The Virtue of Justice

A lecture by Gwynneth van Lace of Silverleaf

(These are lecture notes by Gwynneth van Lace, they include not everything that was said during the lectures.)

Welcome, I am glad that you came to hear me tonight.
I said, that I was going to lecture on the virtue of Justice, but that is not completely true.

I am not going to lecture, but discuss.
You cannot lecture what you not truly understand and have mastered.
Neither is true. I claim not to have mastered the virtues, nor understood them in all their depth and consequence.

Also I strongly believe that there is not one, but many ways to understand the virtues. Thus I will nay present my interpretation as truth, but as one of probably many interpretation.

You may of course disagree with me.
I even encourage you to disagree with me and your fellow students. But I ask you to listen quietly to my introduction first and save your disagreements or questions for the second part.

I will start with a short introduction to the virtues and afterwards there should be a discussion about the way you believe Justice can be understood and reached.

Before I speak of the virtue of Justice, I speak about the principles that are the foundation of all virtues.

These are Love,
Truth
and Courage.

Truth is hard to see, for it is all that really is.
All that is nay shale falsehood.
Truth can be also seen as distillation of all that is fact.
So Truth is the world around us, the friends and fiends.
Truth is Existence.
To make matters worse, we all experience the world around us differently. Maybe these differences are just tiny nuances, but still... If you don't believe me, question yourself if the one next to you, has the same memories of this place you do have. If he likes the same things for the same reasons. You will find that he or she will see things quite differently from you.
Truth includes all these as well.
This is the reason for me to believe in many paths to understanding the virtues.
Truth is one of the two principles Justice is composed of.

To stand up and fight for thy beliefs is the very core of Courage.
Courage should neither end in foolishness self-sacrifice nor being an excuse for picking up fights.
Courage rests mainly in the heart and not only in the swordarm.
Courage fastens the belief and helps to stand up against all odds.
It is a basic feeling every human I ever met has or had in times of need.
Courage may come in place if people feel injustice... like some Trinsic Serfs after the trial of Ar'canor,
a topic I will come back later to.


Love is a state of ultimate caring for all beings and things and even thoughts and ideas.
It comes without prejudice or hatred and is nay blended by pride or selfishness. Love is easily flawed by hate, pride and selfishness.
In my opinion it is the principle hardest to accept and followed, for it is easy and understandable to hate and loath, especially when we all have lost persons dear to us.

You will certainly nay deny that there exist Courage, Love - even if it is seldom to be found in a pure way - and Truth?
If thou dost, open thy eyes and ignore the fact that the principles were written down on paper under the reign of Lord British. Prejudice is a simple way to walk, but leads to nowhere.
Just look around and look inside your heart. Even the most miserable person will find these principles or their antagonistic principles.

Now that we know the basic ideas of the principles, let us have a quick look at the virtue of Justice.

Justice should be blind to the standing of man, so that both peasant and noble have to face the same consequences for the same crime under the same circumstances.
But justice as virtue is truth,
to see the crime in all consequences,
tempered by compassion.

If every thief gets his hand hacked off, regardless if it was a starving person picking an apple or
a nefarious jewel thief would be justice without compassion.

This is the idle ideas of some philosophers you might think.... and I agree that it is hard to find a way implementing the "truth tempered by love" in our lifes.
.
...but we also must see that we feel, think and talk about different things.

Justice is a Virtue and as such a philosophical concept.
Justice is also a procedure which is based on laws and powers.
Justice is foremost a feeling of being treated fairly.

Thus a trial might be just in the sense of the laws...
but the laws might not reflect the concept of tempered truth...
nor must the people involved feel being treated just.

Why must there be a philosophical concept?
Because concepts are written down by people that are not personally involved. If one has an interest in a thing on his or her own, he or she is tempted to get the best out of it for him or herself.
Concepts are guidelines that show us an ideal, regardless if this ideal is possible to reach or not.
Such a concept is a guideline both for laws and for ourselves... to question our feelings if we think something was unjust.
The concept of justice is, that truth tempered by love.

What about the laws?
Laws may have several functions.
The most noble is to ensure Justice holds true for anybody. Laws must be enforced regardless of status then. Laws build the basis for our living together.
Laws must not be written down, there are many things we do that come close to laws, but nobody ever wrote them down.Paying respect to others for example... well not everybody does this.... but still many do. Of course there is no penalty to be disrespectful...
Or is there?
Of course!
Indeed it is not the stocks or prison... but being considered rude and being treated disrespectful as well.

There are other reasons for laws to be made. For example to fasten a status or to build up power.
But these are reasons that bring us away from Justice... for they both ignore truth and love and the concept of justice.

But what if the concepts and the laws are just.
Must we always feel being treated just?
No.
And this is a big problem.
Justice as feeling is always centered on our own point of view...our own beliefs are our truth.
Thus we might perceive Justice it as Injustice. Justice is, always based on a point of view.
But if one values his own belief and questions it with many other beliefs, one might find justice, even if it is against one's own feelings.

That is what truth tempered by love means.


Thank you for your patience.