The
Justice word brings two concepts to our minds: a concrete and an
abstract. The concrete concept is the image of a court composed of judge ,lawyer ,prosecutor, jury,and
defendant. The abstract concept is
broader; you can’t see it, but you can feel, and sometimes it is contrary to
justice of the courts and the law. Often, we think that the law is being
unfair because it’s not acting as we want. In Antigone, tragedy by Sophocles, the two brothers of the
protagonist kill each other
fighting for the throne of
Thebes. Creon, uncle of Antigone and new ruler has decided that Eteocles will be honored and Polyneices will be in public shame. The rebel brother's body will not be
sanctified by holy rites, and will lie unburied on the battlefield, prey for
carrion animals like worms and vultures, the harshest punishment at the time.Antigone
doesn’t agree with that edict and bury her brother and she is buried alive in a
cave.
In
the play of Sophocles, there are two kinds of Justice; the law’s and the
individual’s. Creon, which is the law, just think Polyneices’ body
shouldn’t be buried,because the nephew allied to Thebes enemies to win
Eteocles. Antigone thinks Uncle decree is unfair and contrary to the
divine laws. The righteousness of Thebes is based on the good of the state
and the Antigone’s rectitude is settled on your feelings, which she believes to
be the same of the gods. After all, what is justice?
Someone
needs something, goes to a shop,pays for the object and becomes its new
owner. If someone takes something and doesn’t pay, so the shop has a loss and if he pays and doesn’t take the object,so he is a injured
consumer. The sense of justice is similar to the act of consuming.We make
acts and we want to get something that has
our own preset price If we believe that we made the good, we expect
to receive something good . When someone does something bad, we expected that the evil will be its payment. Pay
good actions with good action and bad actions with bad actions .Is it true? Not
always.
Injustice is a feeling that occurs when the received doesn’t have the value of a
given action.You don’t get what you give. You think that you gave good and you
got evil or someone gave evil and got good. However, the good to one can
be the evil to other. That one what I call unfair may think I'm being unfair by
calling him that. Thus, the sense of justice and the sense of injustice may
even be the same for everyone, but the reasons that trigger these feelings
depend on what is the good and what is bad for each person.
Socrates
was sentenced to death for going against the laws of Athens, and shortly after
ingesting the poison the philosopher said he could have avoided the conviction
if he had given up the fair life. According to him, the
legislation of Athens was unfair , because that was not according to his
interests . In other words, there is only Justice if something is in accordance with the individual
interest There is no right or
wrong law, fair or unfair legislation, grateful or ungrateful people. There
are actions that the individual agrees and actions that the individual doesn’t agree. Antigone
did justice to bury her brother, but Creon was also doing justice when he condemned
the niece to death.Which of the two was unfair and who was the fair? The answer is easy: one who
committed the action that I agree is fair and the other is the unfair.
Sometimes,
the disharmony among justices (individual,
social and legal) generates an unhealthy
desire to impose “what is right”. This imposition appears in various forms:
religions, dictatorships,revolutions,lynching, murder, genocide,
physical and psychological torture, verbal abuse, and even suicide (because
there are those who kill for the unfair feel the burden of guilt on
themselves). There is also the violence that doesn’t act, but it keeps in mind of the one who believes didn’t
receive what should get. This one expects the other to charge what someone owes
him. His “right “ will be imposed for others.The “Other” can be God,
karma,an accident, an illness, a disappointment or remorse. It doesn’t matter
what is the Other; it matters that the “right” prevails. That’s the sense of
Justice,my “right” above your “right”. I end with a question: Is Justice
the same feeling of revenge?
Hugs
Marcelo Maia Gomes
Degree in Philosophy
