INTRODUCTION
A fundamental feature of human life
is that we live in a society because no human being is self sufficient. Just as
Aristotle would say that it is only a beast or a god that would live outside
the society because of self sufficiency. When humans are separated from the
values of law and justice, they become the worse of all animals. The part of
philosophy that deals with and examines these societies founded by men and the
ways they should function is the socio-political philosophy. Referencing from
the etymology of the words that made up this discipline of philosophy, the word
social derives from a Latin word socius which means companion or
associate, while the term political derives
from a Greek word Polis which means a
city state.
The task of socio-political
philosophy is to critically examine and evaluate the social and political
beliefs of man’s society. It is concerned with the basic factual questions
about human nature and society. Socio-political philosophy is normative as a discipline
and not descriptive. It describes ideologies that operate within the polis and
society. It includes setting up of norms or ideal standards for society and
government. It provides us with cases and what we ought to do in the political
terrain.
Political philosophy provides man
with norms, and political values like equality, justice liberty, freedom, and
other political and social orders. On the contrary morals and politics should
be kept separate because the requirements for the national interest necessarily
may be different from moral interpersonal relationships.
The focus of this term paper is to
examine the relationship between liberty, equality, and justice if they are
actually related in the real sense of the word as part of the values provided
to man by socio-political philosophy. There is need and it would be of a great
help if before I proceed to the main interest of this work, make a conceptual
clarification of terms as they are used with regards to this work.
CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION
Terms needs to be conceptualized as
they are used with regards to this paper work. Terms like relationship,
liberty, equality, and justice.
RELATIONSHIP
Relationship is a way in which two
or more things are connected. Relationship as used and as is to be understood
in this work, referencing from the dictionary meaning of the word, connotes or
presupposes the way in which the three political values, liberty, equality and
justice are connected to each other.
LIBERTY
This is a freedom to live as one
chooses without too many restrictions from government or authorities. It is
formally described as absence of restraint. The liberty of one individual does
not endanger the liberty of others. Liberty is the legal right and freedom to
do something. A key and fundamental question here is the extent to which
government may legitimately restrict the liberties of individuals. The question
of liberty is closely connected with the question of individual rights. Liberty
cannot be restricted unless the restriction can be justified on the grounds of
promoting the well being of the greater number.
THE NATURE OF LIBERTY
Liberty is a quality of man. Man is
distinguished from other living beings; man demands freedom and sets up
institutions to secure it. The problem of liberty involves the adjustment of
claims between individuals and the society.
EQUALITY
This is the act of being taken to be
of the same standards in right, status, advantages etc. the quality can be
frequently contrasted with equity. Equality is a fundamental presumption of
liberal political and moral theory and it is rooted in the idea that since each
individual is regarded as being of equal moral worth, they are entitled to the
same rights and respect. The view of equal moral rights originally is coming
from the liberal classical claims that all individuals are endowed with natural
rights, which they possess by virtue of being human.[1]It
is a prominent idea of the present day world.
The principle of equality is
multi-dimensional; it can be applied to different aspects of the social life.
This principle was first initiated as a demand for legal equality; equal grant
of legal status to the individuals of the society disregarding their capacities
and other differences. Political equality implies an equal political right for
citizens.[2]
Equality as a term is descriptive
not prescriptive. The notion of equality in the abstract sense is compatible
with the idea that because people differ in certain ways, they ought to be
treated differently. Equity is derived from the principle of natural justice
rather than from the letter or the spirit of law.[3]
The modern idea of equity is derived from the theory of rights.
JUSTICE
This is the legal system used to
punish people who have committed crimes, the fair treatment of people. Justice
is a complex concept; to refer to something as just is to express approval of
it as being right in a specific way. It is used both of law and of social
morality. Justice is regarded as a concept concerned with the order of the
society as a whole; it is also an expression of the right of individuals in
contrast to the claims of general social order. The concept of justice is used
to cover the whole field of principles and procedures that ought to be
followed.[4]
Justice is the foundation of social morality.
Justice
is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought.
Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare
of society as a whole cannot over-ride. For this reason justice denies that the
loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others. It
does not follow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the
larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many.
