“Justice” is said in many ways. Yes, it tends to be normative; however, values can be weighed against one another. I value candy, but “I should seek candy” is far from tautological. Justice, in particular, rides rather far down my hierarchy of values.
Your decision making works as a value scale, morality not so much.There is a subset of actions you can take which are just. If you do not give a high weight in acting justly, you’re a dangerous person.
If you do not give a high weight in acting justly, you’re a dangerous person.
The reverse is probably more true. If I give a high weight to acting justly I’ll grab the nearest Claymore, get some blue face paint and scream “You can take my life but you can not take my freedom!” If I don’t value justice I’ll suck up to the new power and grab my piece of the new pie. That’s a role someone was bound to fill. I’ll be irrelevant.
People who value justice highly are implicitly harder to intimidate. They’re harder to shame into compliance. They are less willing to subbordinate their Just wrath to gains in social standing. Sure, they don’t steal cookies, but they’re dangerous.
There’s an ambiguity here. You’re talking about valuing something like world justice, I was talking about valuing acting justly. In particular, I believe that if optimal deterrence is unjust, it is also unjust to seek it.
Why does this relate to the subject again? Well, my point is we should not change our sense of justice. It’s tautological.
Our sense of justice is part of our morality, therefore we should not change it.
I have no premise “if something is part of our morality we shouldn’t change it”.
“We should seek justice” is tautological. If justice and optimal deterrence are contradictory, then we should not seek optimal deterrence.
No it isn’t. See Thomblake’s reply. I for one feel no particular attachement to justice over optimal deterrence. In fact, in many situations I actively give the latter precedence. You can keep your ‘shoulds’ while I go ahead and win my Risk games.
The fact that you do not value something does not serve very well as an argument for why others should stop valuing it. For those of us who do experience a conflict between a desire to deter and a desire to punish fairly, you have not explained why we should prioritize the first goal over the second when trying to reduce this conflict.
When you say we “should” change our sense of justice, you’re making a normative statement because no specific goal is specified.
In this case, it seems wrong. Our sense of justice is part of our morality, therefore we should not change it.
“We should seek justice” is tautological. If justice and optimal deterrence are contradictory, then we should not seek optimal deterrence.
“Justice” is said in many ways. Yes, it tends to be normative; however, values can be weighed against one another. I value candy, but “I should seek candy” is far from tautological. Justice, in particular, rides rather far down my hierarchy of values.
Your decision making works as a value scale, morality not so much.There is a subset of actions you can take which are just. If you do not give a high weight in acting justly, you’re a dangerous person.
Thank you.
The reverse is probably more true. If I give a high weight to acting justly I’ll grab the nearest Claymore, get some blue face paint and scream “You can take my life but you can not take my freedom!” If I don’t value justice I’ll suck up to the new power and grab my piece of the new pie. That’s a role someone was bound to fill. I’ll be irrelevant.
People who value justice highly are implicitly harder to intimidate. They’re harder to shame into compliance. They are less willing to subbordinate their Just wrath to gains in social standing. Sure, they don’t steal cookies, but they’re dangerous.
There’s an ambiguity here. You’re talking about valuing something like world justice, I was talking about valuing acting justly. In particular, I believe that if optimal deterrence is unjust, it is also unjust to seek it.
Why does this relate to the subject again? Well, my point is we should not change our sense of justice. It’s tautological.
I have no premise “if something is part of our morality we shouldn’t change it”.
No it isn’t. See Thomblake’s reply. I for one feel no particular attachement to justice over optimal deterrence. In fact, in many situations I actively give the latter precedence. You can keep your ‘shoulds’ while I go ahead and win my Risk games.
The fact that you do not value something does not serve very well as an argument for why others should stop valuing it. For those of us who do experience a conflict between a desire to deter and a desire to punish fairly, you have not explained why we should prioritize the first goal over the second when trying to reduce this conflict.