School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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A characterization of justice

Akie, Melvyn George ( 1977)

There is no shortage of features that can be put forward as the core of, or at least a major part of, an ideal society. Such elusive communities might be described as "just", "fair", "free", "egalitarian", "democratic", "humane", "efficient", "prosperous", "benevolent", or perhaps simply as "good". What people actually mean by such descriptions is by no means clear. At the level of ordinary everyday speech, what one man might call "democracy" another will label "freedom" or "equality". At the height of the cold war each side claimed that its doctrine was the truly democratic one. Each side also proclaimed its support for freedom, but what was meant by "freedom" in each case was vastly different. Moreover the protagonists of the cold war did not have this field of battle all to themselves; with the emergence of former colonial states and societies toward independent nations, "democracy" and "freedom" took on new meanings.