I
propose to discuss the relationship between liberty, equality and justice in
the light of what I assume and believe to be the end of man’s political
activity.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LIBERTY,
EQUALITY AND JUSTICE.
My
concern is to pay special attention to the relationship between the
institutional arrangements of the basic structure of society, and the ways in
which the aims are to respect the values of liberty, justice and equality. The
principles and value of liberty, equality and justice are closely related to
each other, they complement each other on the basis of function; when there is
difficulty or complication in the understanding of one, the other value can
suffice and cover up. Liberty is a principle that stipulates freedom for
individuals in the society but in order for one’s liberty not to be a threat to
the other, the principle of equality is necessarily needed to insure that
liberty for one does not deny the liberty of the other. To complete the
combination of the principles, all needs to be tied together and justified
under the bond of justice, this is where the relationship of the formal two
values are merged with that of the principle and value of justice. On the other
hand, justice is ensured by the principle and value of equality under a common
basis of liberty, liberty that would not connote denial for the other’s right
to liberty. Equality as a value is accomplished and manifested under the value
of justice. This is to ensure that the value and equal rights of individual
must not be exclusive but rather inclusive; a single individual of the society
must not be excluded from benefiting from the value of equality.
Justice
in a sense is the settlement of individual claims and allocation of benefits
among the members of the society and to ensure a successful and well
established allocation without complaints and conflicts, the value of equality
must be truly and strictly observed and followed to ensure that no one in the
society is being given priority over the other; no individual in the society
must be seen as being inferior or superior to the other. In a government,
liberty, equality and justice are required, all in its maximum, to provide an
average and fair democratic society; they ensure a successful working of
democracy. Liberty is most required to transform the will and opinion of the
people into public policies and decisions. The principle of justice and equality
equally helps to represent the minority group of the society.
On the political conception, sovereign states are not
merely instruments for realizing the pre-institutional value of justice among
human beings. Instead, their existence is precisely what gives the value of
justice its application, by putting the fellow citizens of a sovereign state
into a relation that they do not have with the rest of humanity, an
institutional relation which must then be evaluated by the special standards of
fairness and equality that fills out the content of justice. Justice, according
to John Rawls, demands fairness to persons, conceived of as free and equal. Part
of the first principle in his conception of justice as fairness is a
requirement of political equality, which presents the implications of
this conception of justice for the organization of the political process including
voting rights, and rules for organizing elections and aggregating votes. [5]
Liberty
and equality as principles and values are enlisted in a society (democratic) to
support the masses. Equity took its root from the principle of natural justice,
the principle of equality comprises the foundation of justice, and the struggle
for liberty is always triggered by a philosophy of equality. The values of
liberty and equality are both promoted by democracy. Democracy embraces the
positive conception of liberty in which the term is seen as the condition where
individuals are given the wherewithal to realize their human developmental
powers. Equality in the other hand is seen as a condition where all classes are
abolished and in which individuals own properties in common.
According to Ernest Barker’s
principles of social and political theory of 1951, justice represents a
synthesis of the principle of liberty, equality and fraternity. The values
functions alongside each other; there is a balance between the values. Justice
is the connection which brings these values together and an integral part of a
whole. It reconciles their conflicts and contradictions and gives them the shape
of universal principles of governance.
Justice
is the powering force of the remaining two values, equality and liberty. They
are held in high esteem because they are manifested in justice. Justice is the
model to which the goals of all these values conform and are focused. Justice
recognizes the dignity of the human person and his nature. The rational nature
of man dignifies him. Individuals are ‘ends-in-itself and not means to an end’.
In a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the
rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the
calculus of social interests.[6]
The three principles of justice are based on equality and liberty. The value of
justice rests on liberty; this is a patterned principle of justice.
No individual for the value and very
fact of the reality of justice must be treated as superior or inferior to
another and this is the converging point of the two values of justice and
equality. These are a part of their relationship. Individuals needs and deserve
equal freedom of personal development in their own rights to prove their worth
to the society. The principle of equality is not the final principle of
justice. The principle of liberty ceases to conform to that of justice until
the benefit of liberty is equally extended. Liberty as the absence of restraint
cannot be a universal principle until the principle of equality qualifies them.
