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Justice And The Majority

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Justice And The Majority
Wise Sage
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Posted 11/06/09 - 10:39 AM:
Subject: Justice And The Majority
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#1
How can justice exist if the majority decides what is just? How can we ever know if the unjust is right if the majority picks? And is justice nothing more then for what it benefits? These are questions that will start this post.
Wise Sage
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Posted 11/06/09 - 10:49 AM:
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Wise Sage wrote:
How can justice exist if the majority decides what is just? How can we ever know if the unjust is right if the majority picks? And is justice nothing more then for what it benefits? These are questions that will start this post.
What make you from preventing this saying: There is no morality, everything is right, the majority is always wrong. I am always right? Absolutely nothing.
Mako
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Posted 11/06/09 - 11:01 AM:
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#3
I think you need to rephrase your questions for the sake of coherency.

Most Western democracies are constitutional-democracies and thus legislation, policies and regulations are limited by the basic, guiding constitutional principles which govern a nation. Legislation, regulations etc. are therefore subject to judicial review (i.e. appeals). Constitutions and judicial review thus serve to moderate the effects of majority rule. Constitutional adjudication however is subject to varying interpretations and those interpretations tend to vary over time, according to which direction the political winds have been blowing.

"To alcohol. The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems." ~ Homer Simpson
Wise Sage
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Posted 11/06/09 - 11:04 AM:
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Mako wrote:
I think you need to rephrase your questions for the sake of coherency.

Most Western democracies are constitutional-democracies and thus legislation, policies and regulations are limited by the basic, guiding constitutional principles which govern a nation. Legislation, regulations etc. are therefore subject to judicial review (i.e. appeals). Constitutions and judicial review thus serve to moderate the effects of majority rule. Constitutional adjudication however is subject to varying interpretations and those interpretations tend to vary over time, according to which direction the political winds have been blowing.
Thus you claim it is out benefits and selfish want rather then 'justice'.
Wise Sage
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Posted 11/06/09 - 11:07 AM:
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#5
Mako wrote:
I think you need to rephrase your questions for the sake of coherency.

Most Western democracies are constitutional-democracies and thus legislation, policies and regulations are limited by the basic, guiding constitutional principles which govern a nation. Legislation, regulations etc. are therefore subject to judicial review (i.e. appeals). Constitutions and judicial review thus serve to moderate the effects of majority rule. Constitutional adjudication however is subject to varying interpretations and those interpretations tend to vary over time, according to which direction the political winds have been blowing.
You also take all this to be so absolute. It is no more just then what the majority assumes. The question of what 'justice' is still comes up.
treemanshope
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Posted 11/06/09 - 11:12 AM:
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"Justice without mercy is cruelty; mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution."
Thomas Aquinas.

Justice is the denial of mercy and mercy is the denial of justice. Only a higher force can reconcile these opposites: wisdom.

The words of peace are just words, it is man that gives them flesh. Bring peace into the material world. Or, bring something else.
treemanshope.
Mako
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Posted 11/06/09 - 11:13 AM:
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@ Wise Sage

I claimed nothing of the sort! Please restrict your interpretations to within reasonable, charitable limits.

"To alcohol. The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems." ~ Homer Simpson
Wise Sage
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Posted 11/06/09 - 11:15 AM:
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treemanshope wrote:
"Justice without mercy is cruelty; mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution."
Thomas Aquinas.

Justice is the denial of mercy and mercy is the denial of justice. Only a higher force can reconcile these opposites: wisdom.
Bold claim. And what makes you assume that mercy is right? And what exactly do you think wisdom is? Merciful? If I kill a dog what makes it wrong, what exactly makes you feel 'wrong'?
Wise Sage
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Posted 11/06/09 - 11:16 AM:
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#9
Mako wrote:
I claimed nothing of the sort!
You put it up to the majority you put up to the justice system. Assuming that fixes it. What makes you think that the 'justice system' is just or that the majority is always right? Absolutely nothing.
Mako
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Posted 11/06/09 - 11:23 AM:
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#10
I never claimed that the majority is always right. Please produce a statement of mine where I made this claim. So far, you're quite careless and incoherent in your posts.

Try describing your own position and while your at it, try providing some justification for your views, instead of just directing pesky, inane questions toward the other posters.

"To alcohol. The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems." ~ Homer Simpson
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