The notion of justice may have several forms but its most essential element is encompassed in the classical phrase becoming the possession of the Western tradition: ‘suum cuique’ – to each his own.
Josef Pieper, professor of philosophy and sociology at the University of Munster, Germany, defined justice as the virtue which enables man to give to each one what is his due. This definition implies that justice is also a virtue, a habit which one takes on to establish something that is good as opposed to a vice which is a habit one takes on to achieve something that is bad. Justice is, in fact, one of the cardinal virtues.
Augustine of Hippo says that if the act of justice is to give to each man his due, then the act of justice has to be preceeded by the act whereby something becomes his due. We often refer to this concept of ‘being due to’ as a right. A thing might be due to a man on the basis of agreements or legal decisions. However, it might be due to him on the basis of his nature, his essence.
Concepts of rights based on man’s nature ex ipsa natura rei can be called ‘natural rights’ and anticipate the concept of natural law. Rights that are given to human beings not in accord with natural rights can be termed ‘positive rights’ but never natural rights. However, Thomas Aquinas makes it clear that if a thing of itself is contrary to natural right, no human will can make it just, or a basis for an obligation to a person. The inalienability of such an obligation to others is based on the nature of him to which the obligation is due.
This means that, unless we have a concept of man, of his nature, we cannot state the basis of a right or a judicial obligation. If one says that there is no human essence, no nature, one lays the foundation for totalitarian power. The is the way of the one who denies essence, the existentialist. Classically, the existentialist is the one who puts the existence of man before his very nature, his essence and, consequently for the existentialist, the concepts of natural law and natural rights come with difficulty if at all.
Rights and justice then cannot possibly be established and mere reference to a person’s freedom and human rights will not get us very far. In the final analysis, man has inalienable rights because he is created as a person by a superior being, God, an act beyond any human discussion. Kant expressed this very clearly when he stated that “We have a Divine Sovereign, and his divine gift to man, is man’s rights”. Christians, Jews, Muslims, agnostics and atheists are all created in the image of God. As a consequence of being made in the image of God, man has reason and, as a creature, he has natural rights even if he does not acknowledge the source of these rights. God creates man, as a result of which we have natural rights as a result of which, in turn, we have justice.
In the final analysis – in a pure existentialist mode that denies our very nature – we can have neither natural rights nor real justice as we reject the essence, the very form, of our human existence. Aquinas says that the act of justice not only presupposes that act through which a man comes to have his due, it also presupposes the act of prudence or practical wisdom, which means that the objective truth of real things is transposed into decisions, political or otherwise. Current political decision-making is moving away from essence to existentialism. It is a move away from objective truth to a relative truth based on unreal things.
God is ultimately the Sun of our rights and the Sun of our justice, without which there can be neither. As we celebrate the festive season it may be good for us to ponder the essentials of our existence and the principles on which our democratic, political and humanistic ideals should be based. Moving away from these ideals is moving away from our humanity and towards totalitarianism and the unreality of a relative subjectivism which in the end denies man true justice.
For those of us who are Christian, those who believe in the one God of three persons, three persons completely different and distinct from each other but united in substantial will, a difficult concept to come to terms with if at all possible, it suffices at this time to call to mind the birth of a singular human being. The tables on evolution and creation are fully turned now as the Sun becomes manifest in the Son, as at one point in time he also takes on the very nature of a human being through the essence of which real justice will always prevail!
Dr. Michael Asciak MD M.Phil PhD. PGC in VET.
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