In reaction to this observation, Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto where he described a new society, a more perfect society, a communist society. Marx envisioned a society, in which all property is held in common, that is a society in which one individual did not receive more than another, but in which all individuals shared in the benefits of collective labor (Marx #11, p. 262). In order to accomplish such a task Marx needed to find a relationship between the individual and society that accounted for social change. For Marx such relationship was from the historical mode of production, through the exploits of wage labor, and thus the individual’s relationship to the mode of production (Marx #11, p. 256).
We can say that Locke conceived all the natural rights as things which an individual brings with him from birth, and consequently as indefeasible or inviolable claims upon both society and government. Such claims can never be justly set aside, since society itself exists to protect them; they can be regulated only to the extent that is necessary to give them effective protection. In other words, the “life, liberty and estate” of one person can be limited only to make effective the equally valid claims of another person to the same right.
Marx believed that the class system was the main problem and should be demolished. He believed that everyone should be equal and should work together in order to create. In his thoughts in The Communist Manifesto, he tells of all the benefits due to the many changes that will be made in his classless society. Socially everyone will be looked upon as equal, and everyone will contribute to their society. Intellectually, the people will not be selfish and will all come together to combine their ideas. Politically things will be different since there will be no government. Also, religions will be abolished and there will be no higher beings. Economically, property will not be privately owned and everything will be shared by all. In this society, there are many problems and this seems like a great way to bring about change.
In order for laws to be enacted, they must be known by the constituents. Laws are created, enacted, and enforced to preserve civil society. For Locke and Rousseau these laws are made by the people who will have to abide by them. Considering that these laws were agreed by the majority, it is expect that they will follow said laws. Those who break the law in civil society are punished to the full extent of the law by an impartial judge. The difference between breaking the law in civil society and the state of nature is that justice in the civil society is meant to deter lawlessness with punishments proportionate to the crime. In the state of nature/ war it is likely that the punishment will not be proportionate to the crime.
It is solely within the state of nature, in which nothing more supreme than humankind exists, that the essence of man is revealed . The notion of a situation in which law would not dictate human behavior set philosophers from the Age of Enlightenment on a quest to uncover the innate attributes of man. Consequently, these writers concluded that man cannot peaceably exist without government, thereby leading to the establishment of the social contract theory. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke’s ideas regarding the state of nature were expanded upon to develop the social contract theory which served to express the purpose of government. The conceptions of Hobbes and Locke as presented in their theories had a gargantuan impact on the formation of the
Marx thought of a society that would create equality and bring power to the people. He didn 't expect society to be totally equal but a society with distributed justice. According to Marx, a good society is when there is no exploitation. To get rid of exploitation, we have to get rid of surplus values and make everyone equal. But Marx also knows that no good society can exist as long as exploitation is allowed. That is why some societies will want a Marx type of living and some will not. A society that has used and embodied the Marxist tradition is Russia. They have used Marx ideas and lived by the communist manifesto. This way of life worked for many years and to the people of Russia, it made a good society. But to people outside of Russia, people who lived in a democratic state or country, they looked at it as a failed society. A type of society that should not be allowed to exist in the world of democracy. But like Marx said, some societies will be able to live in a Marxist environment and some won’t. Marx also states, “ In a communist society, the working class will be more important than the capital class”(M 10-25-2016). By having everyone equal, this allows for class conflict to be no more and exploitation not exist. Marx knows there can be no good society but a Marxist society will do its best to form a ideal