社会公正的概念
Social justice refers to the concept of a society in which justice is achieved in every aspect of society, rather than merely the administration of law. It generally refers to a society which affords individuals and groups fair treatment and a just share of the benefits of it. It can also refer to the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within a society.
社会公正的内涵
Social justice is both a philosophical problem and an important issue in politics, religion and civil society. Most individuals wish to live in a just society, but different political ideologies have different conceptions of what a “just society” actually is. The term “social justice” is often employed by the political left to describe a society with a greater degree of economic egalitarianism, which may be achieved through progressive taxation, income redistribution, or property redistribution. The right wing also uses the term social justice, but generally believes that a just society is best achieved through the operation of a free market, which they believe provides equality of opportunity and promotes philanthropy and charity. Both right and left tend to agree on the importance of rule of law, human rights, and some form of a welfare safety net.
对社会公正的反对
Social justice may be unfeasible economically. Many water-poor countries have recognized a “basic right to have drinking water” and then provided that access accordingly. This often resulted in water sources being over-used and then decimated.
On the other hand, some scholars reject the very idea of social justice as meaningless, religious, self-contradictory, and ideological, believing that to realize any degree of social justice is unfeasible, and that the attempt to do so must destroy all liberty. The most complete rejection of the concept of social justice comes from the Friedrich Hayek of the Austrian School of Economics: “The phrase ‘social justice’ is simply a semantic fraud from the same stable as People’s Democracy.” The purported goal of social justice is to eliminate economic inequities, but because these inequities are largely a result of individuals’ own choices, they can only be corrected by controlling said choices.
对社会公正的批评
Criticism of the idea that there is an objective standard of social justice has come from several circles. First, there are moral relativists (such as the Sophists), who do not believe that there is any kind of objective standard for justice in general. Second, there are cynics who believe that any ideal of social justice is ultimately a mere justification for the status quo. Third, there are libertarians who believe that social justice violates the non-aggression principle. Additionally, postmodernism has also developed its own critique of the concept of social justice.
Many other people accept some of the basic principles of social justice, such as the idea that all human beings have a basic level of value, but disagree with the elaborate conclusions that may or may not follow from this. One example is the statement by H. G. Wells that all people are “equally entitled to the respect of their fellowmen”.