True or False: Corrective Justice is the Most Important Form of Justice

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Essentially, “justice is the quality of being impartial, fair, and just” (Pollsky, 2012, p.53). Furthermore, the act of being just is derived from the latin word “jus” which translates to matters involving laws or rules (Pollsky, 2012, p.53). There are three types of justice and they each differ in matters of circumstance: firstly, distributive justice attempts to provide equality for each individual; corrective justice attempts to reverse an unfair advantage, provide a remedy to the problem, and show equality within the population; lastly, reciprocal justice provides the notion of equality amongst freely exchanged goods amongst individuals. According to Aristotle, distributive justice incorporates the allocation of resources amongst society(Aristotle, trans W.d Ross, 1994). These resources can include education, profession, honor, status, money, or property (Pollsky, 2012, p. 54). There are a variety of theories that describe various methods of carrying out distributive justice including ideas of need, merit, and entitlement. These ideas work in order to bring the goal of justice which is equality and fairness within society. However, the reason that this is not the most important form of justice is that it is too narrow in scope. A quick look in history can provide many examples of unfair and unjust treatment with distributive ideals. Even today, in our own country, we can see many perceived flaws with this type of justice. Occupy Wall Street started as a protest movement that sought to provide equality in pay for all citizens not just those fortunate enough to be born or rose to the one-percent. The common adage that is used very frequently is “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. This very well could be perceived as... ... middle of paper ... ... time is worth the payment he can up and leave without fear of any punishment. In conclusion, if the most important function of the three types of justice is to uphold justice then corrective justice is the most important. It seeks to right the wrongs and to end unfair advantages. In regards to the distributive form of justice, it does not seek to spread equality; equality is derived from it. Corrective Justice provides fairness and impartiality even to those who are unfair, bias, and unjust. It seeks to find the fairest solution. In comparison with Reciprocal justice, it is not dependent on vis-à-vis contractual agreements in which equality is perceived by the individual in a trade based system; its basis of equality is inherent and rooted in its foundation. Thus, amongst the three forms of justice, I believe, that corrective justice stands to be the most important.

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