In liberty one is not meant to be a threat to the other.
Restraint
on liberty can only be upheld on the condition of being imposed for the
interest of justice and equality. The principle of liberty is qualified by the
principle of equality and the principle of equality is qualified by the
principle of justice. It cannot be said that one has a general right to liberty
and consequently does not have a fundamental right to equality of any
interesting kind. There cannot be an assumption of conflict between the values.
Rights to equality that are in fact proposed are positive rights, which entail
that some people may be compelled to become equal or more nearly equal with
others in the respect in which equality is proclaimed and this is justice
extended. Rights to equality are compatible with rights to liberty. The
relationship between liberty and equality is crucial to an adequate
understanding of democracy. Liberty should be grounded on the value of justice
and equality.
It
is significant that the struggle for liberty is always triggered or informed by
a philosophy based on equality. When the oppressed charges against their
oppressors, a peasant revolt or a national struggle for independence, they
challenge and question the superiority of the oppressors, demanding their
rights to equality and justice on the universal principle of human justice and
liberty. The French revolution of 1789 fought for liberty and equality.
Liberty, coupled with equality, describes the conditions of human emancipation.
They constitute the voice of the masses being oppressed, the voice against
injustice and the voice for a change in social conditions that are not fair.[7]
Liberty and equality are complementary principles. It is essential to
understand the nature and essence of equality in order to determine its
established relationship with the principle of liberty and justice.
Liberty
as a principle is complementary to equality as a principle as well. If freedom
for one denies freedom for the other in turn, it would be a negation of liberty
as a universal principle. The view of liberty and equality as being
complementary implies the imposition of a reasonable restraint to freedom
(liberty) so that the freedom of one does not obstruct similar and equal
freedom for the other. In other words, the demand for substantive freedom
stipulates the provision of substantive equality. This will result in a
reduction of vast socio-economic disparities. Those on the side of maintaining
these disparities try to hide the true relationship between liberty, equality
and justice. The principle of equality radically demands a change in the social
arrangements that give undue control to a particular section of the society
over the life of others.[8]
Liberty and equality comprises the foundation of a just social order. In
historical perspective, the need for liberty was greatly supported by the idea
of equality. The demand for liberty implies the abolition of special privileges
of certain groups, hence equality of all citizens in every aspect.[9]
Rawls’
first principle of justice covers liberty, and he argues that, once a certain
level of material well-being is secured, it should always take priority over
the second principle regarding distributive justice. Liberty is more important
than the distribution of social and economic inequalities.[10]
Rawls
rejects the idea of rights prior to the principles of justice. Principles of
justice assign rights (and duties, benefits and burdens), so people can
only make a right claim once the principles of justice are in place. We
could object that justice is served when people receive what they have a
right to. We could argue, for instance, that people have a right to what
they need or deserve. A different theory, which bases justice on rights and liberty,
is that of Robert Nozick.
The
relationship between equality and liberty is crucial to an adequate
understanding of justice. We need to consider justice beyond material
distribution and equal rights. Justice-as fairness, understood only as the
application of the institutional principles, cannot fully establish social
equality. The principle of liberty will not conform to the principle of justice
until the benefit of liberty is equally extended to each individual in the
society. The principle of justice postulates not merely formal liberty and
equality, but a transformation of those social conditions which obstruct the
enjoyment of freedom and equality by ordinary men and women.[11]
Any limitation in the right of any section to equality can only be upheld when
it is duly proved that it is discrimination in favour of the weaker section in
the interests of justice.
Quoting
from Aristotle, “justice consists in treating equals equally and unequal
unequally. Those who are equal as citizens of a state may think they are
entitled to equal power, prestige and wealth, but when these privileges are
denied them, they will have a feeling of deprivation and a sense of injustice.
Pursuit for justice is a matter of procedure; its objective is to promote
freedom. It should provide for maximum opportunity to each individual to serve
his/her self-interest according to his/her own knowledge and wisdom.
