CLASSICAL THEORIES OF JUSTICE : Plato's Theory of Justice : It would be significant to observe at the outset that the modern concept of justice is different from the traditional concept. Traditional concept of justice focused on the 'just man'. It was primarily concerned with the virtues befitting a man for enhancing his moral worth. It consisted in the performance of his duties attached to his status as determined by the prevalent law, social customs and mood of thought. A typical example of the traditional approach to the problem of justice is provided by Plato's theory of justice which sought to prescribe the duties of different citizens and required them to develop virtues befitting those duties.
Plato prescribes different duties for different classes of citizens whose fulfillment would be instrumental in building up a just social order. Justice results from each element in society doing its appropriate task, doing it well and doing it only. in order to achieve perfect harmony which symbolizes justice, it is imperative that reason must rule within the man as well as within the state.
So in just or ideal state, the reins of government shall remain in the hands of a class of philosopher-king who are supposed to be the living embodiments of wisdom, whereas material production and military defence salary and entrusted to the producer and warrior classes are respectively. Thus in Plato's perfect state :
The industrial forces would produce but they would not rule; the military forces would protect but they would not rule; the forces of knowledge and science and philosophy would be nourished and protected at they would rule (Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy; 1954).
Plato enumerated four cardinal virtues. Of these, the first three (Wisdom, Courage, Temperance, were the befitting virtues for each social class whereas (justice) was the befitting virtue of the social order. As shown in the following chart :
Aristotle's Theory of Justice : While Plato's theory of justice represents the radical view in that it sought to change the existing social order of his times, Aristotle's theory of justice embodies the conservative view in favour of maintaining the existing order. In Aristotle's view, justice was concerned with the regulation of human relations. He held that the identical notion of justice in the minds of people was responsible for binding them together, and this was the reason behind the existence of the state.
Aristotle's identified three types of Justice: (a) Distributive Justice; (b) Retributive (also called Corrective, Rectificatory or Remedial) Justice; (c) Commutative Justice.
The legislators should be concerned with distributive justice whereas the judge should be concerned with retributive and commutative justice.
(a) Distributive Justice : Distributive justice deals with the allocation of honours and wealth. Its basic principle is 'treating equals equally and unequal unequally'. Aristotle preferred to rely on the prevailing custom and customary law for deciding as to who were equals or unequals.
(b) Retributive Justice : Retributive justice deals with imposition of punishment and payment of damages. It requires full restoration of any loss involuntarily sustained in the course of transactions between individual members of the economy.
(c) Commutative Justice : Commutative justice seeks to determine the amount of one sort of goods or services to be rendered in return for another sort in voluntary transaction of buying and selling, or letting and hiring. Its guiding principal should be full equivalence.
MODERN VIEW OF JUSTICE : Whereas the traditional view of justice was largely conservative, the modern view of justice embodies a progressive idea. Traditional view required the individual to conform to the existing social order; modern view of justice seeks to transform society itself for the realisation of certain human values.
In short, the traditional view of justice has given way to the modern idea of 'Social Justice'. D.D. Raphael, in his Problems of Political Philosophy (1976), has made an important point: "The term 'social Justice' tends to issue from the mouths of reformers, and to be regarded with suspicion by those who are satisfied with the existing order".
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