Relationship
of liberty and equality to democracy in the light of what is assume and also
believe to be the end of man’s political activity may be hard to point out, But
liberty and equality are not abstract values, though it does not follow that
they are empirically measurable. Liberty and equality cannot be appraised, but
must be regarded as an ethical imperative.[12] It
is only as “ethical imperatives” that equality and liberty can have an
influence on the conduct of human life. Without these ethical imperatives” it
may be extremely difficult if not altogether impossible to explain social
changes. Equality is not similarity or sameness, nor is liberty license or
irresponsibility.[13] They
must be looked at as values whose content is continually replenished by
relevant substance reflecting the degree of the moral awareness of man. Neither
equality nor liberty should mean the absence of inequalities or constraint.
CONCLUSION
At
the outset, I suggested that the question of the relationship between liberty
and equality and justice sounded somewhat biased against extreme answers. But
in the end, we are left with what some will without doubt claim to be an extreme
answer. There is a primary relationship between the values but my concern is
how much of these relationship have we got to enforce. The relationship between
the values is directly connected with the concerns of individual rights because
the expression of individuality is very vital to society, and so the society
must allow its members to exercise their individuality by doing whatever they
desire, as long as their actions can be justified under the values of equality,
liberty and justice.
As
it relates to administration, the principles of the three values, justice,
equality and liberty needs to be properly enforced to ensure a conducive societal atmosphere
since it is fundamentally stated that human beings live in the society for the
very fact that no one is self sufficient. The values discussed in this paper
plays a great role in relationship with themselves to help man achieve his aim
of being in the society, as well as helping him and providing him with
requirements to make up to his self insufficiency.
REFERENCE
1.
D.D. Raphael. Problem of political philosophy, Pall Mall press limited, Hong
Kong. 1970.
2.
F. Ernest
Johnson, “The Concept of Human Equality,”
Aspects of Human Freedom, A
symposium by the Conference on Science, Philosophy, and Religion, Vol. 15 (New
York: Harper, 1956).
3.
Herbert Spiegel berg, "A Defense of Human Equality."
Philosophical Review, vol. 53 (1944), pp.101, 113-123; and D.D. Raphael,
"Justice and Liberty," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, vol.
51(1950-1951).
4.
John Rawls. A Theory of Justice,
rev. ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999).
5.
Labib Zuwiyya Yamak, Liberty, Equality, and Democracy. Winter
1960-61
6.
Maureen Ramsay. What’s wrong with liberalism, continuum, the tower building, 11
York road, London, New York. 1997.
7.
O. P Gauba. An introduction to political theory 4th edition,
Macmillan India limited, New Delhi. 2003.
8.
Rawls and Nozick on justice. Journal
paper. Routledge
[1]Maureen
Ramsay. What’s wrong with liberalism,
continuum, the tower building, 11 York road, London, New York. 1997. pg 67
[2]
O. P Gauba. An introduction to political
theory 4th edition, Macmillan India limited, New Delhi. 2003.
pg339
[3]
Ibid. pg 243
[4]
D.D. Raphel. Problem of political
philosophy, Pall Mall press limited, Hong Kong. 1970. pg165
[5]
John Rawls. A Theory of Justice, rev. ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1999), p. 25.
[6]
Herbert
Spiegelberg, "A Defense of Human Equality." Philosophical Review,
vol. 53 (1944), pp.101, 113-123; and D.D. Raphael, "Justice and
Liberty," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, vol. 51(1950-1951), pp.
187f.
[7]
O. P Gauba. An introduction to political
theory 4th edition, Macmillan India limited, New Delhi. 2003.
pg331
[8]
Ibid. pg 346
[9]
Ibid pg349
[10]
Rawls and Nozick on
justice.jornal paper. Routledge.
[11]
O. P Gauba. An introduction to political
theory 4th edition, Macmillan India limited, New Delhi. 2003. pg374.
[12] F. Ernest
Johnson, “The Concept of Human Equality,” Aspects of Human Freedom, A symposium by the Conference on
Science, Philosophy, and Religion, Vol. 15 (New York: Harper, 1956), p. 25.
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